The Dickensian Aspect…
GENERAL By TSSCrew on February 10, 2008 at 1:51 pmWords by Matthew Mundy
If you’re David Simon, creator of The Wire, you recently had a problem. After completing the show’s fourth season, widely acclaimed as the best season of the best show on television, you were on top of the world. Despite the continued (and puzzling) Emmy lockout of the series, critics throughout the industry lauded your show as not only the best show on television, but perhaps the best American television show ever. Your baby, a show that takes Baltimore - and urban America more broadly - and holds it under the most searing of moral lens, had won first prize. And then some. It was some heady stuff.
There’s always a but, of course, and this one was rather significant – you still had to come up with a fifth season. Topping the fourth season - a heartbreaking and stunningly realistic look at how No Child Left Behind and the school system had tragically failed the predominantly black youth of West Baltimore – was impossible. Dealing with these schoolchildren, four in particular – Naymond, Dukie, Randy and Michael – raised the emotional stakes in a way that dealing with adults could not. So, what do you, a grizzled former journalist from the Baltimore Sun, do?
What slowly emerged during those first four seasons was a hyper-realistic – albeit depressingly dystopic - view of the American city. Critics compared it to great literature – Dickensian, they called it. Without resorting to cloying sentimentality or convenient plotting, The Wire had painted a portrait of a city – and a country - that had failed its most vulnerable citizens. Its portrait of a permanently entrenched black underclass, left in the dust by an economy that had long ago decided it could operate fine without 8-10 percent of its population, was staggering. Simon et al. showed the war on drugs for what it is – a repugnantly narrow-minded and short-sighted policy that, in the interests of plugging the dike of a tragically unstoppable force, has criminalized an entire sub-population that have little other economic opportunities to turn to. The characters that peppered this world – the gut-wrenching junkie Bubbles, the cop-in-the-thrall-of-his-vices McNulty, the gay, lone-wolf gangster Omar, the ice-in-his-veins new prince of the drug trade Marlo, and the struggling-to-make-good, former street soldier Cutty – made it all the more realistic and heartbreaking.
What, then, is next? I was surprised, briefly, at the decision that the show made, but now, as we round the stretch into the last half of the final season, it makes perfect sense. The show has trained its sights on the newspaper industry, particularly the Baltimore Sun and it has taken them to task in a way that has earned the show, and Simon in particular, both accolades and criticism from his former colleagues. It has taken the industry to task for ignoring the plight of the underclass, for forgoing the long story - the detailing of the slow-motion destruction of these communities – for the short, sensationalistic sideshow, the myopic obsession with the scandal. In their bloodlust for prizes, They have failed their readers, and – more importantly – their city’s most vulnerable.
The Wire has also spared no feelings in its portrayal of the ruthless disembowelment of the modern newsroom by its corporate masters, those who deign a 20-percent profit margin to be of more importance than good journalism. The recent ghosts of newspaper past haunt the screen as well, from the vicious job cuts to the Stephen Glass-ian machinations of the young journalist who, more than anything, wants to move up the newspaper ladder and get himself the hell out of Baltimore.
The ghosts of Simon’s newspaper past also haunt and it’s here that the show has, however briefly, lost sight of the forest for the trees. The contempt Simon holds for his former editors at the Sun, John Carroll and Bill Marimow, a disdain by now legendary, permeates every scene in the newsroom. His scorn for them, which he claims results from their misplaced ardor for prizes at the expense of good journalism, threatens to overwhelm. We’re often left with one-dimensional caricatures of these editors, rather than the full-bodied complexity of the rest of the show’s cast. This is a minor gripe though, as the rest of the season – as per usual – has been superlative.
We’re halfway done now, and everything seems to be hurtling down the tracks to a conclusion (or a collision?) that I’m almost afraid to see, knowing the show’s propensity for rewarding its viewers’ adoration with the – unfortunately – realistic results of characters’ choices. There are no happy endings in The Wire, and I like it that way, because as Simon himself is likely to point out: There are no happy endings in this part of America, either.
Posted in GENERAL, SMOKE BREAK
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32 Comments
Excellent write up.
+10 HP
-The Black Hey Zeus!
Please no spoilers folks.
RIP to Proposition Joe though since that already went down.
Anybody else feel like they’re really playin out the two white editor characters (specifically the one w/the slightly gray hair who bumps heads w/the black editor in each scene), like blatantly making them look like they’re favoring the reporter Scott? Their whole characters are the cheesiest I’ve seen on the show. Blatantly portraying them as flat characters, discrediting their roles completely & making them seem as if they have zero objectivity to what’s going on in the newsroom or other reporters.
Well written as always Matt…
I watched episode 6 with the peeps last night and the common consensus was that the serial killer/newsroom story line is a dud. The whole great thing about the first four seasons, and what made it Dickensian, was the interconnectedness of different parts of society told in realistic terms. Theirs nothing realistic about the serial killer storyline, and seems more like what id expect from CSI than The Wire.
The other parts of the show, the politics, Marlo’s rise, the dialogue and acting are still all phenomenal, but that they are basing their here entire crime investigation around this possibly to settle Simon’s vendetta with his old job is disappointing
^ I’m not gonna count out the newsroom/serial killer angle yet, word to Season 2. But it’s lacking right now & wasting way too much valuable fuckin time on the shit I want to see tied up & brought together, at least a little, before the series ends.
fyi everyone: hiphopgame.com has posted a nice lil’ interview w/ Just Blaze. Talks about status and making of Saigon’s album.
