It's All Connected

The Wire is back, and threatening to pull off the most improbable double-whammy since the winter of 1999. That’s right, the complex HBO drama celebrated for being both the most realistic show on television and for employing the best black actors around (though the man in the middle might take umbrage at both of those claims) is precariously close to becoming not just the best show on television, but also the most overrated.

This is not intended to be a knock on the show. The Wire is definitely the best thing on the telly today (obvious exceptions excluded) and deserves every bit of praise it gets for taking on large social issues in a unique, uncompromising, and above all entertaining way. But when the Mongolian hordes of TV critics who were busy fellating Jack Bauer while Bodie walked out of Juvie in 2002 suddenly show up to trumpet the “reality” and “social significance” of D. Simon’s Frankenstein monster, I have to draw the line.

The Wire is to reality what pornography is to sex—and I don’t just mean better. What I mean is, both take a very real, very important aspect of human life—and show us only the interesting parts. They are instructive, thought provoking, perhaps even galvanizing to the viewer. But in the media of film and television, it is the content, not the message, that is essential. The Wire is an enjoyable show because the vast majority of the content is concerned with smart people doing complex things that they are good at. Reality, unfortunately, is not.

As for the question of social significance, well, Simon & Co. are mere midgets wandering in the vast shadow cast by our beloved Sammy D.