9 posts tagged “the wire”

Here are some more interviews with David Simon posted on my delicious page.

As part of the press for the series finale of The Wire, co-creator David Simon did several in-depth interviews.  Enjoy.

Per Pupil Spending of Public Schools in the U.S.

I often tell the first-years that when it comes to classroom management you will have three or four students in each class that will behave no matter what, three or four that will act up no matter what, and everyone else is in the middle and can go either way.  In listening to this great interview with Ed Burns, co-creator of The Wire (David Simon once described Burns, a former soldier in Vietnam, police detective in the Western District of Baltimore, and teacher in inner-city Baltimore, as a veteran of three failed wars: Vietnam, drugs, poverty), I realized that not only is this true for the classroom, it is true for the teaching profession in general.  Some teachers will give their all no matter what, some will do as little as possible no matter what, and the majority will do only what is required.  And this is not only true for teachers, it is true for every profession.  Burns talks about his success as a detective by describing a bell curve: 

You know, in any profession you have the old bell curve.  Most of the people just want to do the job and they will tend to the job, and then a group of people on one end who will actually hurt the job, use the job, and then there is another group that are enamored of the job and are dedicated.  And I sort of think that I am one of the people that really gets involved with something I do.  I don't think I am an anamoly.  The thing about human beings is, there is another animal we most closely resemble and that is the mole... We love to get down in a rut and stay there and like the mole we become blind because we are not looking around.  We turn off the one thing that makes us different than the mole, we turn off our brains.  We just do things.  And in the doing them it becomes, we have a comfort and as long as we are in that comfort zone we are happy, or maybe just content.  But we, we are very reluctant to push out... Change petrifies people...

Give Kucinich his due.

Here is what Variety says about The Wire:

When television history is written, little else will rival "The Wire," a series of such extraordinary depth and ambition that it is, perhaps inevitably, savored only by an appreciative few. Layering each season upon the previous ones, creator David Simon conveys the decaying infrastructure of his hometown Baltimore in searing and sobering fashion -- constructing a show that's surely as impenetrable to the uninitiated as it is intoxicating to the faithful. In its fourth year, the program adds the school system to cops, drugs, unions, the ailing middle class, and big-city politics. Prepare to be depressed and dazzled.

I have said many times that David Simon and Alan Moore are the world’s two greatest living writers.  Alan Moore writes, mostly, comic books (or, as high brow reviewers call them, "Graphic Novels”), although saying Moore writes comic books is like saying Shakespeare dabbled in plays.  Moore has written one traditional book, Voice of the Fire, which I have not read, and several other prose pieces, the best of which is his take on the Iraq war, written in 2003.  He is probably best known for Watchmen.

David Simon has written exactly two books, both non-fiction, both one-year examinations of a specific subject.  The first Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, follows the homicide unit of the Baltimore Police Department for one calendar year and is the subject of this review.  The second, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, is a follow-up of sorts, following a calendar year in the lives of the drug dealers and users (and assorted family and community members) linked by one corner (Mount and Fayette) in inner-city Baltimore.

While Simon was spending his year of research on Mount and Fayette his first book, Homicide, was turned into a well-regarded and lightly-watched television show of the same name, produced by one of Baltimore’s favorite sons, Barry Levinson.  Barry is not now well-known after a string of “flops” in the movie industry, but, in the early 90’s, coming off “Good Morning Vietnam”, “Rainman”, and “Bugsy”, he was one of the premiere film directors.

Simon became a staff writer for the show “Homicide” late in it’s seven-year run.  While the show did have its moments (and I was a huge fan during its original run, living in Baltimore at the time), I find it doesn’t hold up that well.  The show was one of the pioneers of what I call the “shaky cam,” where the show was shot using hand-held cameras.  The shaky cam was appropriated by “NYPD Blue”, and now it feels like half the dramas on T.V. use it.  The idea behind shaky cam is to impart a feeling of realness to the events (and the shaky cam was used to great effect in the pilot episode of “Homicide”, directed by Levinson), but I often find it lazy and irritating.

There are plenty of outstanding episodes of “Homicide”, most notably a Simon scripted episode, “Bop Gun”, from the second season with a guest performance by a remarkably internal Robin Williams.  “Bop Gun” is worth tracking down on Netflix or online, especially the final minutes set to a devastating Buddy Guy rendition of “Feels Like Rain.”

For the most part, “Homicide” suffers from the paradox of being a prime-time television show about a fairly downbeat subject.  Simon once noted that NBC asked if the producers could find some way to lighten the material.  One producer replied, “Well, it is called ‘Homicide.’”

In the grand scheme of things, “Homicide” became a trial run for Simon’s television endeavors.  After “Homicide”, Simon went on to write and produce “The Corner”, a mini-series for HBO.  The mini-series won many awards and almost universal acclaim.  Still, for me it suffers from the shaky cam and director Charles Dutton’s use of breaking-the-fourth-wall interviews that bookend each episode.

