Skip to main content

The Wire

I just completed watching all five seasons of The Wire, the American urban crime drama from HBO.  You have likely heard of it, or seen it - it is a favourite among writers and poets, I've noticed.  I won't rave here for long, except to say, I believe it to be the finest piece of television drama ever made, except for Brideshead Revisited (which was, after all, briefer and based on a classic novel).  The complexity of the characterisation and multiple plots over many seasons, and the commitment to exploring socio-political issues is remarkable - but the ability to balance high-brow intelligence with street level accuracies, genre-busting ironies, pitch-perfect acting, and never-subsiding suspense, is unique.  The Wire is a permanent masterwork, the Citizen Kane of the small screen.  Utterly moving, enthralling, hilarious, upsetting, bleak, and yet curiously inspiring (there is always a bit of light in the darkness) I envy those who still have these many hours ahead of them.  It is Good TV.
Labels:

Comments

Mark Granier said…
Completely agree Todd. The Wire is amazing, though it took me awhile to get into (and I still have season 4 to get through). Then there is the often-overlooked Deadwood, not to mention Generation Kill, Mad Men and the newish comic-(very)tragic Breaking Bad. I also have a soft spot for the absurd Dexter (wonderful opening creds and soundtrack) and that wildly OTT drama with a transfusion of operatic soap, True Blood (with even better opening creds): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r77tta6HPw
Too many to get through really.
Mon Sept 06, 11:46:00 pm 2010
chuck.godwin said…
HI Todd,
You are so right about "The Wire". I remember when it first came out, folks were skeptical of another "ghetto, drugs and violence" piece on American television. That attitude quickly changed after a few episodes. And I will echo Mark about "Generation Kill". Though different in storyline and characterizations, and lacking some of the sustained dramatic intensity of "The Wire", it is worth a watch.
Tue Sept 07, 03:58:00 pm 2010
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A  poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Post a Comment
Read more

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...
15 comments
Read more

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more