WAYS OF SEEING: THE WIRE

My first blog entry here was on HBO's The Wire and since writing about it then, I've managed to power through the rest of it and have already moved onto catching up on other TV shows. But The Wire isn't really a show you can leave behind or stop thinking about, and of course I haven't, it's sat at the back of my mind ever since the credits rolled on the last episode.

The Wire's fifth and final season introduced a new thread to the show's already busy narrative, the daily inner workings of the Baltimore Sun newspaper. In all honesty, it was the weakest setting the show had ever tried to draw in, and it often showed. The characters rang unusually false and the ripped from the headlines story of a dishonest reporter being fast tracked for a Pulitzer seemed overly simplistic for a show like The Wire. Series creator David Simon can't be blamed for trying though - he began years ago as a reporter for the Sun and the introduction of a news setting seemed like a logical final piece in The Wire's puzzle of urban American life.

Simon presents the news media as yet another failing system, just like the establishments of law enforcement, business, politics and education the show had spent its first four seasons picking apart. But this particular portrait of this particular sinking ship is unique in that it's one that Simon himself (as well as the show's writing staff made up of former reporters) jumped from long ago. And where did he end up? Making the television show you're watching right now.

I'd like to believe that Simon is making a point here about the ability of art to do what the news no longer can: tell the stories worth telling. The fictionalized Baltimore Sun constantly misses major stories, the deaths of major characters whose stories we have followed so intently dismissed by editors as random street violence. The Wire tries to present you with a world more authentic and truthful than the one you see in the news by showing you things they won't. And this is certainly achieved, through some of the most accomplished writing and meticulous realism to ever grace a television set.

Art that sets itself to a social purpose often falls flat, but The Wire soars in its attempts to reach the tricky balance between incredible art and dire information. David Simon has never been shy about admitting the show's purposefulness, in every interview I've read with him he suggests that he badly wants people to take what they learn from the show and apply it to the world, to feel a bit more aware before they step into the voting booth or turn on the evening news.

My trouble with The Wire is that I understand it as a great tool and it has severely altered the way in which I view government, class and race, but I've never quite figured out how to put it to use. It's become something a joke on the show's fans, that it's praised endlessly by white, middle class liberals for exposing them to a side of America they were sheltered from, but most of them can only seem to brag about their awareness rather than find something to do with it.

I've taken a lot away from The Wire. Bunny Colvin's "Hamsterdam" reinforced the illegitimacy and pointlessness of the so-called "war on drugs". The rise and fall of Mayor Tommy Carcetti reminded me that politics is always about money and reelection, not the people, no matter how much anyone wants to change it. And of course the struggles and tragedies of the four West Baltimore kids chronicled in the show's fourth season taught me just how much of a toll the failures of America's broken systems can take on it's most vulnerable citizens. The problem is I don't know how to use all this. The situation presented is so all-pervading and bleak that it seems insurmountable, particularly not by any average person.

I can't help but think that many of the "occupy" protesters currently sweeping North America are fans of The Wire. Most of them seem to fit that aforementioned white, middle class liberal demographic. Personally, I don't think they're going to accomplish much. Their demands are too vague and their affiliations too wide, but I can't blame them for trying. It feels like something has to be done, but The Wire left me with the impression that we are far too gone to do anything. The systems which are tearing America apart have become autonomous, independent not just from us but from even the people who are supposed to be running them.

I chose to write about The Wire because there are few pieces of art I've encountered which have had such an effect on the way I understand the world, but it will be a long, long time before I understand what that means and what I'm supposed to do with it.