Early this month we saw the return of HBO’s THE WIRE, expertly created by former newspaper man David Simon. This fifth season also happens to be the final season for the most under-appreciated show that has EVER been on television – a show that after four gut-punching seasons has received no industry praise/acclaim – no Golden Globes or Emmys (which means those awards are right up there with the Oscars as shams, rigged jack-off moments for Hollywood and Upper Manhattan) wins, let alone nominations (this I could be wrong about, but I highly doubt it. Only the entertainment press acknowledges that this show is amazing of the public, whetherh it's the NYTimes or Entertainment Weekly or just some kid you talk to in line at the laundry mat the show is a word of mouth show like no other.
This season on THE WIRE the focus of attention is on THE MEDIA, most specifically a fictionalized version of the Baltimore Sun (coincidentally Simon’s alma matter) -- and how they don't have enough money to cover even the most basic of news in a city that has a dwindling readership and a dwindling financial base to provide the money to make the journalist have some morale.
It's interesting to watch the opening chapter of this show each season, because it doesn't tell you AT ALL what the whole series is going to be about. You get reacquainted with the people that you know and love, or just know and respect or down-right hate. And you're introduced to the new people -- this time it's the editor of the City Desk at the newspaper that's going to be forced to kill some key story because of politics; that I can see coming already, because that's the one thing that would kill a newspaper man -- the death of freedom of speech and the deep-sixing of a national news story (which reporters love, because they can get book deals as a result of the celebrity, take a look a Billy Wilder's ACE IN THE HOLE for the type of shit that can happen to a report in his (or her) quest for that one scoop that'll make THEM news (which is what they all eventually want any way).
But what do I know? I'm just a huge fan of this kind of television... more like this kind of storytelling, because it explores the human condition in a way that is unparalleled -- even a documentary doesn't do it as well, because it's dispensing facts as it entertains, as opposed to entertaining whilst sneaking in facts. I'm mean The Wire has the immediacy and heartbreak of that one dope as fuck documentary about inner city youths HOOP DREAMSYou'd be hard pressed to name another piece of filmed entertainment that tells it like it really is.
After "MORE WITH LESS", I was once again hooked with the show -- with the gestalt of the show. Can't pinpoint any one thing at this point, but I'm always happy to see "The Bunk" and "Omar" grace the tube.
In the second episode, the show begins to unfold with signs of a man going down the abyss and liking what he finds there because it serves his purpose of what he believes is a greater good - an ends justifies the means scenarios -- which is going to have nitroglycerin on a bumpy road results.
Check the show out! If you value what entertainment is supposed to be, and not the shit that Hollywood pumps out to keep you dumb; soma has risen from the fiction pages. Believe that!
Also, you might be wondering why I’ve been posting so much recently? Well, I’m not in the homeless situation that I was for such a long period of time. I’m living in a boarding house, so I’m not entirely out of the woods yet – soon though, very soon.
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