Polan argues that the transient nature of The Wire allows the material of the show to transcend time and people. This is often seen as a trait of good cinema where, due to the time limitations of a full-length feature, the material must be able to cover a lot of time without leaving the audience feeling like they’d been ripped out of time or rushed through a story. I believe for The Wire to have a similar ability is a mark of David Simon’s appreciation for work that is meticulous and representative of the real world. Nonetheless, his focus on one particular part of Baltimore life through many facets (police & dealers, the media, the docks, etc.) makes The Wire seem less adaptable to other locations (though it is often attributed to being an honest representation of urban life in the US in general). It also takes away from the credibility that Simon is giving an honest and comprehensive portrait of Baltimore and its inhabitants.
Is there any place that The Wire could be transplanted to? What do you think the viewership of the show would think if suddenly white suburbia popped up in the show? Or more interestingly, more of the black middle class? Would that open up a whole other world of race issues in the show or do you think it would reiterate in some way the race and class issues already prevalent in the Baltimore of The Wire?
4 responses so far ↓
alymor // 11 November 2009 at 11.00 am
The show that popped into my mind when I imagined the Wire in suburbia was Weeds. While it’s certainly not as gritty or realistic as the Wire, it does show the dark side of a suburban neighborhood and does have interesting and complex portrayals of drug dealers. If Weeds was not a comedy, would it be more like the Wire?
ms152er // 11 November 2009 at 2.42 pm
There is much evidence supporting that Simon’s depiction of different spheres of Baltimore culture is decidedly honest. In every episode, he presents what we may a “slice of life.” (This may be due in part to his concentration of time–The Wire almost never includes flash-forwards or skips substantial periods of time.) However, whether or not his portrayal of Baltimore is comprehensible is heavily debatable. Yes, it is innovative that each of the five seasons of The Wire hones in on a different facet of life in inner-city Baltimore, but no city’s sociocultural identity can be summarized with an examination five institutional facets. To be sure, Simon’s work is thorough–and enlightening–but it is not exhaustive. This notion ushers two thought-provoking questions. First, did Simon intend to at once sketch a broad outline of Baltimore and shade all of its complexities? And second, how much can a television series–or any form of media, for that matter–truly accomplish?
ddriscoll // 11 November 2009 at 5.02 pm
I like the comparison to Weeds. I think Weeds took a lot of cues to The Wire, especially as Nancy continues to learn about all levels of the game. In season 1 she was dealing with some very low level dealers and now, at the end of season 5, she has given birth to the child of one of the largest drug kingpins: a politician in Mexico. Also similar to Weeds is the shift in location that we talked about in class. It took Weeds a few seasons, but they burned down the city where the show took place and as a result had to relocate all the characters and kind of hit the reset button. This is a lot like what happens at the start of season 2.
mdobright // 21 December 2009 at 7.34 pm
I agree the representational narrative of The Wire cannot be transposed to any urban locale or to all of Baltimore. Within the narrative of The Wire this is often lost since its construction is so meticulous on a particular urban space other locales are left outside of its purview.