Best TV drama ever. Courtesy of HBO. Photo by coreanscribe.
I know. I know. I’m obscenely late to the party on this one, like 10 years. But I’m glad I finally got there. Better late than never and well worth the wait.
I just got finished watching the entire series of The Wire, and simply put, it’s the greatest TV drama I’ve ever experienced. Not watched, but experienced. This shouldn’t be a surprise; a lot of people have praised the TV show.
The series is so well written that — as a writer — I equally love and hate it, all at the same time. The love comes from admiration, the hate comes from envy. The story-telling and realistic portrayal of tough urban life is so smart, entertaining and insightful, it makes me want to give up writing, crawl up in a ball somewhere and just cry like a baby.
The crime drama that centers around illegal drug trading on the streets of Baltimore lasted five seasons from 2002 to 2008. Four or five seasons is the perfect length for a television series; it’s not too short, overstuffed with underdeveloped ideas, and it’s not too long with stale story lines and characters who eventually become caricatures of themselves.
Going back to the streets of Baltimore. Photo by coreanscribe.
It took me awhile to get to the decaying streets of Baltimore. I’ve never subscribed to HBO; we still don’t have cable. More importantly, I just couldn’t afford to devote my free time to watching 60 episodes of anything. These days, however, I have a little more time to spare, and with affordable DVD sets and online streaming availability, I didn’t have anymore excuses.
Bunk and McNulty. Courtesy of HBO. Photo by coreanscribe.
Avon and Stringer. Courtesy of HBO. Photo by coreanscribe.
My wife’s friend, who taught a college English course that studied The Wire as literature, was nice enough to lend me her DVD set so I could finally catch up. The idea of treating The Wire as modern literature makes perfect sense to me — The Wire is American literature at its finest as far as I’m concerned.
Tapping into the brilliance. Courtesy of HBO. Photo by coreanscribe.
Now, having finished it, the issue is dealing with Wire withdrawal.