Watching The Wire

Firstly, here's a quick survey:

Are you:
A] Watching The Wire right now?
B] Basking in the glow of having recently seen The Wire?
C] Yet to see The Wire, but open to me forcing you to watch it?
D] Uninterested in The Wire?

If you answered D to the question above, then I don't think we can be friends anymore. I know it's a big call, but this show really is that good.

As is traditional here on the Stefan Delatovic's Blog, I'm here to wax lyrical about something that everyone else found out about five years ago.

What's that sound, you ask? Oh, that's just the real power of the instantaneous, always-on internet rushing by.

Anyway, I kept hearing about this show called The Wire. It was the internet equivalent of hearing someone whispering about something in the bathroom at a party thrown by a techno-obsessed stranger. It would come up here or there, but nothing too overt.

One day though I was on this LOST message board and the members held a "what's the best show on TV?" poll.
"Why bother?" I thought. This was a community established entirely for the love of LOST, a show which organically divides viewers into either disaffected haters or ravenously obsessed mouthbreathers (that's me).
To my shock and amazement, the winner was The Wire.
These people, with their 14,000 word blog posts ranking the habitats of polar bears depending on how many small black rocks they contained, had selected another show as their pick of the litter?

Shortly after that The Wire's final season apparently wrapped up in the US, and I started hearing a lot of the Australian media marking the occasion as 'the Passing of the Greatest Show ever on Television'. Of course, each story ended with the sadly necessary 'it was on TV for a few nights at 11pm and then it stopped so you never saw it and it isn't on DVD yet so welcome to our lazy country.'
When I heard a university professor being interviewed on the radio about the characterisation in The Wire being on par with Dickens, I thought 'maybe I should try and watch this show maybe sometime.'

A little while after that I managed to find season one.

Hark. It was wonderful.

Some time later I found season two.

Even better.

Soon I will have season three.

I keep wanting to space out my watching, but I can't, and ended up shotgunning season two in two days.

I know I haven't said anything about the content of the show, but as I bask in the afterglow of a marathon, I'm a little overwhelmed.

This is a show that demands attention. It must be watched sequentially and with both eyes open. It rewards this attention as a doting parent would buy a child a new Lexus for mastering a belt buckle.

Basically, if you're looking to have a good time, it's on your side.

In season one, The Wire chronicle a taskforce within the Baltimore Police Department as they work to build a case against a drug operation. The case lasts the entire season and gives equal time and thought to characters on both sides.
It really is impossible to explain the brilliance of the show, as it's in the realism, the writing, and the care with which characters are built.
It pays no heed to television conventions designed to allow an easy time for viewers. You're thrown into situations and expected to catch up. It's hellish at first, but once you get your bearings, it allows you some ownership of the world.
I realised I was obsessed when, late in season one, something really bad happens to one of the characters, and I was unwittingly a fucking basket case.
Without realising it, I was so invested in the characters that, when something really bad happens, I was truly affected.

That never happened on Friends.

Watch The Wire.