All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire by Jonathan Abrams

In 2002 HBO debuted a cop show with a difference. Rather than wrapping up an investigation in an hour, The Wire's first season followed one complex, sprawling drug case in Baltimore across an entire season. For the second year the show abruptly pivoted to a new investigation in the city docks. Season 3 introduced a strong political storyline, whilst in the show's final two seasons it focused on education and the media. In the process the show built up a portrait of the modern American city and its underclass, the people left behind by industrialisation and automation, and exploited by criminals, governments and corporations alike. It was only after the show ended in 2008 that it became acclaimed as the "greatest TV show ever made," a position it is still quoted in to this very day.

All the Pieces Matter is an oral history of the production of The Wire. Jonathan Abrams tapped an enormous number of people involved in production, from David Simon and Ed Burns, the show's creators, to Idris Elba and Dominic West (its breakout stars) to Michael B. Jordan (who became a star much later). Politicians from Baltimore, studio executives at HBO and pretty much everyone he could find with a connection to the show offer up their thoughts as well.

The book has a number of advantages over previous books about the show. Over a decade has now passed since the show has ended, which allows for much greater reflection. Actors and crew also feel a lot freer to talk about the things on the show that didn't go well: finding out that Lance Reddick really didn't like Dominic West is a surprise (but explains how that dynamic on TV worked so well), as is that Idris Elba reacted the mostly badly to his character being killed off, or that almost the entire writing team utterly loathed the pivot to the political storyline in Season 3 and refused to write any of it, leaving it to just two writers to handle that entire element of the show. It's also a surprise to see that HBO renewed The Wire for two seasons after Season 3, and then tried to renege on that deal after Season 4 (despite its massive critical acclaim and it being the first season to really start generating lots of positive coverage about the show).

It's also interesting to see how the actors were affected by their roles: Andre Royo found playing Bubbles so all-consuming that he barely made it through the five seasons and struggled to adjust to other roles afterwards. Dominic West never felt comfortable with the accent and had an accent coach on hand through the entire show, right up to the series finale. Sonja Sohn was so moved by her time on the show she eschewed a potential Hollywood career to move to Baltimore and set up charities and workshops to help local gets get into acting as a way of getting off the streets. The Wire was an interesting mix of drama, documentary, historical piece and socio-economic analysis, and this book reinforces all of those elements and delves into them in greater detail.

The author's editorial contributions are minor, as he is far more interested in letting his subjects have their say. This works really well, as the cast and crew of The Wire are erudite, witty and intelligent. It's also fascinating to hear from Ed Burns, a taciturn and essential contributor to the show (he was a soldier turned cop turned school teacher) who's rarely talked about his role on the series.

All the Pieces Matter (****½) is very well-named because it collects together the thoughts of everyone involved in the show, no matter how minor, and shows how those contributions came together to create the Greatest TV Show Ever™. The book is available now in the UK and USA.

Show Me a Hero

1988. The city of Yonkers has defied a federal court order to build two hundred units of public housing to meet its growing shortage of living space, and these new homes should be built in different areas of the city to encourage desegregation of the black and white communities. Judge Leonard Sand decrees that the city will be fined until it goes bankrupt if it does not comply. Incoming mayor Nick Wasicsko, the youngest mayor of a major city in the United States, initially opposes the move but, when it is upheld by the Supreme Court, moves to enact the order to his political cost.

The premise of Show Me a Hero is not immediately gripping: a six-part drama series about urban planning and house building? But then you hear it is being written by David Simon, the creator of Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire, and one of his co-writers from The Wire, William F. Zorzi, and immediately it becomes interesting.

As anyone who's seen The Wire, The Corner, Generation Kill or Treme can attest, Simon is fascinated by the intersection of communities, politics and social engineering, how decisions made in a city hall council chamber on a wet Wednesday afternoon can affect the life of a single mother and her kids struggling to make ends meet (or a soldier in Iraq or a policeman in Baltimore). There is a cynical viewpoint in the United States (and the UK for that matter) that politics doesn't matter, that everyone is corrupt, and no-one can do anything to change anything, but Simon doesn't have any truck with that. As Mayor Carcetti's story arc in The Wire shows (based loosely on several real-life Baltimore mayors), people can make a difference, if the system allows them.

Show Me a Hero, based on Lisa Belkin's 1999 book, uses the housing crisis as a lens to examine community relations in an American city. Architect and urban planner Oscar Newman argued that by pushing everyone from one community - in this case the African American community - into one tiny area defined by tower blocks with lots of hidden places where crime could take place, like stairwells and inner courtyards, it created a breeding ground for poverty and violence to the detriment of the entire community. His argument was that by splintering the social housing amongst the middle and higher-class districts, and making it nice enough to fit in with the area, then this would benefit the residents and lead to a safer environment, a "defensible space" as he called it. Newman's theories are widely accepted today, but in the late 1980s they were radical and controversial, and Yonkers reluctantly agreed to allow him to use their crisis to carry out an experiment.

This resulted in bitter opposition from white middle-class residents who had concluded that their new black neighbours would bring crime and violence with them, because that's what happened in the existing places. Some people genuinely believed this simply happened whilst others were overt in their racism. More interesting were those who successfully made an effort to welcome their new neighbours, integrate them into their communities and make new friends.

The story, which could be dull in the wrong hands, is told from both the bottom-up and top-down. At the top we have Nick Wasicsko, played with incredible sincerity and ease by Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron in the new Star Wars movies). Wasicsko is a young rising star of the Democrats, witty and charismatic, an ex-cop with a yearning desire to do good which occasionally conflits with his burning political ambitions, which extend to Congress and maybe beyond. Wasicsko is forced into a difficult but inevitable decision which destroys his career, despite its moral justice, and he struggles with the decision afterwards. Carle Quevedo plays his wife, Nay, who is supportive but also intolerant as his self-pity starts to take over. Winona Ryder (continuing her career resurgence, also seen in Stranger Things) gives a tremendous performance as Vinni Restiano, a political ally of Wasicsko. The best actor in the piece, however, is the magnificent Alfred Molina, who is both almost unrecognisable and tremendously passionate in the role of Wasicsko's arch-nemesis, Hank Spallone. There are also strong turns from Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead, Daredevil, The Punisher) as a civil rights attorney and Jim Belushi (the 1980s) as Angelo Martinelli.

At the other end of the spectrum we have four struggling African-American women: Norma O'Neal (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), a strong-minded, middle-aged carer who is losing her sight; Doreen Henderson (Natalie Paul), a single mother who falls into drug use but, helped by her family, overcomes it; Carmen Febles (Ilfenesh Hadera), a hard-working Dominican immigrant trying to raise her kids on a tiny paycheck; and Billie Rowan (Dominique Fishback), a teenager who falls in with a criminal and makes some bad decisions. It's these women, all played superbly, who stand in for a wider part of the community and whose lives are directly impacted by the decisions made in city hall.

