[Wire] Links for the Day (January 6th, 2008)

1. "Heaven and Here." As David Simon's HBO series returns for its fifth and last season tonight at 9 p.m., the Wire-exclusive blog -- a great place for shaggy ruminations on the series, its creators, its audience, sociology, history, literature, music and whatever the hell else the site's writers feel like mentioning -- fires up for one final go-round. Christycash recaps/analyzes the season debut, muses on the show's male-centric perspective, and offers an apropos quote from The Bonfire of the Vanities about Irish cops. Pizzawhale jumps off from christycash's musings and comes up with a grab-bag essay on TV's women of law enforcement that name-checks "the leading ladies of gristle and forensics" and Helen Mirren on Prime Suspect ("Talk about a classy bitch!"). Bethehem Shoals anticipates Season Five and wonders how the newsroom plot will affect the series, and how much of The Wire's intense cult is founded on middle-class and/or white viewers' desire "to feel 'down'."

["Plenty of folks look upon it as some form of exoticism, whether we’re talking cops, robbers, or pols, and whether race or region are even the main point. The back room dealings of city government are, for most of us, unfamiliar and mysterious. Feeling that The Wire isn’t trying to translate them into outsider-speak both alienates and attracts us. Again, the show’s exclusivity gives it a kind of credibility that more accessible programs lack. It’s not just a justification, or an excuse—it’s the thought that rings in your head through every second of the show. Of course, the show’s triumph comes in its ability to make us understand, to pinpoint the universal, etc. And yet there’s a third part of viewer-dom that’s rarely discussed: Our desire to feel 'down'. Hell, the very existence of the show was, until last season, this kind of cult phenomenon. The assumption being that to know The Wire was to in some way belong to its orbit. For sure, there are fans of the show who didn’t need to synthesize this effect, and respond, maybe even defiantly, to art that acknowledges them and treats them like human beings. But it’s been said (more or less) that the show’s audience consists of two kinds of people: Drug dealers and fancy critics. And any time there’s race and class involved, especially when it’s related to the outlaw life, there’s going to be appropriation."]

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2. "Whither newspapers?"/"Whither, newspapers." The Baltimore Sun subplot in The Wire's final season puts newspaper reporters and TV critics in an introspective mood. David Zurawik, TV critic of The Baltimore Sun, finds the first episode of Season Five somewhat underwhelming; likewise, Ellen Gray of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes, "While I'm thrilled to have something as deep and juicy as The Wire back after so long a break between seasons, I'm afraid that the show's very best years may be behind it. And for that I blame - wait for it - the media." The Los Angeles Times characterizes Simon's portrait of his old employer as an instance of grudge-fueled drama, and quotes an editor who ran the paper when Simon was there saying, "He's the kind of guy whose ego needs to be fed by anger." In an Associated Press story, Jean Marbella, a Sun metro columnist for 20 years, recalls Simon as a guy who "...just goes crazy over things you wouldn't think he'd take offense at...No one will ever show you these letters, but they end up being legendary."

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3. Alan Sepinwall on The Wire. Star-Ledger critic and House contributor Alan Sepinwall reports, critiques and blogs The Wire for The Star-Ledger and his blog What's Alan Watching? Current offerings include "Great Moments in Wire History," the series overview and Season Five preview "Down to The Wire," and "Keys to The Wire" -- in which Sepinwall cites Simon's statement that the first scene of each season encapsulates that season's main themes, then analyzes the previous four.

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4. "Stealing Life: The Crusader Behind The Wire." Margaret Talbot's New Yorker profile of David Simon.

["Some of the dialogue from the fifth season is taken word for word from the [Baltimore] Sun’s newsroom. Simon recalled, 'There was this writer, Carl, who every day would eat the same thing for lunch: cottage cheese. One day, somebody walked by and saw him staring down into his cottage cheese, poking it with a spoon and saying to himself, ‘Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck.’ That’s in there.'"]

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5. The Wire message boards: The Baltimore Sun; "HBO's The Wire Community" and message boards; Sound Opinions; Rudius Media; Death Valley Driver Video Review; The Crusade; Fanchitchat.com. Feel free to add more in the comments section of this post.

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Quote of the Day:

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other." -- Charles Dickens

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): "Crowd at Coney Island" (1940), photographed by Weegee.



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Clips of the Day: From The Wire.

Variations on a word.

Bunny Colvin's brown paper bag monologue: "The corner is, and it was, and it always will be the poor man's lounge."

"You come at the king, you best not miss."

"Deez nuts."

"Can you help me inside?"

"I'm not driving a car tonight."

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged.