washington post article on the Wire

'The Wire': Young Adults See Bits of Their Past

city of lost children

Heather Havrilesky's review of the fourth season of the Wire, focusing on the kids on the show. Havrilesky is one of my favorite tv critics. Maybe my favorite. And here's the link to David Simon's Reason Magazine interview that Havrilesky mentions.

Behind The Wire: David Simon on where the show goes next.

The fourth season of HBO's The Wire comes to an end next Sunday. A show of remarkable complexity, co-written by former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and former police detective Ed Burns, it is perhaps the most critically acclaimed TV program of the season. What critics and fans alike have noted is The Wire's remarkable narrative compression; as in the best novels, there is a sense that every detail has a purpose. Early on, The Wire may have impressed viewers with its cop-show chops—the first season focused on the Barksdale drug crew and the investigative police force trying to bring them down—but the show was always about something bigger—namely, the life of the city itself. In the fourth season, which concludes on Dec. 10, the show has expanded its focus from local politics and the drug trade to the public school system; with only one remaining season scheduled, we pressed David Simon on what The Wire adds up to, how the writers' room operates, and what might be in store in Season 5. Simon spoke with me by phone from his office in Baltimore.

funny

Outgoing Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich has a cameo in the Wire

Carmelo Anthony and the Wire

Jordan Brand hosted a special dinner for ‘Melo the other night in Denver to celebrate the M3, and the Baltimore native invited several cast members of The Wire (aka the best show on the television) to the party. Carmelo has never made it a secret how much he loves the gritty HBO drama.

Aw, Felicia Peason looks so young.

Slate's Breaking Down the Wire

Good morning and welcome to Breaking Down The Wire. I'm a guest, too, so we can make this up as we go along and hope Alex and Steve won't think we screwed up their gig too badly when they come back.

I am a huge evangelist for this show—I've given the DVD as a Hanukkah present to more than one family member, and this fall, after watching the first three seasons courtesy of Netflix, I persuaded my principled husband to subscribe to HBO for the first time so I could watch the fourth season in real time. I know you're a big fan as well. And there's lots to discuss as the season rumbles into its final quarter. But I have to say, I found this week's episode a bit baffling, as a matter of character development, which the writers usually address with such care. Here's the question that had my husband and me shouting at the screen: Michael, what are you DOING?!?...

Terry Gross of Fresh Air interviews the Wire's Ed Burns

It's on right now in Chicago (11/22/06) as I write this. If you missed it, you can stream it here.

Tim Goodman's The Wire (season4) reviews

Television Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Tim Goodman's The Wire reviews for this season. His blog is called "The Bastard Machine" which sort of gives you an indication of his writing style.

Slate.com's editor-in-chief on why the Wire is "the best TV show ever broadcast in America."

"The Wire, which has just begun its fourth season on HBO, is surely the best TV show ever broadcast in America. This claim isn't based on my having seen all the possible rivals for the title, but on the premise that no other program has ever done anything remotely like what this one does, namely to portray the social, political, and economic life of an American city with the scope, observational precision, and moral vision of great literature."

It's about a month old, but like most of the links here, it's new to me, and maybe, to you as well. I know most of you who watch the Wire already agree it's a good show, but I think like a good movie or book, it's rich enough that I enjoy reading why other people think it is as well.

NYT's Felicia Pearson "snoop" profile and interview

With her braids, oversize clothes and baseball cap turned to the side, the small, youthful Snoop looks like a teenage boy. With her partner, Chris Partlow, she is the muscle for the drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield. She is a cool, calm female killer who creatively makes enemies disappear with the use of a nail-gun, hiding the bodies in Baltimore’s vacant and condemned row houses on HBO’s much-praised series “The Wire.”
The actress Felicia Pearson, who plays Snoop, has emerged as one of the show’s most compelling characters; Stephen King, in Entertainment Weekly, called her “perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series.”

What to watch when the Wire is over?

So what do I do when this season of the Wire is over? What do I watch while I wait for season five to show up? Battlestar, the Office, and...? I guess I can just read more. That's a good thought. And speaking of books, I should find out what the Wire related books are and make a list to post here. I think there's a bunch of them, fiction and non. Ok, that's coming up as soon as I have time. I hear some of them are pretty good.