Most interestingly, because they are all too often forgotten, we also have characters from the middle class, most notably the excellent Catherine Keener as Mary Dorman, who initially bitterly opposes the new houses for fear of it ruining the neighbourhood, but then becomes concerned about the growing racism of some of her like-minded citizens and decides to make things better by helping the new arrivals integrate, befriending them in the process.

Show Me a Hero unfolds at a steady, resolved pace, perhaps occasionally too leisurely, backed up by a soundtrack of contemporary artists (with Bruce Springsteen high in the mix). A lot of the action unfolds in town planning meetings and angry city hall exchanges, mixed in with vignettes from the lives of those hoping to escape their crime-blighted tower blocks and the increasingly complex life of Wacisko, who struggles to balance his desire to do the right thing with not destroying his political career. Simon and Zorzi bring the same skill they had juggling multiple, complex and at times seemingly disconnected storylines in The Wire before bringing everything together sharply. As before, "all the pieces matter".

Show Me a Hero (****½) is beautifully-written, well-acted by everyone involved and makes fascinating points about city planning, community-building, politics and society without ever getting preachy or trite. It's David Simon doing what he does best and few other writers even attempt to do: telling the real story of people trying to survive. It is available now in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

The Wire: Season 5 (HD)

On 4 February 2009 I reviewed the fifth season of The Wire. I recently completed rewatching the season thanks to the recent HD re-release, courtesy of HBO, and here's the original review with some updated thoughts.

 
The fifth and final season of The Wire is given the task of wrapping up all the loose ends from previous seasons and also to give space to a new storyline element, that of the media. With the police, criminals, politicians, working class and teachers already covered, moving into the newspapers is the logical next port of call, especially since many of the show's writers cut their teeth as journalists at one time or another.

Thanks to the efforts of the ever-redoubtable defence attorney Maurice Levy, Marlo Stanfield and his crew have avoided jail time, despite being linked to 22 bodies discovered in vacant housing in Baltimore. New mayor Tommy Carcetti wants the murders solved, so the Major Crimes Unit has been reconstituted with most of the old team back in play: Kima, Freamon, McNulty and Sydnor. Meanwhile, Herc has been forced to leave the police and is now working for Levy as a private investigator, and Omar is enjoying a holiday life down in the Caribbean, having apparently left behind the game for good. Unfortunately, Carcetti has inherited a massive education budget deficit from his predecessor and is forced to divert substantial financial resources away from the police to the schools. The Major Crimes Unit is disbanded, and even the street cops find their vehicle maintenance funding being pulled. With the police off his back, Marlo's consolidation of control over the city's drug trade suddenly ramps up to a new and dangerous level and he vows to settle his score with Omar.

With bodies dropping but no funds available to investigate them, McNulty comes up with a scheme to get attention and resources back to the police force but, needless to say, it backfires spectacularly. At the same time, the Baltimore Sun is facing cutbacks but an ambitious young reporter, Scott Templeton, finds unorthodox means of finding new stories that please the bosses but annoy his editor.

The final season of The Wire has a lot of ground to cover, as the police force's attempts to take down Marlo hit a brick wall and a new case rapidly rises to prominence, whilst a whole new facet of the city is explored through the newspaper. Simultaneously, many subplots running from the previous season continue to be explored, such as the continuing trials of the former schoolchildren from Prez's class (although only Dukie and Michael have a lot of screen time this season, Namond and Randy being reduced to cameos) and Marlo's attempt to dispose of the last barrier between him and total control of the city's drug trade. As a result a lot of other storylines fall behind. Carver and Herc appear a lot less than before (although when they do appear, they have some important things to contribute to the show's ending), Prez only has a brief cameo and the school storyline is pretty much abandoned. Cutty also only has a brief appearance, although given that his rehabilitation arc through Seasons 3 and 4 is pretty much complete that is more understandable.

The name of the game this year is resolution. McNulty and Freamon are out for Marlo's blood and plan to bring down his organisation and put him in jail at any cost, and the extraordinary (and increasingly illegal) lengths they go to achieve that are breathtaking. Having played the system for four seasons prior without much to show for it, the two police officers are at breaking point, which isn't surprising. We also see Carcetti, the wonder boy who wanted clean stats and a new dawn for his city, being driven down by the system into the same morass of murky compromises and grey morality that blighted his predecessor. The newspaper storyline is nicely handled, and encapsulates the idea of people trying to do the right thing and getting beaten back for it whilst those who ride and exploit the system can succeed. It's a very cynical view of the world, although one that seems to be depressingly backed up by reality.

But inbetween the cracks there are rays of light. Michael has been put through the wringer in the show's last two seasons and done some very bad things, but towards the end he comes to the realisation that he is in the game but not a gang player, which leads to a very logical end point for him, whilst Bubbles' traumas over the years finally lead him down the path of redemption. It would have been easy for the writers to have had Bubbles rehabilitate at the end of Season 1, but making his journey much longer and more painful before the possibility of a happy ending presents itself results in a more satisfying resolution.

The series ends by showing us the hard-won victories the forces of law and order have achieved, but elsewhere many of the villains are still at large with blood on their hands. Some of the 'good guys' are left broken, or homeless, or without their jobs, or as drug addicts. But some people get what's coming to them, and the series ends with a long, lingering shot of Baltimore, a crime-addled, bankrupt city where the people are just struggling to survive day by day. It was this city, which stands in for pretty much any city in America, that was the real star of the show. David Simon and his writers, directors and actors are to be commended by giving us the definitive portrait of the American city in the 21st Century, and that portrait is not a positive or a happy one. But it has a ring of truth and authenticity to it that no other cop or lawyer show has ever achieved.

Season 5 of the The Wire (*****) is a fitting end-point to the series, and a fine capstone to one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Storylines and mysteries stretching back to Season 1 are resolved satisfyingly, but no easy answers are given and the ending is anything but neat. The season is available on DVD in the UK and USA, and as part of the complete series box set (UK, USA).

Updated Thoughts

The fifth season of The Wire is widely regarded as the weakest. On my original viewing I wasn't too sure, feeling it tied with the second season. However, on this HD rewatch it became clear that the second season was far superior on a rewatch, with my initial scepticism of it coming more from the jarring shift of tone and storyline from the first season. If the second season improves on a rewatch, the fifth season certainly declines a little.

