If you've ever read the blog Stuff White People Like you'll know that white people really like The Wire. My friend Evan is indisputably white. He's one of the whitest people I've ever met (not that there's anything wrong with that) regardless of skin color, and he absolutely loves The Wire. "Greatest Show ever," He is fond of saying. And I can't really disagree. I've been a David Simon fan since Homicide: Life on the Streets was on TV in high-school. It came on Fridays at 10 pm, the television graveyard as viewers of shows like Firefly would know but I still found ways to see it somehow.
After the major actors left Homicide most notably Andre Braugher, they brought in new blood to replace them and elicit new story lines I suppose. I don't feel like it really worked all that well. It was like they were trying to start over on a serialized television show. I've yet to see that work. If you watched any of The Wire you'll recognize names like Peter Gerety (Judge Phelan) and Callie Thorne (McNulty's long suffering ex-wife) as new detectives on Homicide. But anyway, they all got back together to act on The Wire, a show I thought, by virtue of being on HBO at the same time that The Sopranos was, would make it a gigantic hit. It had dynamic characters that were all thoroughly fleshed out, compelling "bad guys" that turned out to have just as much depth as the the good guys. The good guys were flawed but not so much that you didn't root for them. Savvily.
Great post! Mostly because you mentioned me.
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