Top 10 Reasons Not to Cancel The Wire

This came out early on in 2005, when people were not sure if the Wire would be coming back for the fourth season. Today, with the success of the fourth season (the best show ever is finally catching on), HBO is bringing it back for a fifth and last season. But it's still a good read in case you missed it. And like a lot of great the Wire coverage, it's from the Baltimore City Paper:

1) “Bring me a Shrek 2 slushie and some Krispy Kreme.” —Squeak

The characters are the most instantly and constantly gratifying aspect of The Wire, and over all three seasons its writers cared enough about everybody who utters a line to invest each with a personality that sounds more reported than written. Squeak is a minor character in the third season, a woman who junky/criminal informant Bubbles works through to sell bugged cell phones to lieutenants in the Avon Barksdale drug crew. And yet in her few scenes, The Wire doesn’t turn her into a mere plot-point pawn; you get to know her. She’s loud, controlling, and more than a little domineering. And when the cops do pick her up with her boyfriend and she barks at him, “You got to be the dumbest motherfucker I done ever gone out with,” and he fires back, “I can’t wait to go to jail,” you’ve digested an intimate portrait of a relationship in less than five minutes of screen time. Such detailed attention is lavished on every character, no matter how seemingly trivial, because in The Wire you never know what the next episode will unfold. (Bret McCabe)

Chicago Tribune's "Best Candidate to Break Your Heart" is Dukie of the Wire

BEST CANDIDATE TO BREAK YOUR HEART: Duquon "Dukie" Weems (Jermaine Crawford) on "The Wire" (HBO). Middle schooler Dukie shows up at school in dirty clothes because there's no running water in his house. His few other clothes are stolen by his family so they can buy drugs. You'd think that environment would break him, but there is a core intelligence and sweetness about Dukie, who blossoms under the attention of a caring teacher. Dukie's plight as a basically good boy tempted by the rough streets as his only way out of a rougher life may just be the most heartbreaking story on TV all year.

Agreed. I usually hate kids on tv or movies. They are usually all wise-cracking, with haircuts only found on screen. Best use of child actors on tv or film right now.

I bet Bugs is selling the discs out of his shopping cart

In a season when new technology is drastically changing the ways in which television networks try to reach viewers, The Wire, HBO's Baltimore-based drama, has found a new and avid audience in East Coast nightclubs and on online auction sites such as eBay and Craigslist.

There is, however, one problem with the gain: These new viewers are watching bootleg DVDs or illegal downloads of the entire season, often sold at a fraction of what it would cost to subscribe to HBO or buy a DVD of a full season of the Peabody Award-winning drama. Some of these viewers are then going online and posting "spoilers" - descriptions and comments about events taking place in episodes that have yet to air on HBO. -Baltimore Sun

Ed Burns, writer and producer of the Wire Interview

Recently a friend and I would always end our conversations about the Wire with, "So is Ed Burns the same Ed Burns? That actor guy who made that "Brothers" something movie?" I really wasn't sure. Maybe Ed Burns the actor had hidden depth? No offense to Burns the kind of famous actor but...well, it's the Wire! After having the same conversation a few times, my friend finally looked it up and no, he's not. He's actually an ex-cop and ex-Baltimore city teacher. And HBO has an interview online, talking about season four.

HBO
After 20 years as a cop you became a teacher. How did that come about?

BURNS
After I retired from the Police Department, Dave [Simon] and I wrote The Corner. I'm just a natural loser, so I decided it would be fun to teach in an inner-city school, because that's the kind of world I like. And that's pretty much the amount of thought I gave it until I walked into the room. (click on text for rest of the interview)

NPR asks, "What's better? The Wire or the Sopranos?"

NPR.org, February 25, 2005 · People tend to reflexively deplore the state of television these days -- but for the aficionado, it's a golden age. Granted, HBO is a premium pay cable service, but shouldn't we be grateful that we can now spend our time pondering this pressing question: "Which is better -- The Wire or The Sopranos?

Baltimore City Paper's story the music in the Wire

It's easy to think of The Wire as a show with a strong musical identity. Over the course of its three seasons, it's become a hip-hop touchstone. Wire cast members have appeared in videos for Boyz in Da Hood, Cam'ron, Jay-Z, Common, Fat Joe, Obie Trice, Fabolous, and dozens of other rappers and singers. The massively popular local hip-hop mixtape Hamsterdam--named for season three's open-air drug market--features plenty of gangsta koans from Wire characters like the imposing Slim Charles...

HBO's best show ever, the Wire

I just wanted to make a page with links to the Wire. Here's a few:

1. Wikipedia entry on the Wire

2. D.C. lifer George Pelecanos writes about murder, drug feuds, riots, dog-fighting—and also a little violence (Pelecanos is a Wire writer)

3. More with Pelecanos and more about the Wire

4. HBO's Official the Wire site

5. Salon primer on the Wire for newbies

6. Baltimore City Paper's review of the 4th season of the Wire

7. Baltimore City Paper's coverage of the Wire as a whole is so awesome, here's a complete list of links via google. I'm sure you can find something good here.


I'll be adding more as I find them.