Which is not to say that it is bad, but for the first time in the series it feels like David Simon doesn't really have a lot to say. The decline of print media and well-paid, driven reporters is bad for journalism? Hardly a major revelation. The bosses become the bosses due to a bland willing to compromise and sell out their ideals in the process? The previous four seasons said the same thing and in a much better way. The fifth season doesn't bring much that's new to the table and the newspaper storyline, particularly the bizarre activities of Scott Templeton (who on this rewatch now appears to be mentally ill rather than simultaneously ambitious and lazy, which I think was the original intent), is not really well thought-out. Not to mention that the police storyline, where McNulty crosses the line to secure more funding for the police department, is implausible to the point of being farcical. For a show so steeped in criminal and social realism, these aspects of the fifth season feel unconvincing and even contrived.

Fortunately the show is about much more than that. The war on the street between Marlo Stanfield and Omar is absolutely gripping, driven by fantastic performances and an escalating level of violence and rising stakes that is compelling. Carcetti's decline in moral authority and ability as he loses his earlier idealism and capitalises on disastrous crime and and school issues to try to get into the governor's mansion is also phenomenal, Aiden Gillen bringing all of the snake-oil charm, political nous and wafer-thin charisma that he doesn't to the role of Littlefinger in Game of Thrones (seriously, what is up with that?). Other elements are much reduced this year, with characters like Prez and Cutty being reduced to cameos, but others return to prominence, such as the return of the Greek and his gang from the second season.

When The Wire hits the right notes, even in this more problematic final season, it more than earns its title of the Best TV Show Evaaaah. At its best, the writing and casting and direction are sublime. At its worst, the show loses focus and becomes just another crime show, but still a well-made one. Fortunately, the cast and crew do manage to turn around the moderate decline in quality in the last two episodes of the series and bring things together for an absolutely outstanding finale that really encapsulates what the show is about.

The Wire complete series blu-ray set is available now in the UK and USA and, for anyone who enjoys good drama and good television, is an absolute must-purchase.

Wertzone Classics: The Wire - Season 4 (HD)

On 28 December 2008 I reviewed the fourth season of The Wire. I recently completed rewatching the season thanks to the recent HD re-release, courtesy of HBO, and here's the original review with some updated thoughts.

The fourth and penultimate season of The Wire sees the show moving into new territory. At the end of Season 3 the Barksdale organisation was finally destroyed for good, McNulty found himself some happiness and Daniels got a promotion. The goals set out in Season 1 had been achieved. So, where next for the Major Crimes Unit and the players of the game?
 
Season 4 follows several storylines in tandem. The MCU is now chasing down Marlo Stanfield, whose organisation has picked up from where Barksdale left off and now rules over most of the western district of Baltimore. However, their rise to power has apparently been accomplished with virtually no deaths, bemusing Lester Freamon. With the wiretaps also coming up empty, Freamon's attempts to follow the money trail attract the ire of his superiors and pretty soon the MCU is all but shut down and Freamon and Kima end up working in Homicide instead. Elsewhere, McNulty is enjoying the (relatively) easy life as a beat cop, Daniels is heading up his own force and Carver is maturing as an officer, with only Herc apparently resisting any change, at least until he catches the Mayor's eye (in a rather interesting manner) and finds his star rising as a result. But overall the police side of things, at least to start off with, seems pretty quiet.

On the streets Marlo's rise to power has been achieved with the help of his two enforcers, the terrifyingly cold-blooded and ruthless Chris and Snoop, who have come up with a brilliant scheme to hide the resulting bodies from the police. Proposition Joe, who has inherited most of the surviving Barksdale crew, is continuing his efforts to entice Marlo into the cooperative to little avail, so he hatches a scheme to get Marlo on his side by setting up a war between him and the indefatigable Omar. Unfortunately, this leads to a pretty bloody and complicated state of affairs for all concerned.

Elsewhere, Tommy Carcetti is running for the position of mayor, but the race is a difficult three-way contest between him, the incumbent Royce and fellow councilman Tony Gray. Unfortunately, no sooner is the winner in office then they are delivered two massive problems: how to handle the proven incompetence of police commissioner Burrell when they cannot fire him for political reasons, and the discovery that they have a jaw-dropping $54 million budget deficit due to overspending in the schools.

At the same time, Prez, the former MCU member fired from the force in Season 3 after accidentally killing another officer, has started a new life as a maths teacher. His class is noisy, uncooperative, disrespectful and sometimes shockingly violent (one student slashes another's face open with a razor in his first week). However, the primary narrative for Season 4 focuses on four of the students in Prez's class - Randy, Dukie, Namond and Michael. These are all new characters, although with some ties to existing ones: Namond is the son of former Barksdale enforcer Wee-Bey and Michael is a member of Cutty's gym.

The scaling back of the other characters in favour of following these four youngsters around may seem like an odd move, but it pays off brilliantly. Having tackled the police, criminals, politicians, and dockworkers, Season 4 is about teachers, students and the role of education in shaping the lives of the young. Early in the season a divide is identified between those kids who could make something for themselves and the corner kids who don't want to do anything other than stand on the streets and sell drugs to make money, and where the four main characters fall on that divide and how they swap sides and change over the course of the season is fascinating to watch. At first glance Michael seems to be the most positive and promising of the four, but his interest in sports and growing cooperation in class hides a bitter and painful home life that soon leads him into Marlo's circle, whilst happy-go-lucky Randy makes a series of mistakes that prove costly. In fact it's Namond, who is selling drugs from the start and being schooled for a life of crime by his father from behind bars, who undergoes the most interesting and seismic shifts in character, all depicted through the brilliant-as-usual writing and some fine performances from the young actors involved.

Andre Royo as Bubs also has to be singled out for mention, as Bubs hits rock-bottom in this season and Royo's depiction of a man whose already crappy life disintegrates completely is absolutely stunning. At the same time, Dominic West's low availability for the season means that McNulty doesn't appear very much, meaning more screen time for Freamon (Clarke Peters) and Bunk (Wendell Pierce), which is a very welcome move. McNulty does return to prominence in the last two episodes, which set up the direction of the final season pretty well.

The Wire: Season 4 (*****) is as superbly-written, brilliantly funny, expertly-acted and stomach-churningly tragic as ever, except possibly even moreso than the first three seasons. If there is a negative point, it's that Season 4 is the most epic and sprawling season to date, and it takes a while for all the disparate storylines to start pulling together. But when they do, the result is the most powerful and gripping final run of episodes yet. Season 4 of The Wire is available on DVD in the UK and USA and also as part of the complete series box set (UK, USA).

