The Wire (#1)

It's all in the game. We go down in the hole to examine the greatest show ever.

I’ve been doing a countdown of my favorite shows of all-time and sometimes, it becomes clear what’s left - the fact that The Sopranos and Seinfeld were #3 and #2 respectively should come as no shock to anyone who knows me. And it should be even more obvious that The Wire is my favorite show of all time.

I’m not alone here - many people cite it as the greatest show ever made. It’s a sprawling, five-season epic that gets better if you can rewatch it. It’s fun, heartbreaking, original and hauntingly familiar, it’s become part of the culture and also a reminder of the real world that is still broken - perhaps more than it was 20 years ago when this was made.

The very first scene of the very first episode has Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) talking to a witness about Snot Boogie, who has been found shot and killed. In their discussion, the witness says that Snot forever wants to play dice, and every time he does, he steals the pot and runs away with it. And every time, they catch him and beat him up. McNulty is confused.

McNulty: I gotta ask you. If every time Snotboogie would grab the money and run away ... why'd you even let him in the game?

Witness: What?

McNulty: If Snotboogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?

Witness: Got to. This America, man.

That is so telling for the story to be told here - it’s about a lot of different people, but at its heart, The Wire tells the story of Baltimore (as a proxy for America) and how systemically it is broken. I could (and will) expand, but that perspective is what helps tie the seasons together. Because at the highest level, the seasons cover the following (deep breath):

1. The gang running drugs, led by Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) and Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) and the cops who eventually land on their tail, including using a wire (hence the name of the show) to try and catch them. These PO-LICE include McNulty, Lt. Cedric Daniels (Lance Reddick), Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn), Ellis Carver (Seth Gilliam), Herc Hauk (Dominic Lombardozzi), Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost), Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) and others. Other key players include Avon’s nephew D’Angelo Barksdale (Lawrence Gilliard Jr), Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) - the Robin Hood of the hood, who robs the dealers of their drugs and loot - and detective Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce), who works with McNulty and also drinks a LOT with him.

   

2. The decaying shipyards and the economic hardship it wreaks on the stevedores and others working there such as Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer), his son Nick (Pablo Schreiber) and nephew Ziggy (James Ransone) and how they end up taking shortcuts including selling drugs, which gets them involved not just with the Barksdale crew but higher ups like The Greek (Bill Raymond) and Spiro Vondopoulos (Paul Ben-Victor). Port police Beadie Russell (Amy Ryan) gets involved to help and Rhonda Perlman (Deidre Lovejoy) continues to assist and kick ass as the lawyer helping the police find a way to do their jobs.

   

3. In Season 3 we roll back to the inner city, where Major Bunny Colvin (Robert Wisdom) decides the best way to solve the insane quotas Commissioner Rawls (John Doman) and his second-in command Ervin Burrell (Frankie Faison) are insisting upon is to create a drug-free zone in the abandoned ghettos, which gets nicknamed “Hamsterdam.” We see people like addict Bubbles (Andre Royo), Councilman Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), and guys working for the Barksdales like Bodie Broadus (J.D. Williams) and Slim Charles (Anwan Glover) try to adapt to this reality. And all along, we still see Omar Little creating havoc, which is at least partially what causes the Barksdale crew to bring in some help, including the terrifying Brother Mouzone (Michael Potts).

   

4. Season 4 turns to the school system, showing how broken it is and how inequitable it is to the kids there who start off not one step behind, but many. We see Colvin and Prez play major roles in new jobs here, and we see the difference they can make in some kids lives, while others may already be lost. We see Dukie Weems (Jermaine Crawford), Randy Wagstaff (Maestro Harrell), Namond Brice (Julito McCullum) and Michael Lee (Tristan Wilds) - all kids of men involved in the drug trade in some way, shape or form - take different paths. We also see a rival crew, led by Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) and his henchmen Chris Partlow (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Snoop Pearson (Felicia Pearson), and we know this isn’t going to end well at all.

   

5. Season 5 turns back towards the way all of this gets reported by focusing on the Baltimore Sun newspaper, where McNulty realizes he can get more attention and resources by faking a serial killer, which reporter Scott Templeton (Tom McCarthy) gobbles up as a way to advance himself to the status he thinks he already deserves in the paper. And he’s not wrong? His stories - despite not passing the sniff test from editor Gus Haynes (Clark Johnson) - get more and more exposure as the managing editors sniff national prizes and recognition. We see the power of the lie, and how eager people are to believe in that lie.

