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When You Walk In The Garden...
Author: Mondobubba    Date: 03/03/2008 13:25:04

These words are familiar to two groups of folks, people what like Tom Waits and people what like "The Wire." I fall into both groups. We are fast coming up on the final episode of David Simon's "Russian Novel for television." This show as you all know is something of a obsession/passion of mine since it first came on the HBO mosheen back in 2002. I will now try to explain why in few short paragraphs.

At first "The Wire" looks like a cops and robbers show. There are cops, lots of them, drug dealers and lots of them too. Into the mix are tossed, snitches, longshoremen (season two), politicians, school kids and now in the last season, newspaper people. But it's much more than that. It uses Baltimore as a metaphor for almost any large sized post-industrial city in the US.

This is a show about a lot of big ideas, about how institutions fail the people who they serve and how people react to that. It has explored what happens to people who have their backs to the wall and are trying by any means to hold on to what they have. The Wire has looked at what happens to people on both side of the law when they try to reform the drug trade. In the fourth season of the show, it looked at school in urban America. It is currently looking at media and its place in the city.

All this would be pretty dry stuff if it weren't for the characters that dwell in the fictional Bawltimore. I will admit there are a lot of them to say the least. Here you will find who's who on the show. Not all of these people have been on the show at one time; for example the Port was only part of season two, the School in season four. Yep that's a lot to remember. I know. Trust me it is easier to follow than you think. All of 'em no mater how minor are very well drawn and compelling. They draw you into their parts of the world, be they cops, drug dealers, longshoremen, kids in school , politicians or newspaper people. David Simon the creator of the show has no mercy with them either. If it fits the plot, a charismatic character will die.

Besides these characters, these oh so real people "The Wire" has great writing. David Simon and his pal, Ed Burns having been a police reporter and a cop respectively they have an ear for the speech of cops and criminals. Simon has hired people to write for the show who understand cities & city dwellers in the post industrial era. Both Dennis Lehane & George Pelecanos have written for the show. If you familiar with either of them, you know how good they are.

So there you have it maybe I've not explained why I find the show so damned compelling but if I've peaked your interest, the first four seasons are available on DVD. Grab a season, it really won't matter which one, watch it. Fall in love with it.

Here is a really great link from Wikipedia on The Wire
 

124 comments (Latest Comment: 03/04/2008 04:14:19 by livingonli)
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