Updated Thoughts

Rewatching the fourth season of The Wire, the question arises: is this merely the greatest season of the show (although it's a close battle with Season 1) or actually the greatest season of any TV show ever made? On a first run it's easy to say no, that the season takes too long to come together in any meaningful way and there are way too few victories. On a rewatch you realise that's the point.

The season is deliberately disjointed: the Major Crimes Unit is deliberately and systematically run into the ground, there's a heavy political storyline with Carcetti running for mayor that feels shut off from what's going on in the street and there's stuff going on in the school that feels disconnected from everything else. Compared to the determined focus and easy-to-determine through-line of the three previous seasons, Season 4 sprawls in all directions.

But the sprawl is an illusion. As Lester Freamon told us in Season 1, "All the pieces matter" and this remains true in the fourth year. Eventually all the little, apparently throwaway moments align with the core storyline of Marlo Stanfield's murderous rise to dominance over the Baltimore underworld impacting on the police, the political system and, most heartbreakingly, in the schools where the young children's best hope for a good life is undermined by an unfeeling system obsessed with statistics over humanity and by street hustlers looking for kids to use as couriers and look-outs. If the season has an emotional core, it's provided by Roland Pryzbylewski, played with tremendous restraint and heart by Jim True-Frost. Prez was the former police officer who shot up a tower block back in Season 1 and idiotically blinded a child for no real reason, but by this season has grown into a more fully-rounded figure. His new role as a teacher in a tough, inner-city school confronts him with astonishing horrors - kids who are clearly emotionally traumatised, abused or mentally disturbed but whom the system refuses to help - but instead of zoning out or quitting like so many others, he tackles the situation head-on and eventually manages to help some (but not all) of his students.

The season is really the story of four of those students - Michael, Dukie, Namond and Randy - and each of their story arcs is told with humanity and skill. The actors are outstanding and the conclusion of each of their story arcs is note-perfect. Only one arguably ends up happy. The ending confronted by Randy is utterly heartbreaking, and the audience sides fully with Detective Carver, formerly a police officer who said he never cared too much and only enjoyed breaking heads, as he finally loses control at the absolute inhumanity and bureaucratic incompetence of the system he works for.

There are so many other moments of emotional perfection, perfect performances, cutting political observation or humour (and for all its reputation as a realistic examination of the modern western city, The Wire can also be the funniest thing on the planet) in the season that it'd be impossible to list them all. Suffice to say, that when the dust settles and the history of the Golden Age of Television is written, this collection of thirteen episodes will almost certainly emerge as its crowning achievement.

The Wire complete series blu-ray set is available now in the UK and USA.

Wertzone Classics: The Wire - Season 3 (HD)

On 20 October 2008 I reviewed the third season of The Wire. I recently completed rewatching the season thanks to the recent HD re-release, courtesy of HBO, and here's the original review with some updated thoughts.

With its third year, The Wire heads back to the streets and unfinished business. As with the second year, the third season opens up another dimension of the city, this time City Hall and the civil and police administration, but the focus is squarely back on the Barksdale organisation and Lt. Daniels' unit trying to bring them down and finish the job begun back in Season 1.

Season 3 opens with Avon Barksdale still in jail, but his parole hearing is coming up. His friend and collaborator Stringer Bell has guided the crew through some lean times and formed a 'co-op' with several other gangs which has led to them making some serious money but at the cost of sharing each other's turf. However, a new player, Marlo Stanfield, is on the way up and is not interested in sharing his territory with anyone else. The stage is set for a series of bloody showdowns and bodies dropping on the streets, to the growing discontent of the police. Lt. Daniels and his unit are forced to drop their investigation into Bell (begun at the end of the second season) to concentrate on the war, unaware that the two are connected. This war is complicated by the re-emergence of Omar Little, who has sworn to bring down Bell for manipulating him into shooting an innocent man (in the second season) and for the murder of Omar's lover back in the first season.

At the same time, an ambitious white city councilman, Tommy Carcetti, is planning to run for mayor, although his prospects in a city with a majority black population seem poor. Connecting these two storylines is a highly controversial initiative launched by police Major Colvin to move the drug dealers off the street corners into three abandoned city blocks where the police will turn a blind eye to their activities so they can concentrate more on murders and crime prevention elsewhere. The 'Hamsterdam' storyline, apparently inspired by the 'legalise drugs' movement, is a stunning and surprisingly even-handed piece of social commentary. There is also an ongoing subplot following the attempts of former Barksdale enforcer Dennis 'Cutty' Wise to go straight after spending fourteen years in prison.

Season 3 is tighter than the second season, as it is able to link the storylines together more effectively. The trials of the Barksdale gang were largely removed and separate from events on the docks, creating a disjointed second year that only started coming together towards the end. The new characters, both on the streets and in the city hall, are also more directly tied to the storylines that have gone before and are stronger as a result.

Thematically, the idea behind Season 3 appears to be that of failed reform. The failure of the city's drug prevention strategies encourage some radical, out-of-the-box thinking from Major Colvin. Whilst his policy is initially successful, it leads to a whole host of knock-on effects which are beyond his powers to address, and give a rather depressing impression that, indeed, no one man can make a difference to the system. The breathtaking cynicism and corruption of the political wing of the city is depicted, with Carcetti determined to reform the system from the inside, again with apparently little hope of success. Stringer Bell's attempts to reform himself and his friend Avon on his release from prison into respectable businessmen provides the season with its main narrative spine, but again does not have a happy ending. That said, there are moments of hope, with Cutty's attempts to go straight finally garnering some success and McNulty's attempts to straighten out his personal life ending on a positive note.

The ending of the season seems to be a little more definitive than the prior two, but the writers take care to leave enough loose ends untied to be pursued into the fourth year, with the candidates for mayor squaring up, several of the gang leaders still very much at large and the police unit once again finding themselves heading off in separate directions.

The Wire: Season 3 (*****) follows up on the first two by being just as dramatically intense with some superb characterisation, brilliant acting and some finely-judged moments of comedy to balance the darkness elsewhere. It is available on DVD in the UK and USA, and as part of the complete series box set (UK, USA).

Updated Thoughts

Rewatching the third season of The Wire, it's impossible to see its message as being anything other than "Be careful what you wish for..."

The season is dominated by McNulty's dogged pursuit of Stringer Bell, his determination to finish the work begun back in Season 1 when Avon was arrested. Avon's unexpected early release halfway through this season only reinforces McNulty's mission. On an initial viewing - especially knowing that David Simon thought there was a good chance this was the final season of the show and wanted to bring at least some resolution to things - this worked well. On a reviewing, knowing what happens next, it's downright brilliant.

