Seeing America Through The Wire

What words can I write to mark the passing of “The Wire?” I could tell you that it’s my favorite television show of all time. (It is.) I could tell you that it’s the best television show ever made. (I think so, and many critics agree.) I could even tell you that it’s not merely a TV show; it’s a potential political force that, if it ever finds a broad enough viewership, would have the power to change the fabric of this entire country. (Ask Barack Obama—more on that in a minute.) All I can tell you with certainty about “The Wire,” though, is that it’s simply wonderful. It is a work of art. And especially at Harvard, where so many of us are concerned with the inequalities and injustices that plague these United States, it’s the most important show you’re probably not watching.

“The Wire,” for the uninitiated, is HBO’s magnificent drama series about the city of Baltimore. Don’t worry if you’re among the uninitiated; the show has been criminally underwatched, especially throughout its final season, and it’s been consistently ignored by the Emmys. Over its five seasons, “The Wire” was structured something like an archery target: the bullseye, introduced in the first season, was a group of cops and a group of drug dealers, both fascinating and flawed. One hunts the other; the other hunts itself.
As each season progressed, creator David Simon and his writing staff added another circle around the initial center while managing to keep most of the previous seasons’ characters. Season two tackled both the ports where drugs are offloaded and the decline of the American middle class. Season three was a polemic against the war on drugs combined with an incisive view of the internal workings of politics. Season four examined the crumbling schools and the children who No Child Left Behind leaves behind. And season five, which ended Sunday night, wrapped up the series with a penetrating look at the death of honest journalism.

Looking at all these contentious issues, it’s understandable that a novice might be a little afraid of watching “The Wire.” The truly amazing thing about the show, however, is that it brings forth all of these issues through dynamic, involving, and often genuinely funny characters. The ostensible protagonist of “The Wire” is idealistic cop Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), but speaking only of McNulty does a disservice to the show’s remarkable ensemble of brilliant detectives, cunning drug dealers, beleaguered bureaucrats, and heartbreaking street victims—not to mention the show’s breakout character, Omar Little, a drug thief/Robin Hood figure who has made actor Michael K. Williams one of the show’s true stars.

Omar is the favorite character of avowed “Wire” fan Obama, who has also called the show one of his all-time favorites. It’s only after watching “The Wire” in its entirety that it becomes clear how significant a major politician being a “Wire” fan really is. The show’s about the system against the individual. More importantly, it’s about how America’s various wars—the war on drugs, the war on the middle class, the war on crime, and, yes, the war in Iraq—are hurting the very people they were meant to help.

In Baltimore, as in real life, every choice is connected; as Detective Lester Freamon puts it, “all the pieces matter.” Watching “The Wire” is a lesson in the frustrating compromises that go into everything from publishing a daily paper to convicting a killer to running a city (or country). And for all of us—from future politicians, lawyers, and journalists to garden-variety citizens—it has more than a few important messages about the real troubles that afflict this country. In the world of “The Wire,” as the final episode so beautifully and movingly showed, everything moves in cycles, and the system feeds itself. The only way we can break it is by agitating en masse: against lies, against self-interest, against whatever we’ve been told. Idealists in “The Wire” are always alone, and they always get crushed. But groups can have power.

The writers of the show have taken that message to heart. In a co-signed editorial published in this week’s issue of Time, they argue that any citizen asked to serve on a jury for a non-violent drug case should vote to acquit, no matter what the crime. It doesn’t matter whether or not you agree; if the argument interests you, you need to track down DVDs of “The Wire.” It’s rare that a television show can offer that kind of intellectual honesty to its viewers.

Watching “The Wire” wasn’t always easy, but it was always rewarding. Baltimore, as one character describes it, is “a dark corner of the American experiment.” This Sunday, that experiment ended. But for some of you, and for the sake of the country we hold dear, I hope it’s only just beginning.
—Columnist Allie T. Pape can be reached at pape@fas.harvard.edu.