Slighcarp and Grimshaw

It starts with The Wire. After months (years?) of hearing tell of the virtues of this tv show that I’ve never seen, as I haven’t had HBO in any house in which I’ve lived since I left my parents’ house many years ago, it finally managed its way to the top of our Netflix queue (btw, I really like that word). We put it in, and I for one was immediately hooked (Sarah was not sure we needed to own it on DVD after the first two episodes, but after, I believe, four episodes, she turned to me, eyes wide, and said something along the lines of, “Yes, we do need to own this.”) We are at this point 5/6 of the way through the second season, and I’ll be damned if I am not among those folks touting The Wire as one of the better shows around, if ever. The question that people ask (my family, just yesterday) most often is “What is it about?”

You start to talk about the cops in Baltimore, then have to explain how the name of the series comes from (wiretaps), but then you have talk about the fact that the concept reaches beyond just wiretaps to the idea that everyone, everywhere is on camera, or having their voice recorded, or their identity verified, or their pin number punched in to make sure the person/group is getting the information it/they need(s). Which leads to the concept that David Simon puts forth in one of the commentaries, that we are all bombarded by information, and the part of the conceit of the show is that there is too much information, and of the main activities we are engaged in daily is the filtering of information–much like the audience of the show, since there is constant information being projected from the story, and because the show is allowed to develop in a seemingly organic manner, there is the possibility that some information is superfluous, which is very cool, I think.

Then you have to talk about the drug dealers. But you have talk about how you get to see them as human beings, and watch the dynamics among the kids that distribute the shit on the corners, the guys that supervise them, and the guys that run the trade. (Of the many fascinating interactions, the moment that the guy running “the pit” explains to two of the kids doing the distributing how to play chess–honestly one of the most coherent explanations of chess I’ve ever heard.) And you see the fact that, in many cases, that the drug trade is a business, conducted with as much emotion as investment banking. The moment that you start to sympathize with the Barksdales, you’re in trouble, unable to escape.

I would say that the show’s greatest strength is the portrayal of all the characters (and the list is sprawling, to say the least) as people. And people, without fail, do awesome things. They also do really shitty things, and the show is entirely invested in having its audience see the spectrum. And ultimately, the show wants its audience to understand that in no matter what group you find yourself involved, you have to bend your ego to the will of the institution–whether that institution be the police department, or the governmental office, or the drug empire, or your family. And if you buck that system, you are going to be dealt with, without much deference. For anyone to align himself with a group is a tacit agreement to live (or work) by a set of rules. And the game runs best when everyone follows the rules that some set up for you. Once someone starts fucking around with the rules, not only does the group that was controlling him lose its regard for him, he finds it very difficult to convince any other group that he can function within any group.

And then you get to the second season and you have to talk about the steveadores. And you have to talk about the Greeks.

And you have to talk about Omar.

The Wire, I think ultimately, is about Baltimore: and Baltimore as an analogy for any other city you care to name. It is about the stories that every group tells itself. It is about the zero sum game that people play when they ally themselves with institutions, which we all do by simple dint of the necessity of civilization. I kind of hate to say that The Wire is about everything, but the longer I watch it, the more convinced I become. Which is profoundly disquieting.