In search of Magnolia

The Wire

What a blast!

I spend the last 2 months not watching movies, but watching this HBO hit series The Wire. It has been described as the best series ever. I wouldn’t go that far, but actually can’t disagree. It is very very very good.

I’ve been warned it might take a time before you start appreciating the series, and it turned out to be true in my case. It’s not bad in the beginning, but you need some time to adjust. There’s lot’s of characters and story lines, and you need to start seeing them before you can spend your energy enjoy the scripts. But then you’re there, and you’re in it. Bam!

Why is it so good? I’m not sure.
It’s not the production quality, not at first. First season is rather dodgy, but then again it’s kinda old. Started in 2002, almost 10 years, things changed in the meantime. Production quality can be a succes factor for sure, but not here. It does go up season after season though.

It’s not the rawness, not to me at least. It plays a role in the atmosphere, constantly, but it’s not the only fiction that’s raw. At least not here in Europe, we’re used to quite some stuff. Naked tits in prime time on national television .. we stopped caring in the 80’s.

It must be the stories. The realness. The way they’re told, brought to live trough writing, acting and directing. Rawness and (initial) poor production quality give them credibility, but it it’s core the stories have to be good. And they are!
The series is written by David Simon, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, the newspaper that plays a big role in the last season. Yes it’s all Baltimore, and if you don’t really know what Baltimore represents (like me before The Wire): it’s a big American east coast city, close to Washington DC, with a huge criminality problem. So clearly Simon got his inspiration during his years at the Sun.

What’s great about the series is it gives the characters room to develop, over seasons. With these characters it’s the battle good versus evil. However you want to define that. Because the good guys, the cops right, have shortcomings as well. Just as the criminals have good sides. They meet in the middle, really. Great characters!

There’s McNulty, the protagonis. He’s police, but also kind of an anti-hero. A loser from time to time (drunk, cheat, ..) but yet a great detective.

There’s Omar Little. Tough ass criminal, crazy mother fucker. In a one-man war. Robbing drugdealers. Yet the man has ethics.

There’s Bubbles, an addict and police informer. Good hearth, but betrayed by his drug time after time.

And then there’s Snoop. Maybe my favorite character. Introduced in the 3th season, and shining in the 4th. A female criminal, the worst kind. A cold blooded assassin, pumping people with her buddy Chris. Snoop is performed by Felicia Pearson, ex con, there’s probably not much acting involved. This is her in the opening scene of the 4th season.

There’s so many more, so many killed as well.

Although in general the series takes you where it needs to be, it’s never cheesy, easy or feel good. Almost nothing turns out ending perfect. There’s always something going wrong, or ending sub-optimal. Adds to the realness, who said people want happy endings? A season doesn’t really end as well, it’s just done. Some story lines are finished, some vanished and others appear back somewhere in the next season.

Also great, season after season there’s kind of a zoom out going on, focussing on different circles of influence and power. 1th season is the street and the cops, and some justice. 2th season involves the union. 3th politics. 4th schools and finally 5th, the media. These different cirles collide, and influence each other.

60 episodes pure viewing pleasure. I’m kinda sad I’m thru. Shiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt