Friday, January 18, 2008
The Wire, Season 4
We just finished watching all of Season 4 of The Wire — aka “the best thing on TV” — according to the pleased-with-self meme. It probably is the best depressing thing on TV. The saving grace of art, a catharsis, isn't exactly served up in this sad tale of a corrupt and poverty-stricken environment in which the adults are either absent or having problems, the cops are trapped by the political system and their own careerist bureaucracy, and the kids are just trapped. But all are given their due as human beings, for the most part trying to do their best in an impossible situation. The efforts of teachers and of people in the community to save some of the kids was particularly heart-breaking. The Wire is informative about the hidden underclass: we learn, from a reporter and former cop about what they saw and heard, which gives the whole enterprise some heft.
The commentaries are always best when a writer is in on them. Commentaries teach that actors for the most part have little to say. That is often true about directors as well, who talk more about locations than the logic of the story. Co-creator and writer David Simon's remarks are at least interesting, even if his wise guy demeanor is off-putting. Simon is prone towards grandiose claims, no doubt a result of all the praise. The show, he tells us: it is larger than itself, about the great themes. In earlier commentaries Simon referenced the Iraq war (?!), and in this commentary he makes reference to the individual and the institution. This really isn't War and Peace, (or, as it was originally titled, War, What Is It Good For?) It is more a good, conventional TV show. At best though, you can feel how much David Simon and Ed Burns care about these kids, empathizing with their circumstances, trying to honorably present issues society would rather ignore.