David Simon on why he created The Wire – Times Online

I don’t always agree with the critics, especially the ones who cast their eyes on television.

Critics are often so interested in analysing the scrip content, the actors and the production value of shows that they forget what TV is really for. They forget that television is a medium in which people worldwide can obtain cheap entertainment fix.

There is one thing though that television critics and myself more often than not agree on… The Wire is the greatest piece of American television programming ever aired!

So it comes with great pleasure to read that a book has been produced about the creation of the show, The Wire: Truth be Told.  Alongside David Simon, Rafael Alvarez – a reporter, essayist and staff writer for the show – brings the reader inside the world of The Wire, detailing many of the real-life incidents and personalities that have inspired the show’s storylines and characters. Packed with photographs and featuring an introduction by series creator and executive producer David Simon, as well as essays by acclaimed authors George Pelecanos, Nick Hornby, Laura Lipmann, and William F. Zorzi, it covers all five series in glorious detail.

If this sounds interesting you really should head over to The Times Online where you can hear Wire creator David Simon introducing his new book about the television phemonenon that redefined the way we think about cop shows

via Transcript: David Simon on why he created The Wire – Times Online.

Or if you prefer to take a look inside the book, click here.

THE reWIREd: Rushing through the episodes

As happy as I am that BBC2 is rushing through The Wire, showing four or five episodes of the series a week, it does mean that I am having to record the episodes and watch them in mini-Wire marathons.

This weekend I watched four episodes over four days, and have now caught up with the Beeb. Hopefully all of you have as well, but if you are finding it too hard to keep up with the BBC’s one episode a night policy, then perhaps you might want to watch The Wire on FX, who are showing the entire series in a easier one episode a week format.

Whichever way you choose to watch this series, you will find it a television experience that comes at you in waves. At first you will be confused. So many characters, and difficult street slang. In fact some of the dialogue was so difficult even the actors needed a glossary to learn what the lines they were presenting meant as you will discover if you watch click here and watch the HBO companion piece to The Wire.

For me though rushing through the episodes as the BBC are doing makes the series easier for me to watch and understand as I have less time to forget… also having seen most of the episodes already is a bonus.

If you are getting lost though, don’t worry at the end of the each series (there are 5) I will try to recap the action for you!

Until then, keep watching I am sure you will catch-up, and like Bubbles struggles to get clean, eventually you will have a moment of clarity, when all the confusion will make sense!

THE reWIREd: The Pager

Five episodes into The Wire and the scene has been set. We know what we are watching here. Cops trying to catch drug dealers. The good guys versus the bad.

Things in The Wire though are not that simple. There are shades of bad in the good cops. And shades of good in the bad-ass drug dealers.

Throughout the series we will see the entire string of emotions, and different definitions of what it means to be a victim of circumstance. We will see that even the most evil or lost in the show has shades of good. And we see that even the toughest of characters are scared of something; be it the four walls of a prison cell or life itself, everyone in The Wire is scared of something!

THE reWIREd: Old Cases

BBC2 is re-showing all 60 episodes of The Wire, arguably the greatest TV show ever created.

To celebrate Outside the Box will be taking a second look at each episode and reporting back here the best bits from each.

Season 1 Episode 4 – Old Cases.

This episode features one of the funniest and most memorable scenes from the series. McNulty and Bunk investigating a crime scene, using only the word fuck or variations of this most colourful word as dialogue.

more about “The Wire – McNulty and Bunk, the famo…“, posted with vodpod

reWIREd. Re-watching THE WIRE: The Detail & The Buys

The Detail begins with street punks Poot and Wallace discussing the genius of the man who invented Chicken McNuggets. Poot thinks the guy who invented McNuggets must be rich, D’Angelo then sets them straight;

After the credits roll we watch as McNulty and Bunk try to get D’Angelo to admit he was involved in the murder of the security guard who testified against him in episode one. No luck, D’Anglelo ain’t saying shit! In a great piece of dark comedy though, McNulty and Bunk do manage to get D’Angelo to write a letter to the dead man’s fictional children… It is moments like these that make The Wire so much fun to watch.

The episode ends in violence when Carver, Prez and Herc raise havoc in the projects, and a boy loses his eye.

Classic Quote:

McNulty: This is just us talking right? Just you, me, my partner and… what did you say your name was?
Bodie: I didn’t say shit.
McNulty: Just you, me, my partner and Mr. Shit here.

Click here for a full re-cap of the episode

The Buys:

After early morning “field interviews” conducted by Herc, Carver and Prez lead to a minor riot and bad publicity for the police, Daniels gets called in by the Deputy Commissioner. McNulty sends Mahone and Polk to the terrace to get a photo of Avon Barksdale. They come up short but soft- spoken Freamon comes through with an old photo from Barksdale’s boxing days.

McNulty and Greggs visit FBI agent Fitzhugh to try and obtain some surveillance equipment.

D’Angelo delivers the daily count to Stringer Bell who in turn, gives D’Angelo a bonus. Later, while Bodie and D’Angelo wait for the new supply to arrive, D’Angelo offers to get food. While he’s gone Bodie, Stinkum and the crew go to retrieve the new supply only renegade dealer Omar and his crew get there and steal the drugs for themselves. The next day D’Angelo gets chewed out by Wee Bey — a Barksdale enforcer — for not being around when the incident happened.

