When The Wire had its final curtain call on March 9th, many believed it signified the end of an era. No other show had gone through the depths of poverty, politics, education and the drug game like The Wire. Something as simple as a “cop show” became the dramatic reflection of our country and the dirt beneath Lady America’s fingernails. Five seasons, 60 episodes, characters coming and going with a cult following who wept when the final credits rolled.

All good things must come to an end. But The Wire was beyond good. It was phenomenal.

While other websites and magazines have interviewed many of the cast members, who better than HipHopDX to go deeper than the actors to discuss the psychology of The Wire? We’ve had the brawn of the series, but what about the brains? This is where Ed Burns, fresh off of the season finale, sits down with DX to discuss the intricate weaving of a “cop show” that has taken the country by storm.

Ed Burns spent much of his 20 years in the Baltimore Police Department as a detective in the homicide unit. After that, he found himself as a teacher in the Baltimore public school system. These experiences, coupled with David Simon’s tenure as a journalist, were the blueprint for what many call the G.O.A.T. of television series.

But how do two older white men take their experiences on the other side of the dope game and deliver a story that is so compelling and so real? How was the character of Omar created? How could HBO sit and watch main characters get knocked off without a moment’s notice? The Sopranos had Tony while The Wire had Baltimore – a city being your main character?  That's unheard of, but much of The Wire's workings were unheard of for a television show. And that's when Ed Burns begins to speak...

And this is the Psychology of The Wire.

HipHopDX: You and David Simon have a history together. What brought you two to the idea of creating an unconventional cop show where the lines between good and bad are severely blurred?
Ed Burns: It was basically David Simon’s (co-creator) idea of trying to go beyond the stereotypes by using a conventional vehicle, which we had a lot of knowledge of, and then to look on the other side like in the first season and say “You know, institutions are alike.” The police department and the drug world are amazingly alike. At the same time we tried to humanize the show by fleshing out characters that are normally backdrops or stereotypes. That’s what we set out to do and it was great fun.

DX: How did you two coerce HBO into a show that could possibly be too difficult for the average person to follow because of the attention to conversation over the course of the series rather than utilizing flashbacks to lay background?
EB: Well, in the first season they were much like the mother hen. They looked over scripts and gave us lots of notes. They saw the logic and HBO is willing to take a chance on the unconventional. I think what happened with us was that we weren’t unconventional enough in the sense that we were labeled a “cop show,” and that didn’t really go with what HBO was thinking. It took HBO a while to realize that it’s not a cop show and it’s something different. It’s a show about a city. When that understanding came, the doors started opening and they understood what was going on. It was a gradual process for us too. It’s not like we had all five seasons in our head. What we did have, and primarily what David wanted to do, was to use what we had – our experiences, our understanding from reporting and police work in The Corner – to cast people in a new light. In a light of what they are pretty much like rather than the stereotypical light. And to show the struggles that they have are similar to the struggles of anybody.

DX: Did you always know from the beginning that there would be no “star” of the show? Was that a conscious decision to make sure the wire isn’t built around an individual?
EB: Yes. It wasn’t going to be about Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West). McNulty was certainly one of the driving forces – if not the driving force – of the first season. Because of how McNulty’s character was crafted as we were giving out the police expertise, you don’t see McNulty much as a “street cop.” He sort of becomes a force of nature as other people were taking up the banner (of police work) and we had to show what they do and how they do it – the Bunks, the Freemans, the Kimas -  you have to follow their story arcs too. It’s not like The Sopranos where basically it’s all about Tony.

DX: There’s a certain appreciation with The Wire where two guys who have been on the opposite side of the drug game could create such non biased and compelling stories. How much research and going into the lives of these people did it take to cultivate these stories?
EB: The thing about story is that you need a lot of time. There’s a basic human element that goes with all stories and it’s about staying in touch with that human element so you can work the stories and intertwine them. This means that you are also spending an awful lot of time with them. When you’re supposed to be thinking about your wife’s conversation at dinner, you are thinking about Wallace. You keep doing this and keep working at it because certain things just come to you. But what makes the really good stuff come is the amount of work you put into it. To get to the third season and see Avon (Wood Harris) and Stringer (Idris Elba) hugging each other after they each betrayed the other in their own way, we didn’t have that going in. That was an organic process that came with the story. And as we stayed with the story it became clear that this would be a powerful moment. Continued on page 2 »