Stringer and Avon's downfall paves the way for the rise to power of Marlo Stanfield, a scarily focused and utterly relentless psychopath lacking even the facade of honour and civility that Avon had and the business common sense possessed by Stringer. This makes you want either the detail to fail in their mission to defeat the Barksdale crew, or for them to hold off just long enough for Avon's people to win the street war. Of course, it doesn't happen. More tellingly, it's interesting to see Avon's growing respect for Marlo and his tactics over the course of the season, seeing something of himself (perhaps incorrectly) in the young Stanfield. This explains Avon's decision to help Marlo from behind bars in later episodes, which on a first viewing came a bit more out of left field.

Foreknowledge of later seasons also makes other story points resonate much more strongly: Cutty's personal odyssey from criminal enforcer to boxing mentor, Colvin's desire to give something back to the community (and not just for the sake of his pension, as he protests) and, most prominently, Prez's ill-advised mistake in the final episodes which completes his police story arc begun in the first season and sets him on the road to the schools, and the tragically powerful fourth season.

Season 3 of The Wire, already one of its strongest years, improves immeasurably on a reviewing and is also enhanced by its presentation in HD. If you thought Hamsterdam at its worst was hard enough viewing before, it's got nothing on when every nook and cranny is shown up in widescreen.

The Wire complete series blu-ray set is available now in the UK and USA.

Wertzone Classics: The Wire - Season 2 (HD)

On 14 October 2008 I published a review of the second season of The Wire, HBO's masterpiece about the corrupting effects of American institutions (political, legal and criminal) and the destruction of the American labouring classes. Here's an updated re-review based on the new HD release of the series on Blu-Ray.

When The Wire started it was easy to see it as just another cop show, until its overwhelmingly high quality lifted it onto another level. After all, the narrative of Season 1 was simply that of cops versus drug dealers, with some murky political dealings on the side but these were left relatively unexplored. Season 2, however, shows creator David Simon's real plan: he is trying to craft the definitive portrayal of the turn-of-the-century American city. Like a Grand Theft Auto game (only with less gunplay and more, infinitely better dialogue), progressing onto Season 2 'unlocks' another chunk of the city, this time the docks and a new cast of characters, including Eastern European criminals, the unions and their families, and introduces an important new thread to the tapestry of the show.

At the end of Season 1, Lt. Daniels's unit successfully cracked the Barksdale case, but political infighting between different police departments saw arrests made prematurely. Whilst Avon and D'Angelo were sent down, the evidence against Avon was flimsy and his time inside was limited, whilst back on the street the formidable Stringer Bell has been put in charge. Meanwhile, Daniels has been booted down to work in the evidence lock-up and McNulty has been sent over to the harbour patrol, to his extreme annoyance, whilst Freamon and Bunt are working in homicide. When McNulty fishes a dead girl out of the harbour and port authority police officer Beadie Russell uncovers thirteen corpses in a freight container, the police's attention is turned to the harbour. This garners the interest of Commander Valchek, who is anxious to bring down the head of the stevedores' union, Frank Sobotka, after his union raises more cash for the local church's new stained-glass windows than Valchek's.

Season 2 of The Wire sprawls slightly more than the first season, a result of the story having to incorporate a large number of new characters and locations whilst at the same time keeping tabs on the characters from Season 1. The project gangs, Stringer Bell, Omar and so forth are firmly on the back-burner for the season, with their story forming a subplot that clears up some loose ends from the first season and sets up the events of Season 3, where they return to prominence. Whilst characters such as Omar and Bubs get limited screen time as a result compared to the first year, at least they don't vanish altogether. Luckily, the new characters are a good match for the originals. Union politics and the gradual loss of American industry and hands-on labour are covered in a fascinating manner. Frank Sobotka (played by Chris Bauer) is the character whom the season's themes centre on, showing how an essentially decent man who values loyalty and fair play is gradually morally eroded, ground down by the city institutions and effectively destroyed, whilst the start of the same process is shown happening to his nephew Nicky (Pablo Schreiber). On the law-enforcement side, Amy Ryan makes a good impression as Beadie Russell, the working beat officer who is pulled into the detective unit formed to investigate the port situation and finds herself out of her depth, until she steps up. On the street side of things, the fascinating character of Brother Mouzone (Michael Potts) is introduced very late in the season, as more pieces are set up for the third year.

The Wire remains dramatically intense, with several deaths (one in particular) and shocking plot developments meaning you don't know who is safe, or who can be trusted. The show's black sense of humour is retained (the entire investigation starts due to a personal feud between Valchek and Sobotka over whose union gives more money to their local church), the fascinating investigative tactics used by the police are expanded upon and the increasingly bleak portrayal of the modern American city is balanced by a few decent characters and moments of hope.

The Wire: Season 2 (*****) takes slightly longer to get going than Season 1, but remains gripping, intelligent and adult television and the climax is much harsher. It is available on DVD in the UK and USA, and as part of the complete series box set (UK, USA).

Updated Thoughts

If you want to start a flame war between usually reasoned, intelligent fans of The Wire, you can challenge them on what is the weaker season: the second or the fifth. The results can be quite interesting. Of course, they're both fantastic, but I think most would agree they're a tiny notch below the other three in quality. The move away from the established cast in Season 1, the introduction of a lot of new characters with time limitations on fleshing them all out and the lack of resolution to the storyline about the Greek and his gang of criminals are all issues when compared to the first season's flawless pacing, characterisation and plot construction.

At least, they are on an initial viewing. On a re-watch, the season improves from being pretty damn good with a few minor issues to being almost the equal of those around it. Knowing how the Greek and his dealings play into the bigger story of Baltimore from the later seasons helps a lot, as it introduces more of an element of tragedy into proceedings: if the cops had arrested the Greek and his gang, a lot of what happened in the seasons that followed would not have been possible. Similarly, the elimination of D'Angelo feels like a mere tying-up of a loose end from the first season, but in fact sets up a series of plot points and events in Season 3 that will have huge ramifications.

In fact, few elements are not improved by a rewatch. James Ransome's performance as Ziggy still feels a little belaboured in some scenes, but beyond that, this is a collection of highly watchable, smartly-written, brilliantly-acted and often unexpectedly hilarious episodes.

The move to HD also benefits this season immensely, with so much of the action taking place in huge industrial wastelands, on container ships and against other, large-scale backdrops which are improved by the move to widescreen.

The Wire complete series blu-ray set is available now in the UK and USA.

Wertzone Classics: The Wire - Season 1 (HD)

On 8 October 2008 I published a review of Season 1 of The Wire, David Simon's five-year ode to the death of the American Dream and the corrupting effect of institutions. I recently completed a rewatch of the season, this time in HD from the official Blu-Ray release. The original review is reprinted below along with some updated impressions.

