This is an appreciation post dedicated to HBO Original TV Series: The Wire.
TV Series and Films are often considered a poor cousin of their ultra-rich (in mental stimuli) Literary Creations (Books, Novels, Autobiographies, Biographies, Essays, Short Stories, etc.) brethren. They are said to be lesser in everything be it plot, characterizations, landscape, background, essence or Soul. Learned people say that a good book might offer you more insights than its movie adaptation. Then they say further: A book is your best friend. You can find the solution of your problems in there. You can feel it. You can touch it. You can keep it. But movies and TV shows, they often promise far too much and deliver too little on them. This can be said for an original series/film too which is not inspired/adapted from anywhere. So the way you can enjoy a great book, you cannot be equally sure about even a great movie.
And this is where my three picks: Inside Out, Anomalisa and The Wire come into,picture. The first two of them were nominated this year for best animated film Oscars. They were so good that many revolted, just like at the time of Toy Story 3's nomination, and advocated their case for being given a best feature film nomination. What I'm telling you here is that these two films compelled the Critics and Book-lovers all over the world to rethink the void between two greatest media. These two were as good as a Nobel Literature Laureate's Magnum Opus. They were minutely close to being called a great literature. I watched both of them. I agreed. They shook me to the core and made me think. And this is exactly what books do. They make you think. And then came THE WIRE in picture.
The Wire, ladies and gentlemen, has been called arguably THE GREATEST TELEVISION SERIES of all time by critics. It was helmed by HBO for six seasons. Based in the city of Baltimore of USA, this series and its six seasons tried to counteract on various problems this city finds itself to be facing. Problems were Drugs in Housing Projects, Corruption is Port Business, School and College Issues and some more. Many Critics opined that The Wire loved Baltimore in the same way as Balzac loved Paris, Dickens London and Tolstoy, Mascow. Today there are half a dozen courses being taught in various American Universities based on the writings of this show. Ed Burns and David Simon, the two chief screenplay writers of this show, wrote the entire six seasons of this series with many other acclaimed literary geniuses of Baltimore City and the result has been so satisfactory that today The Wire is considered as great a writing as the classics of Charles Dickens, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Thomas Hardy and Balzac. It never won a big award at Emmys. Hell it never even got a big nomination from Primetime Emmys except for its Screenplay and Writing and that could be the reason why you might not have heard of this show. Audiences rarely watched it and those who did because someone knowledgeable asked them to. Viewership numbers never soared to HBO's satisfaction but such was the enthusiastic response from the TV and movie critics that they invested heavily in it and rewards were overwhelming. We all the times hear of shows such as The Sopranos, Modern Family, Miami Vice, Two and A Half Men, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Six Feet Under, Broadwalk Empire, Downtown Abbey, The Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Lost, Prison Break etc. but let me tell you, having watch all or some of these at some point of time, The Wire stands tall and scores heavily over all of them. Ignore its grim settings and esoteric slang (used by Baltimore Black Population) and slow burn and you will be hooked to it for lifetime. The Wire indeed is the greatest.......#SigningOff
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