Simon returned to HBO with an idea for a television series called “The Wire”.  I have waxed rhapsodic about “The Wire” in these pages before.  Not only do I think “The Wire” is the greatest television show ever produced, I think it is the greatest achievement of filmed entertainment (small screen or big) ever created.  “The Wire” has gained in popularity over the last two years, from a niche show with a committed following to a full-fledged love fest.  Basically, everybody and their momma has called it the the greatest show on television.  And I wonder if Simon agreed with me about the shaky cam, as “The Wire” is almost always fluid camera shots and high-end production.

Describing “The Wire” is always difficult.  At the most basic, the show is about police detectives and the criminal targets they pursue, always utilizing, at some point in the season, telephonic intercepts (or wiretaps), hence the title.  The truth of the matter goes much deeper.  As Simon has said in numerous interviews, and as I paraphrase/misremember here, the show is about the city: the different constituencies that a city serves (and mis-serves) and the institutions (police office, city hall, unions, drug corners, school) that make up a city.  Ultimately, the show is about how, as an individual, no matter which institution you serve (or are served by), you will be betrayed.  Simon likens “The Wire” to Greek tragedy, with institutions taking the place of fickle Greek gods who meddle in, and destroy, human life.  The image of the wire comes to represent the threads that connect the citizens of a city; the threads that tie us togethers; even the thread of blood that runs down a city street, the first shot of the first episode.

“The Wire” is starting the fifth, and final, season in January, tackling the institution of the media.  The fourth season, following, among other things, a first year teacher in a critical-needs school, comes out on DVD December 4th.  Run, don’t walk, to buy it, and the other three seasons (if you do not already own them).

In anticipation of the final season of “The Wire” I decided to reread Simon’s first book, Homicide.  I first read Homicide in the early 90’s, at the same time as the first season of the television show (I can’t remember if I read the book first or watched the show).  The edition I have is the first printing, from 1993.

Simon wrote Homicide at the age of 30, following the Baltimore Police Department’s homicide unit from January 1st, 1988, to December 31st.  Simon’s stated goal as a reporter is to present a closed society in a wholly accurate light (his intended audience is the group he covers) so that, years later, a homicide detective could pick up his book and say, “Yeah, he got it right.”

But instead of talking about how Simon does indeed get it right, how about I just transcribe some of my favorite passages from the book, examples that showcase Simon’s talent and creativity.  Are we all agreed?  Good.  Here is Simon’s description of a homicide detective:

“(I)n a police department of about three thousand souls, you are one of thirty-six investigators entrusted with the pursuit of that most extraordinary of crimes: the theft of a human life.  You speak for the dead.  You avenge those lost to the world.  Your paycheck may come from fiscal services but, goddammit, after six beers you can pretty much convince yourself that you work for the Lord himself… Homicide is the major leagues, the center ring, the show.  It always has been.  When Cain threw a cap into Abel, you don’t think the Big Guy told a couple of fresh uniforms to go down and work up the prosecution report.  Hell no, he sent for a fucking detective.  And it will always be that way, because the homicide unit of any urban police force has for generations been the natural habitat of that rarefied species: the thinking cop.”

Or how about this description of the homicide detective as interrogator, about convince a suspect that he should, indeed, confess:

“He becomes a salesman, a huckster as thieving and silver-tongued as any man who ever moved used cars or aluminum siding--more so, in fact, when you consider that he is selling long prison terms to customers who have no genuine need for the product.”

Here is a brief description of a crime scene that Rick Requer (the inspiration for William “Bunk” Moreland) works:

“(A) true tragedy in which a young girl has been bludgeoned by her cokehead of a boyfriend and her orphaned infant is left crying on a policewoman’s shoulder as the officer’s handheld radio squawks out citywide dispatch calls.”

At one point, two detectives, Dave Brown and Terry McLarney, spend several nights driving around West Baltimore (the Western) looking for Lenore, a prostitute who may or may not have witnessed a murder.  After several near-misses (she was just here; she’s working Division Street; she went that way) they begin to question whether Lenore really exists:

“McLarney smiles, warm at the thought of a $20 cockhound defying every law of metaphysics.  A translucent wraith, she walks the streets of West Baltimore immune to the forces of authority.  Some paid their $20 and swear her to be real, but to generations of homicide detectives, she is but the stuff of dreams, destined to be Baltimore’s contribution to the treasure chest of American folklore: Paul Bunyan; the Headless Horseman of Tarrytown; the ghost ship Mary Celeste; Lenore, the Mystery Whore.”

That is just a taste of the book.  A year of murder in the city of Baltimore.  But really, a year spent with the detectives who work these murders, their jokes, and frustrations, and small successes.  Described and detailed by a brilliant journalist.

Great interview with David Simon, creator of The Wire.  My favorite quote:

Our social framework is "Can I get I promoted now, can I make a buck off it?" The entire country right now is like a pyramid scheme with no other ethic or social framework behind it.