Revisiting The Wire

TL;DR: The Wire as mentioned in this paper is one of the most popular shows on television and has been shown to be a story of institutions at least as much as it is a story about individuals, and each season explores different institutions in Baltimore, constructing layer by layer what makes the city work and uncovering the circumstances within which its characters operate.

Abstract: HBO’s series The Wire (2002–2008) is perhaps the most critically acclaimed show that has ever been on television. The Wire is different from nearly every other show in a number of ways. First, like HBO’s newest series The Leftovers, The Wire focuses on those left behind. While The Leftovers focuses on individuals after the rapture and the spontaneous disappearance of many community members, The Wires’ characters – and in particular its central character, the city of Baltimore itself – are instead left behind in the new economy. The inhabitants of the city are extraneous, deliberately forgotten both on the screen and off. Second, the narrative trajectory of The Wire does not follow traditional rules for episodic television. Not every plotline is resolved and the timeline for resolution does not neatly follow episodes or even seasons. There is, as in life in the neighbourhoods of Baltimore, no promise of satisfactory or just endings. Finally, The Wire is a story of institutions at least as much as it is a story about individuals. Each season explores different institutions in the city, constructing layer by layer what makes the city work and uncovering the circumstances within which its characters operate. While each of its five seasons invites viewers into the world of street-level drug dealers and the police who try to stop them, season 2 examines the remnants of the once thriving world of the docks and their workers, season 3 lays bare the political scene in a hotly contested mayoral election, season 4 the underfunded and struggling urban schools, and season 5 the newsroom charged with telling Baltimore’s stories.