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Originally Posted by demonrail666

I liked The Wire but it never hit me the way I hoped it would. After the 2nd season (my favourite) it seemed to get a little too preachy.I got the idea in season 1. I respect these are big issues in the US and the Wire is maybe the 1st time they've been given serious exposure within a semi-mainstream drama but purely as drama, I wouldn't put it in the same league as something like The Sopranos. I get the feeling The Wire is celebrated more for what it said than how it said it. Still a zillion times better than Treme, though.

well yes as a drama sopranos had a central character with a very long arc so there was a person to follow. and the other characters too had their individual arcs. so it allowed for more and better... drama.

the wire had characters coming in and out but nobody was central because indeed "the issues" were the object. you're right that it said things that needed to be said and it was celebrated for it, but i also see it as a development in that it broke the american/hollywood convention of "the hero" (or antihero) as the center of the universe-- the cult of the individual at the core of american ideology.

the wire rather focused on social relations, and that maybe made it look preachy, but i didn't see it that way. they were trying to portray... social forces, not individuals, so it's a matter of focus. and sure enough, the individual gets swept away by forces they can't control in spite of their heroic efforts and delusions (or antiheroic superpowers). a bit of a return to pre-stalin soviet cinema in a way.

i've said this before but i think lukács would have loved the wire. and for that to me it's the better show, because it really defies hollywood narrative conventions beyond pure style changes, and it shows "the real" better than the red pill of morpheus-- the wire is ideological and critical in a way no other show is, except maybe for breaking bad, which uses individual antihero dramatics as a device to tear american capitalism and family values a new asshole.