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  • » Name: Brillyance
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The Reality From out West

THE BEST SHIT ON TV EVER!


September 05, 2007 | Tags: The Wire

                I repeatedly find myself checking out more of HipHopdx.com. While originally I just checked the site for the reviews, I added the blogs to my “to check list” daily once I started blogging here, now I also try to be active over there in the message board section. While I’ve ran into several idiots, I also ran into one of the other bloggers who started around the same time I did, SY Young.  Last week he started a post about only being able to watch one channel, which one would it be? My original answer was ESPN, but I have to admit, he swayed me into rolling with HBO. While there are several reasons to roll with HBO, my main reason is because I couldn’t go without the freshest show on TV….EVER…..”The Wire”



                If you write “The Wire” off as just another “cops and robbers” show, you’re wrong. If you think it’s “CSI” in Baltimore…you’re wrong. If you think it’s “New York Undercover” in Baltimore, your also wrong. Even if you get it confused with David Simon’s original show, “Homicide”, you’d still be far from what it actually is. The most obvious difference and advantage of “The Wire” is HBO. First of all, HBO allows you to do things you could NEVER do on normal TV due to lack of censorship. While I’m sure you can’t do EVERYTHING on HBO, I’m also pretty sure the murder of 16 year old Wallace (and him using drugs) in the first season, couldn’t have been shown the way it was shown on any other channel. The writers of the Wire are allowed to show the streets, whether it’s the murder of young Wallace by the friends he grew up with in the first season, a mother who appeared to be having her daughter exchange sexual favors for drugs in the third season, or Michael’s step-father getting beat to death on the concrete by Chris in the 4th season. While I’m sure you could make a show about cops and street hustlers without the graphicness shown on “The Wire”, it’s that harsh reality that makes the show even better. After all, the keyword in harsh reality is REALITY, and that’s what “The Wire” is. Not a cookie cutter version, not the radio edit, it’s an Immortal Technique CD with a “Parental Advisory” sticker on the front. Not for shock value like “Oz”, but simply because that’s how it is.



                Probably the strongest piece of “The Wire” is the characters. See, this isn’t like those other crime shows where the cops are all the good guys, and the bad guys are arrested and convicted at the end of every episode. The cases last over a season, in fact, the fall of the Barksdale organization took 3 seasons. This gives the writers the opportunity to develop the characters…and they do. First of all, they don’t give you anything but the character. They don’t put labels on anybody. You may hate some of the cops, and actually care about some of the street dudes. Me personally, I can’t stand police in real life, but you gotta respect McNulty, Lester Freeman, and Bunk. At the same time, while most were upset when Stringer Bell got shot, and I was raised around street cats (none on Stringer’s level) I was glad when they shot his bitch ass. Truthfully I hope they pop Prop Joe also, (although I have a feeling he won’t fall) and I wish Avon didn’t get the time he got. Shit, Wee Bay and Omar kill muthafuckers  (well, actually you’ve only seen Omar kill Stringer) like it’s nothing, but I don’t see how you could not like either one (especially since Bay has been locked up and he got on his baby moms for trying to force his son Naymond on the streets when it was obvious he wasn’t built for it). You have characters who grow, Like Prez being a straight asshole at the beginning of season 1, to being a great teacher who actually cares about the kids (which is rare in urban public schools anywhere).You also have Carver who went from a dick who liked to “Bust heads, splitting them wide the Western District way” to damn near adopting Randy in Season 4. There are very few characters that stay around you don’t get to know (like Bodie’s homie Poot, who’s been around the whole time, but you still know nothing about him except the fact he’s always walking to the clinic looking like John Wayne cuz he’s burnt),  so you somewhat gain an attachment to characters like Bodie and McNulty. The Wire’s characters alone make the show better than anything else.



