The Dickensian Aspect

This Sunday marks the final episode of HBO's swan song to urban planning, The Wire, and rather than get too long winded about how phenomenal it is/was, I wanted to call everyone's attention to a few bits of Wire-world ephemera. The bullet note formatting of this post may be a bit impersonal, but I'm gonna go ahead and justify it as a tribute to City Hall red tape.

1. Fuck Newsweek for spoiling the death of (redacted) two weeks back. Three sentences into your article, you not only lay out that (redacted) has been murdered, but you take the time to share whodunnit, howdunnit, and whydunnit. Jesus, even Ain't it Cool takes the time to indicate a spoiler alert, pinnacle of entertainment journalism that they are. Thanks, assholes.

2. The Wire writers and creators Ed Burns, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, and David Simon have published an (expectedly) exceptional editorial in this week's Time magazine decrying the nation's drug control policy and calling for a return to the dissentful act of jury nullification, claiming that "If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented." Invoking Thomas Paine and John Zenger, the piece is disquieting, reasonable, and a sublimely representative real world move from the series' creators.

3. In January, Nonesuch released two compilation albums paying tribute to the show, ...all the pieces matter: Five Years of Music From The Wire and Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks From The Wire. The latter of the disks was inspired by Charm City charmers Darkroom Productions' Hamsterdam Mixtapes, two volumes of Baltimore hip-hop released independently following The Wire's Season Three story arch about a city-ordained skid row Sesame Street. The tape's success led to Wire producers licensing many of the tracks and artists for use in episodes, and both Nonesuch comps feature songs from the original Darkroom tapes. Check out B'more boy Tyree Colion's call to the Barksdale towers, "Projects", and labelmate Diablo's ode to receiving photographs in prison below.

Tyree Colion "Projects"

Diablo "Jail Flick"

It's no secret to this site's readership that I am a telephile, inconsistent appreciator though I may be. I have only seen the first three episodes of Lost. I was late in the game for Veronica Mars, and was a fair-weather Sopranos fan at best. These are shows. Good shows, each addictive in its own way. Good, addictive, but undeniably temporary in their "of the moment"-ness. In thirty years, younger generations will look at reruns of The Sopranos through the eyes with which we look at Dallas reruns today: respectfully, though only because we must appreciate its zeitgeist glory days as a reference point for the television we currently enjoy.

Programmers, even at the premium networks, will be hard pressed to find another series that so perfectly executes big ideas on the small screen as The Wire has these past five seasons. It's not just TV, but it's not just HBO either- it's bigger than that. For any form of broadcast media to so perfectly reflect the heartbreak of hopelessness; whether simply bureaucratic, or the more irreparable harm implied by lowered personal expectations- and all while avoiding the cloying altruism of agitprop(!) is nothing short of astounding.

And it was fucking good. Still though, all good things come to an end. When you walk through the garden, you'd better watch your back.

Tom Waits "Way Down in the Hole"

For now, I'll be taking a page from the McNulty playbook.