The Wire is, at first glance, Yet Another Cop Show, about a group of disparate and conflicted police officers working to bring down criminals who are often not much better than they are. Yawn. However, there are two things that mean that people should take this seriously. Firstly, it's made by HBO who, up to a couple of years ago anyway, seemed physically incapable of making something unless it was absolutely gripping and awesome. Secondly, it's the creation of former police writer and journalist David Simon, whose previous show was the brilliant Homicide: Life on the Street.


The Wire kicks off on the mean streets of Baltimore, Maryland, in 2002. A murder case against a young black man named D'Angelo Barksdale collapses when one of the witnesses is scared into retracting her testimony. The furious judge learns from homicide detective Jimmy McNulty that D'Angelo is a junior member of a far-reaching criminal gang run by his cousin, the extremely elusive Avon Barksdale. This gang controls all the drug supplies on the west side of the city, and are protected by a labyrinth of legit front organisations. Determined to get some payback, the judge uses his influence to have a special joint homicide-narcotics unit formed to bring down the Barksdale gang, with McNulty assigned and an up-and-coming officer named Lt. Daniels placed in charge.

The investigation into the Barksdale organisation by the unit forms the backbone of the first season of the show, but that's just one side of the story. We also get to see the investigation from the POV of the criminals themselves, most notably D'Angelo as he finds himself free but busted down to supplying the lowest of the estates, as well as the kids who work for him. A dangerous, unpredictable third faction is also in play in the form of the one-man army Omar Little, a criminal whose personal code means he can only steal from other criminals. The police try to form an alliance with Omar to bring down Barksdale, but their erstwhile ally has an unfortunate tendency to blow away the criminals they're trying to get locked up, which makes this a difficult task.

The appeal of The Wire is hard to explain to those who haven't seen it. It's fairly slow-moving (although never dull) in places and arguably takes two or three episodes to really kick in. It's also pretty unforgiving if you miss an episode. Flashbacks to prior episodes are non-existent, and plot points and character and emotional arcs often turn on a single conversation from several episodes earlier. You need to pay attention here. Luckily, that's made easy by the tight writing, the ingenious methods the criminals go to avoid being caught and the even more intelligent methods the police need to use to investigate them, and the acting. It'd be almost impossible to single out any of the actors for praise. British actor Dominic West has the closest thing to a central role as McNulty, and handles the character very well, but Lance Reddick (more recently seen as the enigmatic Abbadon in Lost) holds every scene he's in as the formidable Lt. Daniels. Clarke Peters develops his character of Lester Freamon from almost a background role to that of the most intelligent and confident officer on the team in a natural and impressive manner. John Doman's constantly-infuriated performance as McNulty's commanding officer and eternal nemesis Major Rawls has to be mentioned as well.

On the criminal side of things, British actor Idris Elba (formerly seen as Vaughn in the excellent Ultraviolet) impresses as Stringer Bell, Avon Barksdale's trusted number-two man, and Larry Gilliard Jr. provides the main criminal POV as 'D' Barksdale, as he tries to claw his way back up the organisation amidst growing concerns about how the family does business. For most people - including Barak Obama - the stand-out performances in the show belong to two of the more morally ambiguous characters, namely Michael K. Williams as the dangerously unpredictable Omar and Andre Royo as 'Bubs', a street informant struggling with his own drug addiction. Royo's performance was so convincing that whilst filming he was offered a heroin fix by a passer-by who thought he badly needed it, and later referred to this as his 'street Oscar'.

The cast is uniformally brilliant (the above barely scratches the surface of the quality performances and characters on display here), the writing is fantastic and the show is, surprisingly, very funny. Whether it's the stories of some mind-bogglingly stupid criminals, or the ridiculous difficulties the team faces at getting a desk into their basement office, or Bubs' methods of identifying suspects for the police observers, the show has a jet-black vein of comedy which gives several laughs per episode. This is necessary because the show can be quite bleak, showing as it does wasted young lives amidst the crumbling tenements of a poor city, and a lot of the characters die in rather unpleasant ways over the course of the investigation. The investigation also ends messily, and the fates of many of the characters is left wide open for the second season.

The Wire: Season 1 (*****) takes a couple of episodes to build up a head of steam and get you into its headspace, but once that's done it never lets go. The show is available on DVD in the UK and USA, and also as part of the complete series box set (UK, USA). Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie waxes lyrical on the show here, whilst British TV critic Charlie Brooker has a video appraisal here.

McNulty in full-on smug mode is even more supremely punchable in 1080p

Updated Thoughts
It's been seven years (!) since I watched the first season of The Wire and I was concerned that I would have forgotten too much about the show to enjoy one of its oft-reported key features, the fact that on a rewatch you pick up so much material that flies over your head in the initial viewing. In fact, it didn't take too much past McNulty's opening eulogy to Snot Boogie (the first, but a long way from the last, murder we see on the show) for the entire season to reassert itself in my head. There's not too many shows that can do that, but this is one that stays with you through the years.

On a rewatch, the first thing that impresses is how tightly written and meticulously constructed the series really is. There is not a single wasted breath, pointless line of dialogue or redundant moment in the entire season. The season is beautifully bookended by looping things full circle (Stringer Bell's respectful - if sardonic - acknowledgement of McNulty's intelligence in the finale reflecting McNulty's angry congratulations in the opening episode) but the finale also moves things forward and keeps stories in play for the second season. The characterisation is absolutely stunning, with even the most seemingly irredeemable character given their moments of humanity: Rawls decisively taking charge of the crime scene investigation after Kima is shot and his reassurance of his sworn nemesis McNulty afterwards gives him a depth matched by only one other scene in the entire series (and knowing that about Rawls...changes nothing at all, because it's completely irrelevant). Wee-Bey may be a totally murderous, ruthless killer, but it's hard not feel a momentary twang of sympathy or respect when he stands up and takes the fall for the entire drug gang in the finale, knowing he will never see freedom again. This is given more resonance by knowing what he does in Season 4: the man, for all of his despicable attributes, has his code.

Beyond the terrific writing, measured pace and awe-inspiring construction of the story, there is the absolute howl-inducing sense of humour. There's the single greatest crime scene investigation scene in filmed history (TV or movies), the desk-moving scene, the fishtank episode, McNulty's handling of Bunk's (very minor) betrayal, Bub's crazy schemes to get drug money, Omar's apology for killing an important witness (and McNulty's resulting attempt to measure his own morality) and the banter of the kids in the low rises. This is balanced out elsewhere by the tragedies: what happens to the witnesses in the opening court case (even the one who plays ball with Stringer), the fate of Bubs's friend and the absolute gut-punching of Wallace's rise and fall in favour.