                Actually, as I look back, I guess the great characters are a representation of the great writing the Wire has.  There are so many little things I could go on about as far as the writing goes. For a second, take a step away from the huge moments of the Wire. Ignore Bodie going out and losing his life a standing up for the unwritten street rules. Ignore Omar putting Levy on the spot in court. Ignore McNulty screwing over Rawls and putting the bodies of the floaters in season 2 in his jurisdiction (through a lot of hard work). There are a lot of little things that happen in the Wire, and everything counts. Did anybody else notice Rawls in the gay bar in season 3? Everything matters. I was watching “Entourage” the other day, and I was wondering “Whatever happened to Turtle and that fine ass chick he pulled early on?” That doesn’t happen in the Wire. When you think it does, it comes back ala Carver being questioned about his late night visit to the PJ’s with Prez and Herc by one of his fellow officers. It comes back like Herc messing with that reverend because of a bogus tip by Bubbles. In other shows, it seems like if a character isn’t in a scene, he doesn’t know what happened. In the Wire, word gets around. In season one, when Omar was being questioned by Kima and McNulty in the cemetery, he tells Kima “ask your snitch Bubbles who Bird is, he knows Bird” Without coming in contact with someone in a scene, characters are aware of one another. Characters don’t have to have some big scene and confrontation to be aware of one another. That’s because the writers are aware of the fact that the streets ARE watching. Just because you don’t directly come in contact in with someone, it doesn’t mean you don’t know them, or you haven’t heard of them. In the hood, certain people become legends. You don’t have to meet them. While being questioned by McNulty and Kima, a soon to be convicted felon is shocked he’s even asked if he knows Avon Barksdale, although he admits he’s never gotten a chance to meet him. The writers of “The Wire” understand that the little things like that make a difference over all. The harsh realities (A youth with promise like Randy possibly getting lost in the system), the small facts (everyone is aware of shit that happens in the hood) and the big blaring obvious shit (most teachers really don’t give a fuck in the public schools, and a lot of schools are teaching for a test), all come together to equal the whole truth. That’s what “The Wire” is, it’s the whole truth of the hood. The dirty cops, the cops that care about people, the people over the cops that don’t care about the people, the kids who don’t give a shit, the kids whose parents don’t give a shit, the kids who want to do better and be better people than who they’re surrounded with, the kids who want to be bad, the hustlers, the fake hustlers, the street generals, the robbers, the soft dudes in the streets, the fucked up schools, the fucked up neighborhoods, the good neighborhoods and the problems they have also, and the politics that stand over it all and fuck EVERYTHING UP. Shit, the Wire even showed people with non-active melanin smuggling in drugs and then getting away with it because they have ties within major government organizations. While I’m sure I missed some shit, this is the reality, and this is “The Wire”. You gotta love it.



                As the last season of “The Wire” approaches, there’s infinite promise. This ain’t gonna end like “The Sopranos”. Fuck that, I was tired of hearing all this praise for “The Sopranos”, and muthafuckas overlooking “The Wire”. While I’m not saying “The Sopranos” sucked, I am saying that I believe it got extra hype due to America’s fascination with “This thing of Ours<theirs>”. I’m also saying that the ending on that show was absolute garbage. Rappers don’t force you to finish their songs, I don’t force people to finish my blogs, writers of TV show’s shouldn’t ask you to finish they’re show. Plain and simple, if your gonna write, write. I didn’t understand how “The Wire” was gonna bring in a good season with the season being based on the school system. I was presently suprised. The next, and finale season of the Wire is gonna be based on the press.  All the things that haven’t come back up are sure to this season (Daniel’s years as a dirty cop, Rawls in the gay bar, etc. etc.) David Simon says the only person coming out of this season clean is Sidnour. Simon said that in the 4th season they wanted to show how Avon Barksdale became Avon Barksdale with the kids. They wanted to show how you get a Stringer Bell. What does that tell me? The end of the season Michael will run the streets. If you think he’s too young, in Philly, a dude ran the streets at the age of 16. Some may see this as hard to believe, but as sad as it may be, it’s true. While parents everywhere believe their kids are trying to grow up too fast, in some areas the kids ARE growing up too fast, and rising quickly in the ranks of the wrong professions. That’s the thing about David Simon, he doesn’t care how you feel about that. I was told while doing his show “Homicide” he wanted to have an episode where the gangster got away, and the network he was on was like “No, you can’t do that, we have to make people feel good”…HBO doesn’t give a shit about making you feel good. HBO cares about GOOD shows, that’s why they backed the Wire in the beginning when they didn’t have that many viewers, because they knew it was still good. David Simon is gonna bring a good show, and a real show, if it makes your cringe…it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s good and real, I’m gonna back it.


The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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