The Wire

**** Note ****

The following blog will contain major spoilers for the television show, The Wire. If you have not seen the show, stop reading right now. Then, you need to obtain a copy of the show. You can borrow it from a friend, rent it from Netflix, get it from Blockbuster, illegally download it, DVR it when it comes on, or get it when it comes back around OnDemand. I don't care how you watch it, but you owe it to yourself to do it.

**** /Note ****

I first heard about The Wire a couple of years ago. I had heard great things about it, but I'd never really heard much specifically. I knew that it was a cop show, and that a lot of people swore by it. I decided, when I got the chance, that I'd watch it.

Then, in 2007, I was looking around OnDemand, and I saw that the first season was available there. Unfortunately for me, it was only available for two more days. That meant, over the course of a weekend, I would have to watch 13 episodes.

And I think that was important because I was forced to watch four or five the first day. I wasn't working at the time, and I had nothing better to do...so I watched.

And for those of you who've seen the show, you know it starts out slow. It takes its sweet time to get you involved, and it doesn't give a crap whether it catches your eye or not. It does it's own thing, and if you don't like it, it doesn't really care.

If I'd watched the show any other way, it might not have worked. The first episode is rather unremarkable, and it doesn't grab you like other shows might. But after you've watched a couple of them, you start to see the genius. And by the time I was done with that first day, I was hooked.

For those of you who ignored my warning above, the Wire is a show about Baltimore. It focuses on the drug trade, but it's really about modern America. How American cities work, how they fail, and how people get by. The Wire takes you from abandoned buildings full of corpses to the high ceilings of City Hall. From the corners of the ghetto to the ports. Both cops and drug dealers are shown as they are - darkness and light included. There are cops you'll hate and dealers you'll love. The show simply shows the world as it is.

And it's probably because the show was written by a journalist. There isn't a whole lot of bias in the show, and it's received countless positive comments from the people who live in that world. The people in the show talk, walk, and act the way that their real-life counterparts do. For a lot of us, it's the closest we'll ever come to that lifestyle.

Throughout the show, you get to see the drug trade's impact on several different parts of the city. Season one is simply the trade itself. Season two brings in the ports, where the drugs arrive from overseas. Season three involves politicians - where we get to see where the cops get their orders - corrupt or not. Season four is about the educational system - how some kids turn into dealers and killers and some are able to escape. And season five revolves around the media - the way we get to see that world.

Season one's storylines bleed throughout the rest of the series. The cops at the beginning are shown throughout, even though the life on the street is constantly changing and evolving.

I'm bringing all of this up because, within the last six months, I've introduced the Wire to Ashley and Tucker. One day, while playing tennis, I suggested that Tucker needed to watch it. I knew it was exactly up his alley, and I knew he'd love it.

He was skeptical at first, although I'm not really sure why. A couple months before, I'd recommended Dexter to him, and he loved it. Over time, I wore him down, and we started to watch.

After one episode, he wasn't impressed. Like I said, the pilot isn't anything great, but I'd warned him that the show starts slow. After two or three episodes, he believed me. And when we watched the finale one week ago tonight, he officially declared it his favorite show of all time.

I have a feeling I've earned some extra credit in Tucker's mind, and he'll believe me a little more next time I tell him to watch something.

Now, what is it that makes the Wire so great? There's not a whole lot to the show - it isn't full of action or suspense. Every episode doesn't end on a dynamic cliffhanger, and bullets aren't constantly flying. In fact, throughout the whole series, almost none of the main police officers fires a gun. The body count of major characters is remarkably low.

I simply think that I love the Wire because it's like watching a dramatic documentary. I know that everything that happens on the show has a basis in real life. The creator worked with detectives, and he saw all the life on the street. I'm currently reading a book he wrote (Homicide: Life on the Killing Streets) and a lot of the things from the show come right off the pages.

Most of the characters are based on real-life people. Some of them even appear on the show (the real life Jay Landsman having the biggest role). Snoop Pearson (who Steven King thinks is one of the most chilling female characters in TV history) is from West Baltimore. She doesn't play herself (same name, though), but I'm sure she knew people just like the real character.

And when, in season five, I saw cops using a photocopier as a lie detector to get a young gunman to confess his part in a murder, I laughed out loud because I knew that it'd been done in real life. The book I'm reading confirmed it. Baltimore detectives actually did that in the 1980s, and that makes things so much funnier.

Tucker and I made Tuesday night Wire night for most of the year. Around season three, Ashley finally got involved, and he liked it just as much as us.

But if you asked me why I loved the show, I'd respond with a single character - Omar. Omar Little is one of my favorite characters of all time (for the record, President Obama agrees - Omar is his favorite character and the Wire is his favorite show), and he's just so layered.

Let me paint you a picture of Omar. He's a stick-up artist, which basically means that he makes his living robbing drug dealers. He carries a big sawed-off shotgun, and he terrorizes West Baltimore drug dealers for most of the show. From the second you see Omar on the show, you love him because he's the odd man out. He's involved in the fight against drugs, but he plays by his own rules.

But there are things about Omar that are just awesome. He's one of the most violent characters on the show, but he makes it a point to curse as little as possible. He's also one of the hardest characters on the show, but he also happens to be gay.

That's right - my favorite character on the Wire is gay. I said it.

The thing about Omar is that you know he's on borrowed time. He's going against some tough M-Fers, and they all want his head. You simply expect him to die every time he's on the screen, but every season, he makes it out okay. He even comes out on top a couple of times.

He endeared himself to me in season two when he appears in court...a half-assed-tied tie around his neck. When Maurice Levy, the slimy drug lawyer, is attacking him, Omar fights back with one of the greatest lines on the show. When Levy tries to discredit Omar as a witness, saying he benefits from the drug trade, Omar says that Levy is the same as him. Levy, shocked that someone would say such a thing, can't respond as Omar says the classic line.

"I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase."

When a contract killer comes to get Omar, the stick-up artist shows his cajones. With a gun trained on him, Omar slowly grabs his own weapon...turning a lopsided standoff into a Mexican one.

And, in season five, Omar still does a lot of damage on a busted leg. But season five is also where Omar meets his end.

I heard about Omar's death before I saw it on screen. Dan on BaD Radio (SportsRadio 1310, the Ticket) spoiled it after coming back from commercial, and it hit me hard. I was still a few episodes behind, and it really hurt to hear. But even though I knew, I was still surprised to see how it actually went down.

Omar had a hundred lives on the show, taking on kings of the street, muscle, and bounty hunters. But when he's trying to buy some cigarettes in a mini mart, Omar is gunned in the head...by a little kid. His death doesn't come in a heroic fight at the end of an episode - it happens rather unremarkably in the middle of an episode.

And while most shows would've focused on it, the Wire goes out of its way to show that the death has little impact on the streets.

Because, you know what, that's how it works. We grow attached to Omar, but the street moves on. At the end of the day, he's just another body in Baltimore. And in real life, people die when they let their guard down - not in epic Hollywood style.

Like I said, the Wire simply shows us the world as it is.

But that's one of the themes of the show - life on the street moves on. Things might change, but "the game" doesn't die. Dealers are killed or imprisoned, but the drugs still are sold. It really shows you that the war on drugs is never ending. The cops will always fight, but the drugs will always be on the streets.

Sad - but real.

I'll probably have some more thoughts at some point, but I wanted to give the show its due. It's simply fantastic, and I can't give it enough credit. Watching the show the second time was just as great as the first, and I was able to appreciate a lot more. I recognized characters better, and I followed the story a little more closely the second time around.

So mad props to the Wire. One of the best shows ever.

Or, as Tucker says, the very best.