After getting chided by his superiors, Lieutenant Daniels mobilizes the team to raid “The Pit”. Bodie hits one of the detectives while getting arrested and the rest of the officers proceed to beat Bodie.

McNulty secretly meets with agent Fitzhugh who tells him to watch out for Lieutenant Daniels — who might be on the take.

This is the episode that contains another classic scene that sets The Wire apart from other shows. Street punk D’Angelo teaching a couple of his homeys how to play chess.

Classic quote:

“The king stay the king.” – D’Angelo

THE WIRE reWired: The Target

So it begins. A simple conversation between a cop and a street punk. Snot Boogie is dead. The street punk explains “this is America man!” And after two and three-quarters minutes I already know. ” This is going to be fantastic!”

The credits roll. We hear The Blind Boys of Alabama performing Down in a Hole. For series two it will be a different artist performing the same song. More about that later.

The credits end, and we are into the introduction. The starter for this television feast. We follow McNulty, the cop from the opening scene. McNulty who we are soon to learn is a full-time cop, part-time father, part-time drunk. McNulty who has all the best lines. McNulty the cop played by English actor Dominic West.

McNulty is in court, watching a punk called D’Angelo on trial for murder. D’Angelo runs with a gang of drug dealers and general fuck-ups who are lead by Avon Barksdale… We will learn more about them later.

D’Angelo wins his trial. He beats a murder wrap. McNulty is pissed, but not surprised.

McNulty has a conversation with a judge, Daniel Phalen. Phalen is now pissed. He wants this Barksdale off the streets. Barksdale is untouchable, and invisible. Nobody even knows what he looks like.

McNulty has stirred up a shit storm. Now McNulty’s superiors are pissed, especially at big-mouth McNulty.

A task force is formed, led by Lt Cedric Daniels. McNulty is on this task force with a gang of other cops. Kirma Greggs and her pair of homey-street cop partners among them… but more about all this later.

Back down in the hood D’Angelo returns home. His trial has caused him to be demoted, back down to a baby sitting role in the low rises. Than D’Angelo gives us a lesson on how the drug dealing hierarchy works when he gives Wallace a warning. ‘Look after the money better or you will be the new street punk yelling 5-0 when the po-lice come’.

We end with a murder. The murder of the security guard who testified in court against D’Angelo. D’Angelo is not the killer though.

Click here for a full episode recap courtesy of TV.com

McNulty: (to Bunk) “That will teach you to give a fuck when it ain’t your turn to give a fuck.”

Sunday Scrapbook… your guide to The Wire

The BBC has announced that they are finally going to unleash The Wire to the masses when the series begins to air on BBC2 on the 30th of March. This is fantastic news to everyone out there in the UK who have not seen this American crime series, or for those like me who have seen The Wire but wish to re-live the crimes and events across the pond in Baltimore.

So in celebration of the Beeb’s decision to air all 60 episodes of this HBO show, that some have called the greatest television series ever, I have decided to scour the internet to bring you everything you need to prepare and excite you for the arrival of The Wire.

From The Times Online:

A beginner’s guide to The Wire

BBC Two has announced that it will finally show the cult American television series The Wire. The news will rob British devotees who followed it on FX or DVD of their air of superiority at having survived the most challenging and rewarding experience in television history. But BBC viewers, who will soon be able watch all 60 episodes shown nightly across the week, should not be put off by the cult’s talk of difficulty and pleasure deferred. The Times has found a friendly owner of a Wire box set to help Wire virgins to stop worrying and enjoy the show from episode one. They just have to bear a few things in mind…

Sceptical BBC Two viewer, sulking at being invited late to the party: What is The Wire?

Smug box set owner: If it isn’t the best television drama serial yet made – and it may be – it is certainly the most grown-up. Shown on America’s subscription-only HBO channel between 2002 and 2008, it dramatised the crises that have befallen the working class in the East Coast city of Baltimore in the past decade. Its first series was ostensibly a police procedural drama but it subsequently broadened into a portrait of the city’s uneconomic docks, its corrupt local government, its failing schools and, finally, in its fifth series, the inadequacy of the newspaper that should have been reporting all this, the Baltimore Sun. Permeating all levels is the cancer of the city’s illegal drug culture.

Click here to continue reading

From The Telegraph:

Created by David Simon and set in Baltimore, The Wire’s first season tells the story of a single drugs-and-murder police investigation from the point of view of both the police and their targets.

The cast is led by British actor Dominic West as Officer James “Jimmy” McNulty, and includes Lance Reddick, Idris Elba, Clarke Peters, Wendell Pierce, Domenick Lombardozzi, Andre Royo, Michael K Williams and Wood Harris.

So far the show has only been shown by the cable channel but has achieved cult status through sales of boxed DVD sets.

The Wire has frequently been described by critics as one of the greatest television series of all time, comparing it to HBO’s better-known drama series such as The Sopranos and Six Feet Under.

President Barack Obama has said it was his favorite show on television.

Click here to continue reading

YouTube Videos:

The opening scene from this acclaimed series will set the tone for what you can expect from this series.

Here Charlie Brooker explains why The Wire is in his, and my opinion the best US television series ever created.