Later seasons may be more complex and more layered, but the first season of The Wire has a tremendous focus and story-telling purity to it that makes it my favourite of the five, and easily one of the greatest seasons in the history of television (absolutely no hyperbole required). The high definition makeover is technically stunning, and in fact David Simon's concern that the show would suffer from losing its grainy documentary look doesn't really materialise. An on-the-streets documentary about Baltimore today would be shot in HD, and in fact the grimmer aspects of The Wire take on a stronger resonance when you can see the streets, the corners and the dusty police offices in much clearer detail.

The Wire complete series blu-ray set is available now in the UK and USA.

THE WIRE hits Blu-Ray on 2 June

The Wire, the HBO series once described by Charlie Brooker as the "Best TV series since the invention of radio," is getting its long-awaited Blu-Ray release on 2 June this year.

The show has been remastered in high definition and widescreen under the supervision of creator David Simon and the show's original editors. Although Simon has been vocally sceptical of the remastering idea, it turns out that, when done, it mostly worked quite well, although Simon noted some scenes where the composition was damaged by expanding it so they reframed and cropped where necessary. It is unclear if the new Blu-Ray release will given an option to watch in HD in the original aspect ratio.

Also up in the air is the price for the UK version. The American version is a hefty $199.99, which directly translates to £133. That's considerably more than The Sopranos complete Blu-Ray box set was on release (£99), for a significantly shorter series (60 episodes to The Sopranos' 86). The box set includes all of the previous special features from the DVD release as well as some new material. HBO's press release follows:

“One of the most daring dramas in the
history of the medium” -The Baltimore Sun

“One of the great achievements in television
artistry” -San Francisco Chronicle

THE WIRE:
THE COMPLETE SERIES
BLU-RAY WITH DIGITAL HD

Acclaimed Series Available for the First Time
on BLU-RAY Disc with Digital HD June 2, 2015

Loaded with Bonus Content Just in Time for Father’s Day Gift Giving

All 60 Episodes Beautifully Re-mastered in 16×9 Full Frame HD

New York, NY (March 5, 2015) – In the six years that have passed since the conclusion of the HBO seriesThe Wire, the critically acclaimed drama has turned into a worldwide phenomenon that has been hailed as “the best show in the history of television” by MSNBC. This summer, the series will make its highly anticipated debut on Blu-ray disc for the very first time. The 20-disc box set featuring all 60 episodes of the hit series in a stunningly re-mastered 16×9 full-screen HD format is showcased with newly redesigned box art.The Wire: The Complete Serieson Blu-ray with Digital HD ($199.99) is loaded with an exciting slate of bonus materials, including four behind-the-scenes documentaries, three prequels that explore life beforeThe Wire, and an all-new cast and crew Q&A from the Paley Center for Media’sThe Wirereunion event.The Wire: The Complete Serieson Blu-ray with Digital HD will be in stores June 2, 2015 – just in time for Father’s Day and summer binge watching – and is a must-have for all TV connoisseurs!

The Wire depicts an American urban dystopia, framed in our time, in which easy distinctions between good and evil and crime and punishment are challenged at every turn. In five successive seasons, the series depicts a Baltimore in which institutional prerogatives, economic inequalities and a brutalizing drug war confound the efforts to advance the city and its people. The series’ first season lays out the futility of the drug war, while the second highlights the deindustrialization and the death of the working class. The third season introduces the city’s political culture and lays out the forces that stand in the path of actual reform. The fourth season addresses the educational system and the actual opportunities that remain to coming generations. The fifth and final season examines the media culture and its role in perpetuating the status quo. Amid all of this, carefully drawn characters on both sides of the law and from a variety of Baltimore cultures move forward as best they can, human to a flaw, struggling against a system that seems weighted against civic progress.

HBO confirm plans for THE WIRE in HD

HBO have confirmed their plans for the HD re-release of The Wire. They had been planning to release the new version of the show in November, but those plans were put on hold when series creator David Simon and producer Nina Noble got in touch and offered to lend their help to ensuring that the re-mastering job was of the highest possible quality.

Rumours that Omar will be replaced by a CGI muppet and that Stringer will now 'fire first' cannot be confirmed at this time.

That work is now complete and HBO Signature will begin showing The Wire on Boxing Day. They will air show in five marathons, one season per day, before releasing the HD version of the series through iTunes and other digital sellers on 5 January 2015. A Blu-Ray release of the series will follow in the summer.

To create the new version, HBO re-scanned the entire original film stock and re-edited the series from scratch. Complications were found in that, whilst the original show was shot on film, it had not always been 'protected' for widescreen, with the result that light stands, equipment and sometimes extras could be found lurking in the edges of the widescreen image. Initially it appears that HBO was planning on using cropping to eliminate these issues (although this does result in the loss of image from the top and bottom of the screen) but after further consideration instead used CGI and digital painting to remove these elements. Although more expensive, this does result in a superior image.

David Simon has always been negative about the idea of displaying the show in widescreen, feeling that it loses something of the original documentary feel. However, he did change his mind when seeing how certain scenes (such as the longshoremen gathered around a fallen comrade at the end of Season 2) were much-improved in widescreen. Other scenes suffered, with Simon noting that the exchange between Wee-Bay and D'Angelo outside a diner in the very first episode became distracting with too many elements introduced into the edges of the shot. In these very rare cases, cropping appears to have been used to re-focus the attention of shots on the characters. On his blog, Simon has indicated that it would be "nice" to have the show in HD but in the original aspect ratio (a compromise achieved highly successfully by the Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-Ray releases), but it is unclear if this option will be available on the forthcoming new box set.

Re-releasing The Wire in HD may not matter much to the show's existing legions of fans but it will ensure the show's long term survival, and should help it win over a new audience of modern box set bingers who've been put off by the original version's grainy visual quality (ignoring how much that adds to the effect).

HBO remasters THE SOPRANOS and (maybe) THE WIRE in HD

HBO has confirmed that it has remastered The Sopranos in high-definition for release on Blu-Ray next week. Whilst the first and sixth seasons had previously been available by themselves, HBO will be releasing the whole series on 8 September.

Slightly more confusing is the situation with The Wire. The video below has been reportedly running on HBO for the past several weeks, suggesting that a HD repeat run of the series will begin this Thursday on HBO Signature. TV Guide and a few other listings magazines have backed this up, but the HBO schedule itself only has films and a re-run of Boardwalk Empire in that slot for the next few weeks.

