The Wire is a cop drama. The Wire is a study of the systemic and institutional racism that remains incredibly relevant in North America today. The Wire is a character study of some of the most common yet elusive American people—those who you don’t learn about in history textbooks, but those who are inherent in every society.
There are many different ways to describe The Wire but none of these definitions do the show the justice it deserves. The beauty of The Wire, like some of history’s greatest television, is that it pulls on your heartstrings. It somehow magnificently straddles the line between fiction and reality while creating storylines and characters that ring true to viewers.
I have spent too much time trying to convince others to give this show its fair shot. It is not a show you can just dive into and understand completely. Yet, I can guarantee that someone who watches all five seasons will not regret one second of the time they spent watching. Therefore, this is not a pitch for you to watch The Wire. In this review, I will simply be describing to you why I think this show is so incredible.
One of the primary reasons I think that The Wire is so impactful is because of the way it reflects the decline of American exceptionalism—the belief that the United States is somehow “better” than other countries. The term becomes easier to understand with historical context; following the Second World War, some Americans held a sort of elitist belief that their country was inherently more exceptional than other countries. The successes of the Marshall Plan only reinforced this belief, but once the 70s rolled around and Americans headed off to the jungles of Vietnam, this belief began to disintegrate. Through the inequality-ridden Reagan years, and eventually with the failures in the Middle East, it became evident that American exceptionalism was a myth—the country could preach democracy and liberal ideals endlessly around the globe, but these ideals were not being fulfilled domestically. Being unable to fulfill these ideals meant that BIPOC Americans were still being systematically discriminated against in almost every context, including in the health care system, in the housing markets, and in voting contexts. Frankly, they still are.
The Wire is able to illustrate this struggle in a way that feels incredibly real and hits home for the viewer. The show provides us with a small glimpse into the lives of the inner-city gangsters, who have no other choice but to sell drugs and commit crimes to live a half-decent life. We see how a crooked police department operates; how good police work is almost non-existent, but political corruption runs rampant. We even see how drug addicts can try—and maybe even successfully—quit drugs, but we also see how when someone escapes the deadly cycle of poverty, another young person fills the void.
The Wire shows that the United States is not exceptional. Instead, it reveals the opposite: How broken the country really is. It tackles the notion of American exceptionalism in small fragments, demonstrating how a variety of different demographics are all trapped in relentless cycles of systemic and institutional failures.
The other reason that The Wire is so special is its way of storytelling. The Wire is a television show that one watches in the same manner that one reads a rather complicated book like Game of Thrones. It weaves together the storylines and interactions of many different characters into one overarching narrative.
Many people have trouble getting through the first two seasons of the show, and I strongly believe it is because of the storytelling manner. The creators of the show train the viewer to watch it throughout the first few seasons; eventually, the story structure becomes evident, familiar, and more consumable. However, those that watch the first few seasons sometimes find themselves confused—lost in the array of different characters. Dedication is rewarded, and once the structure becomes familiar, confusion becomes non-existent, and the characters and storylines begin to gel and mesh together in ways that only The Sopranos can match.
This brings me to my final point: The characters. I do not want to go into too much depth and risk spoiling anything so I will remain relatively brief and refer to only one character—Omar. Omar is morally ambiguous in an indescribable way. He robs drug dealers, but he doesn’t use any drugs personally. He is smart in the way that he does stupid things. He is twisted, but he is principled—it is just that those principles are extremely difficult to decipher. Omar is just one of the many characters you meet throughout the show, but he remains one of the most impactful, most notably in the way that it is so difficult to determine whether he is a villain or a hero.
Barack Obama once called The Wire, “one of the greatest pieces of art in the last few decades.” If this article was not sufficient to convince you, then the words of the former President should be.
This is why I find The Wire so impactful. And if you have made it this far in my article, maybe you should give the show a try.
Happy watching!