   

All through all of this, we see the politics of the city - where Carcetti starts out hoping to make real change and get elected mayor - but immediately setting his sights on even higher office. This causes him to ignore literal thieves in office like Clay Davis (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), to divert money from where it’s needed because of the bad spin it would get to not throw more money at the police. The pressure the politicians throw onto the police to keep their numbers down creates incentives that screw - quite literally - everything up.

The system is broken. The system is Baltimore, and to some degree, it’s all of us. This is the story that creator David Simon was trying to tell, and in my opinion he did it masterfully. When you rewatch the series, it’s almost shocking how much of the material the show doesn’t really get to until seasons 4 and 5 is signaled and paved in season 1. Again, all the incentives in the system are WRONG - cops are paid to make arrests - any arrests, to find reasons to not categorize murders as such. Politicians make decisions not on what is best for the city, but what will help their own political careers. Kids in school see how hopeless their situation is and realize working the corner is probably both inevitable and the best way they can make any money. (When you do see kids make better choices, it’s heroic.)

Bunk and Jimmy, down by the train tracks with a lot of booze and ideas.

For me, it took a few episodes to get into the show - but I know exactly what scene did it. Bodie and Wallace (Michael B. Jordan) and are sitting in the middle of the projects, selling or coordinating the sale of drugs, and DeAngelo walks up to them. He sees that they’re playing checkers - but it’s a chess board with chess pieces. They don’t know the game of chess, just checkers, so DeAngelo starts to explain it to them.

He tells them that they’re playing a one-dimensional game (checkers) but that chess is on many different levels - and he tries to use their world “in the game"(that is, the drug game) to show them how it works. As much as he’s trying to teach them chess, he’s also trying to highlight that the world they actually live in is much more complex than they see.

Or is it? Because at the end, when asked when the pawn can become the King, DeAngelo has to acknowledge that “it’s ain’t like that. The King stay the King.” Bodie and others are pawns, and that’s just the way it is.

Despite numerous incredible, indelible characters in the show, the one most folks talk about is Omar Little. Trust me that if you’ve seen any character like Omar, it’s because it’s in homage to him. Where else have you seen an openly gay gangster, robbing the dealers and taking his grandmother to church on Sundays, whistling childhood tunes and inspiring the local kids to “be Omar” in their games on the street? RIP, Michael K. Williams - you were truly something special.

Part of what makes the show seem so visceral is that even for those of us who have never spent a day in Baltimore, this show felt SO real. That’s because it was filmed on location - that includes boarded up apartments, the streets and the docks, etc. It also included casting people they met along the way. Felicia “Snoop” Pierson was someone who basically was in the game in Baltimore and found a way out by playing a character not unlike herself. Another character, The Deacon is played by Melvin Williams. The Deacon helps sort out issues in his neighbord, even helping Dennis “Cutty” Wise (Chad Coleman) set up a boxing ring and get out of the game. Williams himself was a major dealer in heroin in Baltimore in the 1970s and 1980s, eventually getting arrested by co-showrunner Ed Burns. In the newsroom in Season 5 are many actors who are actually journalists. The show drips with authenticity for a reason.

I’ve easily left out 10 or more great actors and characters from the above. This is a truly sprawling story that tells a brilliant, heartbreaking story - and doesn’t even pretend to wrap it up in a bow to make you feel better when it’s all finished. That said, I want to make special mention of Andre Royo as Bubbles. Bubbles is an addict, and he’s often used for a bit of levity - he’s funny, and he’s not hurting anyone but himself - but because of his problem, he’s constantly being taken advantage of, in horrible situations where bad things happen to those he cares about, and he knows it’s on him for being an addict. He works as an informant, finds creative ways to make money to afford his dope, and works - slowly - to become a better person and get himself clean. I won’t spoil things too much but I’m so glad Bubbles was a part of this show and the performance by Royo is truly special.

I’ve said a lot here and haven’t scratched the surface, so I’m going to bother you all with ANOTHER post next week just about this show. But for now, hopefully I’ve made it clear why The Wire is my favorite show of all time.

And with that, the list is complete! (For now.) What do you agree with or disagree with the most?