I've Never Seen The Wire

‘Now, normally when you see a special about jail, it’s on regular TV and there’s a lot of shit they don’t show. Oh, not the HBO jail specials...’ Chris Rock

Let’s say someone tells you they’ve just seen the greatest film of all time, and then that film turns out to be ‘Top Secret’ starring Val Kilmer. Whether or not you actually like the film, you will always walk away disappointed by the fact that you have not seen the greatest film ever made, despite Val Kilmer’s performance.

The audacity of hype often makes seeing something irrelevant, as however good someone says something is, the reality will get nowhere near to touching the excitement that your imagination will create. ‘The Hunger Games’ is not going to be the ‘film event of 2012’; it’s going to be shit.

I often found myself watching HBO’s ‘Oz’ late night on Channel 4 in the late 90s, when the channel was still reasonable. So, when mutterings among friends mentioned ‘The Wire’, a show that features many similar cast members as ‘Oz’, I could see myself believing that it might actually be ‘one of the greatest TV shows ever made.’

But, having never actually seen it for myself, I left it at that; what I can’t see, can’t entertain me. But as the name came up more and more, I decided that it probably would disappoint, never having heard a bad word said against it. I didn’t need to see it. I can sit comfortably knowing that it is one of the greatest television shows ever made without ever having seen it, much like how Christians treat their relationship to ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera.’

But maybe I should.

So, waiting for an adequate moment – say, quitting my job – to sit back to watch 60 episodes worth, I proceeded to borrow the box set and let the inevitable disappointment enrapture me.

I was soon disappointed to discover I had not been disappointed. Probably the first time since I first saw the whole first series of ‘Peep Show’, I actually wanted to watch as much as possible, putting off silly chores such as sleep to get through the first few episodes of the first season. A lot has been said about ‘The Wire’ being more novel than television show, and that is exactly how it works: every second has to be taken into fully understand what is going on and follow the many characters and each of their individual storylines.

With so much detail put into even the smallest regular characters, each is realistic, with charm, flaws, personal problems and an inability to speak clearly. Also, the fact that main characters can go missing for a few episodes if not relevant to the main storyline gives it an edge over many shows which serve more as a vehicle for overpaid celebrity. The cast, as well as the viewers, are in this for the long haul.

The creators/writers and many cast members having actually been part of homicide in Baltimore also adds to the realism, with former child murderer Felicia Pearson playing a hit-woman and Method Man playing a man with an actual Wu-Tang Clan tattoo, as well as Brits playing various degrees of convincing Maryland accents.

Much can be said about the level of depth, the multi-layered storylines, the social comment, the believable characters, the focusing on every aspect of crime, and I’m sure many others can do it better than me. But, with the understated nature of much of what takes place, for once you feel you are watching a television show that is about telling a story.

I easily missed ‘The Wire’; it being shown on random channel FX and at a not-exactly-noticeable-time on BBC Two, but perhaps that’s a good thing. There was not as much publicity that I’m aware of as doled out for other hour-long US drama series; the hype came more from people that had seen it and liked it (and not just on Facebook), with claims of it being ‘the greatest’ coming after people had seen it, rather than before.