Wire article

[B_Buster]

Did you guys see this?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/bowden-wire

I agree with this criticism:

“The show is very good,” he says. “It resonates. It is powerful in its depiction of the codes of the streets, but it is an exaggeration. I get frustrated watching it, because it gives such a powerful appearance of reality, but it always seems to leave something important out. What they have left out are the decent people. Even in the worst drug-infested projects, there are many, many God-fearing, churchgoing, brave people who set themselves against the gangs and the addicts, often with remarkable heroism.”

Also, I would like to make a prediction based on Simon following his angry heart to the end: Bubs will die (probably ironically and not from an OD).

[Wes]

Things don't generally end well for most of them, but the guy who wants to testify in the D'Angelo case in season one, the security guard who wants it to be one way (but it's the other way), Randy's stepmother, Bodie's grandmother, the deacon, the old woman who doesn't want to move during the Hamsterdam experiment, Cutty's ex and some of the other less-jaded teachers seem to have stood in for people doing what they can given where they are.

One character is supposed to get something close to a minor happy ending, and I've actually been assuming that Bubs will be the one. Partly because of the Season 4 finale, and partly because I can't think of anybody else even remotely in a spot to not get screwed/screw themselves over the way things stand right now.

[buffcoat]

the guy who wants to testify in the D'Angelo case in season one, the security guard who wants it to be one way (but it's the other way), Randy's stepmother, Bodie's grandmother, the deacon, the old woman who doesn't want to move during the Hamsterdam experiment, Cutty's ex and some of the other less-jaded teachers seem to have stood in for people doing what they can given where they are.

Murdered, murdered, burned alive, ?, still hanging on, disappeared (who knows), still hanging on, ?

[Dorvid Barnas]

Sydnor, Kima, Dukie, Assistant Principal Donnelly, Beadie Russell, Gus Haynes, Bunny Colvin.

I don't know what show The Atlantic was watching, but there are plenty of decent people in the world of The Wire.

[erika]

It really does make our city seem like it's *only* full of shitheads though, you have to admit...

I don't think the article was unecessarily harsh.

Side note: I met "McNulty" in person once. He was completely wasted and being all grab-assy with a bunch of girls nearly half his age. So his character isn't too far from his actual personality

[erika]

Oh yeah -- and (at least as of season 2) why does NO ONE on the wire smoke pot? I don't get it. Like suddenly crack and heroin are the only drugs consumed on the streets of Baltimore. I wonder if that was some sort of quasi-political decision to leave weed out of the equation...

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I heard somewhere that Simon is introducing a female pothead character who regularly calls a radio show in New Jersey.  I think her subplot has something to do with quitting smoking cigarettes.

[masterofsparks]

Also, I would like to make a prediction based on Simon following his angry heart to the end: Bubs will die (probably ironically and not from an OD).

Considering Simon's propensity for basing Wire stories on real stories, you may be right since the "real" Bubbles died (he was Ed Burns's CI, and Simon wrote his obituary in the Sun). I think he died from AIDS, but I may not be remembering correctly.

[masterofsparks]

One character is supposed to get something close to a minor happy ending, and I've actually been assuming that Bubs will be the one. Partly because of the Season 4 finale, and partly because I can't think of anybody else even remotely in a spot to not get screwed/screw themselves over the way things stand right now.

I'm thinking Sydnor, though I don't know if that's because I read something or if it's my own idea.

[Tim K in DC]

This is a good Wire article, too:

http://audiversity.com/2007/11/wire-read-burn-03.html

[Wes]

I do think the Atlantic piece was an interesting read.  One answer to the sociologist’s issue with the show is that the show is about how those very kinds of people are being mowed down and buried over by the institutional problems that the show depicts.  We’re seeing the good folks who get knocked over (and set on fire!) because that’s what the show is focusing on.

Bowden’s stance seems to be that - with a show that has built up a head of critical steam like this one - the danger is that it might become something close to an historical record down the line.  And if people look back at this show as a record of “this is how it was,” then it could be a shame to have lost some of the things that the show is unable to cover as part of its scope.

He’s arguing, and rightly so, that this is one of the areas where non-fiction and journalism can succeed where fiction can’t.  And Simon’s response – and the theme of Season 5 – would probably be “well why isn’t it?”  Only, you know, he’d respond in a much more antagonizing, off-putting, well-written way.

But anyway, that it can help raise these kinds of questions is part of the appeal of the show. But I also like it for the part where it’s all awesome with the characters and the acting and the writing and Lester's beard.

[Chris L]

David Simon has a great new feature article in Esquire about the Baltimore Sun days.

Wes is right: No way Bubs dies.  His role seems to be to endure.   Everybody else is conceivably fucked.

[erika]

I heard somewhere that Simon is introducing a female pothead character who regularly calls a radio show in New Jersey.  I think her subplot has something to do with quitting smoking cigarettes.

Why I oughta....