Based primarily in West Baltimore, The Wire (2002 – 2008) was a HBO produced show based around the local drug trade and the law enforcers who try to counter it. The show stands out as unique, with its starkly unbiased views of all those involved in some form or another in the Baltimore drug trade. As an audience we are shown from a fresh perspective what is happening throughout the systematic hierarchy within the city. From the state politicians in charge of the city down to the homeless drug addicts on the block, we engage everyone’s perspective on the reality of life in the drug industry.
As a series, it quickly engages its audience to the world that it is based in. Each character in there time on screen is given the same level of dignity and as a viewer you often find yourself shocked by the relate-ability of some characters. Morally everyone has their reasons for what they do. The show never preaches any messages or choses sides in the drug war. There are no black and white heroes or villains here; instead everyone can be summed up in varying shades of grey.
The show features all of the expected character types you have seen before in other police investigation shows, and yet here none of these characters ever seem to be defined by clichéd archetypes. Instead the series seems determined to examine the sociological aspects around the illegal drugs trade and the gang culture that has enveloped around it. It does this by creating these rich, reality based characters with understandable motivations. Above all things, every character on the show defines the way they act by their own individual code of ethics. With the situations that have been presented in life, they have chosen what they perceived was the most reasonable path for themselves.
On a whole from a craft perspective the show is flawless. The acting is top notch and there is never a bad performance to take you out of the story. Writing on the show is also first class. Each episode is carefully paced and stories unfold with real mastery. Plotlines are allowed real time to develop, with a calm restraint being shown before allowing stories to come to natural conclusions. The cinematography and direction also stand out for their stylish enhancement of the atmosphere. These techniques are done both subtly and effectively in a non-intrusive fashion. This is done in a way to highlight the performances and in turn draw the audience into the story at hand.
As stories develop you really find yourself being pulled in to what is happening. Most of the story arcs concern multiple characters and can drastically affect the fate of each of them in numerous ways depending on how the story unfolds. The bureaucracy of the police department and the governmental system can greatly change the way in which a case is able to unfold. Parallel to this a mistake on the streets can mean the death of one or multiple characters, whether or not some or all of them were actually guilty of anything.
The show provides a really good underlying tension throughout, in that you feel as though any character is only one slip away from a fall. Yet despite this you feel as though some of the more down and out characters could be only one step away from redemption. And it’s because of these underlining themes together with the enveloping character development that really keeps the audience hooked into The Wire.
Throughout the shows entire run there are very few blips in quality. Season 2 is probably the biggest dip with the story moving to far away from the integral setup of the first season. In season two the characters are not really as well developed and in the end they come across to the audience as being a bit flat. There are only two moments in the season that affect the rest of the series. Because of this I would recommend skipping the season to any new viewers of the show as it is at times painful to get through, supplying little to nothing to the overall series narrative.
On a whole, you remain unaware what to expect from The Wire before viewing it for yourself. It’s a show that has often been critically praised from just about everyone who has watched it. But until you actually get to grips with the story and the characters yourself it is hard to engage what the show is really like. The show clearly set out to show from a realistic standpoint the decline of certain areas of Baltimore and the damage caused by the drug trade. What the show does is that and more. We get to see both sides of the story; we see those who feel they’ve had to turn to crime and those who naively thought at one time that by being a good cop they could prevent it. But the truth is that it isn’t the criminals that create the crime, it’s the society that creates the need for criminality. It’s there in the show for those who feel they have nothing else or find it’s able to provide them with some kind of direction in their lives. Some will move away from it, others will be victims consumed by it. Police and criminals alike, they’re all just potential victims, only one small slip away from falling down in the hole.
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