HerKind.com

The Wire, made for HBO, is truly the greatest television series ever made. Last night I finished Season 4 and now have to wait until the current, and sadly last, season comes out on video. Finishing it is like closing the page on a really good book, the kind you delay because you know the intervening few won't be nearly as compelling or well written. I've spent the last month or so walking around feeling like The Wire's characters were living breathing people I might meet on the street.

Trying to explain why this series is so outstanding is giving away some of its many charms. But number one on the list is the unpredictability of it. The series takes place in Baltimore, Maryland. Season One was about the drug trade, Two dealt with crime at the Port, Three was the mayoral race and Four showed inside the beleaguered school system. Season Five deals with how the print media covers it all. But this is oversimplified. Stories unfold over the seasons, characters grow, change, or don't according to what happens in their sphere. A scene might take place in a setting where you know a character will be, and you might only hear his voice, or catch a brief glimpse of him, but he's still there, as he would be in life. In the background, whether or not he gets full screen time.

It's very real, not stylized. The women aren't overly done up and stunners, the guys are pretty regular too!

David Simon, the show's co-creator, says that every season is written like a book with a beginning middle and end. He says, the story is not built around the characters, the characters show up as part of the story.  He says, he would never change the arc of a character if it meant having to change the  entire story. The story is mapped out not decided on based on audience feedback.

I think the novel-ness of it is what attracts me. I don't usually watch cop shows, but this is more than a cop show. This series is about a city and every aspect of what makes a city work, or not. It shows how the police department or city government can be just as corrupt and detrimental as the drug trade. It shows how easily the legitimate can be swayed to illegitimate. It shows humanity at its best and worst:  it's gritty, not preachy, it's emotionally true not saccharin.

Television is fighting a losing battle lately, as far as I'm concerned. People's viewing habits have changed drastically and the usual fare being offered up in increasingly vacant, unengaging and requires little, if any thought. This includes news. Everything is bloody dumbed down. Networks don't give programs a chance to grow an audience. You can't depend on seeing your favourite show at a certain time or night. It's been a very long time since I watched television in real time, and where possible I download or rent the video. And I'm from the generation  brought up on TV. Younger people don't  really have the television habit, at least not to a great extent. Fragmentation is the order of the day.

To see this gem in the mix of all that has been a nice surprise. It should be noted that David Simon and Ed Burns are not TV people. Simon was a print journalist and Burns was a police, then teacher in Baltimore. One principle writer on the show is a novelist. None of this is surprising to me. Only people outside the racket would take the chances you need to take for innovative writing, form and style.

If you haven't already, I recommend wathing The Wire. You'll fall in love with McNulty, Greggs, Bunk, Freamon, Daniels, Carver, Herc, Bubbles, and even Omar, Marlo and Stringer Bell!