Damn, that was a good read. Thanks Matt.
Man, I can’t wait till Omar kills all those bitches! Hahaha. I think that my favorite part of the show. Waiting to see what Omar is gonna do next.
I think that the Newsroom angle is going alright. Like Gotty said though, why can’t the two white senior editors (Managing Editor Thomas Klebanow & Executive Editor James C. Whiting III) see what the black editor (City Editor Augustus ‘Gus’ Haynes) sees? That the white reporter (Scott Templeton) just makes hit up. Damn, that shit pisses me off. And then when the Executive Editor is always saying shit like “Let’s look at the Dickension aspect of it”. I hate that shit.
Does episode 8 come on tonight? I’ve already seen through 7, so I haven’t been keepin up with HBO OnDemand.
great writing mundy. if only for the overabundant use of the word “dickensian” is the season quite good. i’m been peppering that word in my presentations since i first read it in a review a few months ago. hahah.
gotty, i agree with you. the portrayal of the editors is quite flat…but i’m cool with that. shit, we got like 20 other characters that are way more interesting and we have more of a history with…so them playing those two…i’m not too upset about that.
as for the serial killer angle…that shit is crazy as hell. i can imagine no way in which they make that out of this world shit end in an acceptable way…but that’s what i like about the wire. they ALWAYS surprise the hell outta mean for the good.
Yo Ghost, since you’ve been using the term “Dickensian Aspect” in your presentations, what the hell does it mean? Or refer to? I tried to look it up, but all I get are links to The Wire. Thanks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens
Yeah, I already looked at that. Thanks.
Bravo my friend,
Bravo !!!
I personally like the newsroom aspect of the show. It has opened my eyes quite a bit concerning the media. Many newspapers are pubically traded companies, which means at the end of the day they need to turn a profit to keep stock shareholders happy. So the front page headlines may not always be the biggest news, but it is what will sell the most units.
So when you see your Anna Nicole Smiths and Natalie Holloways [of Aruba-kidnapping fame] on the tele for months on end it should come as no surpise. If Natalie Holloway had a huge mole on her nose, her story would probably been pushed to the back of the newspaper- much like other tragic stories that deserve more attention…
^Gotty
I loved the docks shit, and the criticism i’ve heard of season 2 was, “this stuff is boring, focus back on the Towers.” The show has proved they can deliver the payoff and engross you in the lives of new characters, so if that was just the issue, I’d give it a chance. It’s not that it’s boring, it’s unbelievable. Moreover the main culprits, McNulty and Freemon are two of the smartest guys on the show, so the fact that they are involved and seem to think this is a great idea makes it that much worse for me.
@ Gotty…no spoilers? schools keeping me away from the 5th season but thanks for the prop joe comment…haha
a tale of two cities?
allow me to expand…
excellent point of view by the way.
but what i guess the writer is tryna do is
kill two birds with one stone,
which is one…exact his revenge
on his former employers
and two tell a different side of this Baltimore life..
& I for one don’t find much wrong
with it other than the
fact that me myself being street
oriented I would much rather
get involved in the street aspect of things…
I mean many shows do worse,
so I feel we can’t get mad at that..
all I wanna know is when is
sumbuddy gunna kill that damn marlo dude..???
fa’ real….cause I prefer the barksdale gang instead..lol
peace
Maaaan, listen… When this show is over, a major part of my social/professional/life networking scheme will thus be ended. The Wire/Omar is the backbone of every one of my conversations these days, on account of it’s awesome and I have no other personal redeeming qualities, and I’ve made peace with that.
^ for real, cuz when it’s over, IT’S OVER, so as much as I’d sometimes like to, I’m not jumping ahead (unless watching it OnDemand counts… OK, not TOO far ahead)
Matt, very nice write up btw
Barksdale crew will go down in tv history lol
word up MM. That Stephen Glass reference brings back some shivers from Journalism 101. Great write up.
That should go down as one of the most well written pieces in TSS history. Chuck would be proud. Respect.
Best show ever made.
Am I the only one who hates Marlo that much? Every episode i hope he gets shot.
great review.
something that helped me enjoy the newspaper storyline was reading some interviews/pieces from David Simon himself.
there is no doubt that he is taking his personal shots at people from his old industry, but it also helps [as always with The Wire] to understand the broader scope of his points.
Does the News Matter to Anyone Anymore
by David Simon [wash post]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR2008011802874.html
Profile of David Simon by Margaret Talbot
from the New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/22/071022fa_fact_talbot?printable=true
Matt, impressive write-up. And they say hip-hop journalism doesn’t exist. The weeks are occurring too fast. I am trying to deny that the end of The Wire is near.
While your at it read this one too, which is less flattering towards Simon. As always the truth is somewhere in the middle.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/bowden-wire
Marlo makes me sick and he will get his soon enough ^ hes a filthy bitch and I wish the worst for him.Love Jamie Hector though think he is amazing as Marlo….
in other words, I don’t actually love to hate him like I did Stringer but he does command a presence on the screen.
^indeed, the dude who plays the role of
Marlo is exceptionally good.
for an actor to git inside peoples domez
and make ‘em angry at his existance
is indeed a great talent
“THE WIRE” you will be missed..
….p.s. ’bout 2 git ready for my R.I.P. Tat….lol
I’ve seen maybe one episode of The Wire, and truly i’m not upset about it. But this is the first write-up i’ve seen ANYWHERE that made me start to lament what i’ve been missing out on.
Amazing write up. Keep up this kind of work, TSS!