10 reasons to watch The Wire

Even if guns, thugs and drugs aren’t your jam, if you’re a TV fanatic, HBO’s The Wire (2002-2008, Seasons 1-5 are now on Showmax) is a show you simply have to see.

If you’re a TV fanatic, The Wire (2002-2008, Seasons 1-5 are now on Showmax) is like The Sopranos (1997-2007, the full series is on Showmax) or Game of Thrones (2011-current, Seasons 1-7 are on Showmax) – it’s one of those shows you’re just supposed to have seen.

But with so much to watch just to keep up, many of us are treating The Wire like an ugly, expensive wedding gift; nodding along, pretending that it’s part of our lives and sweating whenever anyone raises the topic. If that sounds too familiar, it’s time to take The Wire out of the “ugly gift” cupboard. Here’s why.

1. It’s not a cop show

“This is a horror show because we are a heavily armed society that has lost control and the militarisation of police surrounding the drug war has made an us-against-them mentality.” – The Wire co-creator David Simon

Police shows are often the cop-out of TV writing – full of cheap thrills, cardboard characters, questionable conservative politics and a predictable episodic structure. The Wire co-creator David Simon, a former crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun for 13 years, is not a fan of the genre.

So while The Wire might start off being about cops, it’s more like one of those sprawling novels that Charles Dickens (himself a former court reporter) wrote about London’s poor. The Wire is the story of how the United States’ War On Drugs policy changed the nature of policework in Baltimore.

“The drug war was destroying police work. Street-level drug enforcement was becoming the skill set and solving crime was falling by the wayside,” says David. “This is a horror show because we are a heavily armed society that has lost control and the militarisation of police surrounding the drug war has made an us-against-them mentality.” Watch now »

2. Building the city

The Wire’s creators, cast and crew didn’t restrict their attention to cops and crooks. They looked at how the politics and economics of the drug war affected everyone in Baltimore.

“If the first season was about devaluing the cops who knew their beats and the corner boys slinging drugs, then the second was about devaluing the longshoremen and their labour, the third about people who wanted to make changes in the city, and the fourth was about kids who were being prepared, badly, for an economy that no longer really needs them. And the fifth? It’s about the people who are supposed to be monitoring all of this and sounding the alarm – the journalists,” says David. “We want people to say, ‘That is an American city, those are its problems and that’s why they can’t solve its problems’.” Watch now »

3. The art of conversation

Like True Detective (2014-current, Seasons 1 and 2 are on Showmax), The Wire has a way with words. “It is rooted in the real, which I believe leads to unique and idiosyncratic portrayals. We generally urge our actors to stay on book.”

That “book” or script was everything to David, because he was prepared to stand or fall by how accurate his portrayal of Baltimore street life sounded. “I spent years ‘gathering string’ on who they are, how they think and talk. In terms of dialogue, vernacular, description, tone. Like many writers, I live every day with the vague nightmare that at some point, someone more knowledgeable than myself is going to sit up and pen a massive screed indicating exactly where my work is shallow and fraudulent and rooted in lame, half-assed assumptions.” Watch now »

4. Authenticity

The Wire’s extras came straight off the street and some of its cast came straight out of prison. Melvin Williams, who plays The Deacon in Seasons 3 and 4, made millions dealing heroin in Baltimore in the ’70s and ’80s. In 1985 he was arrested by Ed Burns, the cop-turned-teacher who was David Simon’s most prolific writing partner in The Wire. Melvin was also one of the major inspirations for the character Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris).

Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, who plays street enforcer “Snoop”, was out of prison following a second-degree murder conviction and dealing drugs on the side when she met Michael K Williams (who played Omar Little – former US President Barrack Obama’s favourite character) at a club. He introduced her to the writers and producers, who created the role of Snoop for her in Season 3.

Omar himself was partly based on a dealer named Donnie Andrews who voluntarily turned himself over to Ed after he accepted work as a contract killer to support his addiction. Bubbles (Andre Royo) was based on a real-life informant who shared his photographic memory and his trick with using hats to identify criminals to the police. Watch now »

5. Talent and craft

Even the cast who were simply trained actors had the street people fooled. A stranger once saw “Bubbles” in passing and gave him a bag of heroin and told him, “Man, you need a fix more than I do.” Andre Royo refers to that moment as his “Street Oscar”.

David thinks the cast should get far more recognition for their skill. “One of the things I am a little bit resentful for is we have a remarkable cast of African-American actors who are utterly unacknowledged by the industry. They are never regarded as having created any characterisations or achieved any sense of craft for what they are doing. It’s almost as if they think we turn the camera on people and they just were being; that’s the way they are. And in fact, these are incredibly professional actors who are reading from a script,” he points out. Watch now »

Fun fact: The character Omar, who values his self-control above everything, swears only once during the entire series.

6. Also starring

While its unknowns are doing incredible work, The Wire also boasts some big names. The cast includes Dominic West as Jimmy McNulty, Lance Reddick as Cedric Daniels, Idris Elba as Stringer Bell (Seasons 1-3), Aidan Gillen as Tommy Carcetti (Seasons 3-5), Michael B Jordan as Wallace (Season 1) and Gbenga Akinnagbe as Chris Partlow (Seasons 3-5). Watch now »

7. Good guys, bad guys

The Wire, while having a moral core, takes a somewhat neutral stance on who the good and bad guys are, which gives loads of room to explore complex characters on all sides of the story. “Everybody had to be human. I had to care about every character right down to drug dealers,” says David. “We always conceived of Omar as a critical entity – along with Bubbles – a perversely moral force and a bridge between the police and street worlds.” Watch now »

8. Low exploitation

In all five seasons, only one police officer is ever shown firing his gun. “In most instances, we try to keep the violence disturbing and abrupt, rather than choreographed and romanticised. I’m not sure what we try to do with sexual scenes except to keep them credible within the context of the characters and their relationship to each other at the given moment,” explains David. Watch now »

9. The right direction

Relationships and backstory were hugely important to the show’s creators. Director and later executive producer Joe Chappelle reveals that “on a show like ours, if you just read the script on face value, it reads one way. But if you know all the history of what’s gone on up until this point, there’s a whole other layer to it. On The Wire, any individual episode is part of a bigger pie, not a stand-alone piece. To direct [The Wire], you have to have done your homework on the show as a whole.” Watch now »

10. Rewarding streaming

Finally, while there are very few flashbacks to deal with, The Wire tells a complex story where very little is explained, from common terms on the street to the interrelationships within the police or drug gangs. “Usually, by the 11th, 12th, 13th episode, you start to see connections, stories that seemed disparate actually are headed toward each other. But having said that, we are willing to go longer and further with disparate story lines than any show, I think, before it,” says David.

So it’s fantastic as viewer to be able to go back and re-watch early episodes to see how certain elements of the story have been put in place early for a later pay-off, which you can now do on Showmax, with all five seasons ready and waiting right now.

Additional sources: Believermag.com, Borderline-Productions.com, Creativecow.net, MrMedia.com, NewYorker.com, Slate.com, Washingtonpost.com