The situation is also confused by the long-running debate over whether The Wire should be shown in widescreen. The series was certainly filmed in widescreen but it was an editorial decision that it should be shown in the old 4:3 standard TV aspect ratio, as it made the series look more like a documentary. Creator and showrunner David Simon has also been against the series being remastered, feeling that making it look too glossy would run against the ethos of the show. However, HBO would likely be the ones making the final decision and would feel that HD versions of the two most critically-acclaimed shows in its library (Deadwood and Rome already have Blu-Ray releases, whilst newer shows like Game of Thrones are released on Blu-Ray as a matter of course) would be huge sellers. HBO have also released widescreen standard-definition versions of the first two seasons through Amazon's instant streaming service, which have been well-received.

We'll probably find out what's up with The Wire soon, whilst the release of The Sopranos is definitely happening.

Update: According to American TV critic Alan Sepinwall, The Wire has indeed been remastered in HD and HBO are planning a marathon broadcast. However, it has been delayed to an as-yet undetermined date. So it's happening, but not just yet.

Happy 10th Birthday to THE WIRE

Ten years ago today, The Wire began airing on HBO. The series never got high ratings but won immense critical acclaim, and thanks to support from HBO's top brass it lasted for five seasons and sixty episodes, despite a high budget (by the end of the third season, the series budget had reached $50 million a season). Since the show ended in 2008 its popularity has only increased, with more than 1 million DVD box sets sold in the UK alone.

A (very) small number of The Wire's major characters.

The reasons for The Wire's success are fairly straightforward: excellent writing based on real police procedures and investigative techniques; strong and memorable characters; and a thorough exploration of the systems and institutions of the modern American city, both legal and criminal. It also had a biting, black sense of humour. The show also never pulled its punches. If a storyline required the death of a long-running major character, they would die. There was no filler and even minor, almost glossed-over details could turn into major revelatory plot moments several episodes later. The show also changed its focus every season to retain a degree of invention and freshness each year, whilst retaining a core cast of characters. Ultimately the show's message was that life goes on and the systems meant to help people rarely do so, sometimes making things worse, and that even the most well-meaning reformer will inevitably get trapped by the system and their ambitions quashed. Despite this cynical message, the show also showed that people will go on and live their lives the best they can, despite and often in spite of their circumstances.

All in the (fantasy roleplaying) game. Via Literatigamereviews and created by Mighty Godking.

As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations, Maxim has an excellent article here featuring contributions from several of the writers and actors who worked on the show. Well worth a look.

The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez

Ah, the humble episode guide. Once a solid mainstay of bookshop TV sections all over the world, now hunted to the brink of extinction by the internet. Publishers have had to rethink how their handle TV tie-in books now. A recap of each episode and a cast list doesn't cut it any more, and these books now require more interesting and original content if they are to be successful.


Truth Be Told attempts to be a guide to The Wire that falls into the latter bracket and is somewhat successful. The book rises above the episode guide norm by being written by an actual writer from the TV series (he wrote three episodes for the show) and featuring interviews with the production staff behind the show, as well as some of the actors. There are essays about elements of the show ranging from its realism, its reception by Maryland politicians and a feminist analysis of the series. The Wire's creator and showrunner, David Simon, provides an introduction and there is a long interview between him and author Nick Hornby about the inspiration behind the series.

The standard episode guide format can still be found in this book, with brief (and, it has to be said, rather un-detailed, missing elements such as the blink-and-you-miss-it outing of Rawls in Season 3) recaps of each episode and cast and crew listings. Frustratingly, there isn't a 'behind-the-scenes' section for each individual episode, meaning that as a guide to a TV series it falls way behind the quality of Terry J. Erdmann's Deep Space Nine Companion (still the gold standard for TV companion books).

Much more interesting are the overviews for each seasons, when Simon and other writers and producers give their thoughts on what they were trying to achieve each year, the side-essays and a number of character profiles. These range from the predictable to the insightful, and the feminism essay needs a special mention for the way the writer tries to square the show's limited use of female characters (which could be regarded as problematic) against the real sexism inherent in the institutions the show is depicting (i.e. can you depict real institutions which notably underrepresent women without becoming part of the same problem?).

Ultimately, Truth Be Told (***½) is more than the standard TV episode guide fluff, but ultimately it feels like it has the right idea but doesn't go far enough. Profiles for all of the major characters rather than a handful would have been a start, perhaps with more attention to detail and more in-depth coverage of each individual episode. As it stands, it's a solid companion piece to the TV series, but not an essential one. The book is available now in the UK and USA.

HBO will air GAME OF THRONES alongside TREME next year

HBO has renewed the New Orleans-set drama series Treme for a second season merely hours after the first episode aired in the United States to large ratings. Treme, from the same team which made the epoch-defining sociological drama The Wire, is set in New Orleans three months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005 and follows several inhabitants of the city as it attempts to rebuild.


At the same time, HBO head of programming Michael Lombardo has said they plan to bring the show back next spring at the same time Game of Thrones will debut. Whether the two shows will be 'paired' in the traditional television manner (an established, hit show is used as a lead-in for a new drama or vice versa) or simply air in the same week remains to be seen, but it does reinforce the previously-given dates of between March and May 2011 for transmission of the first episode.

Lombardo gave praise to the additional scripts coming in for Thrones, and confirmed that reshoots would be needed for the pilot (presumably referring to the recasting of Catelyn Stark, with Jennifer Ehle being replaced by Michelle Fairley). Interestingly, he suggested such reshoots would be 'nothing major' despite widespread reports that HBO are looking for a new actress to fill the role of Daenerys Targaryen, suggesting that Tamzin Merchant (who played the role in the pilot) is moving on from the project. The potential recasting of Daenerys would certainly be 'major', necessitating the reshooting of the entire Morocco section of the pilot. However, it is possible that Lombardo's comments are merely meant to reflect HBO's faith and backing in the show and their commitment to the project regardless of some of the reshoots that may be required.

The Arc of Truth: Part 2

Part 1.

Back in the United States, the early 1980s saw a change in the attitude of TV networks towards serialised television. This had been heralded by the arrival in 1978 of the glossy prime-time drama Dallas on CBS. Although technically a recurring series (divided into seasons of approximately 25 episodes per year), Dallas employed storytelling techniques more commonly encountered in much cheaper soap operas, with complex character relationships and long-running storylines spanning many episodes. Dallas was so successful that ABC launched its own derivation, Dynasty, in 1981. Both shows went on to tremendous success.


Also in 1981, the storytelling techniques of these shows were applied to the genre of the cop show. Steve Bocho and Michael Kozoll, Hill Street Blues differed from previous cop shows in that it did not focus on a 'crime of the week' format with the investigation and resolution of a criminal act being neatly packaged in 45 minutes. Hill Street instead had a number of different storylines unfolding across its seasons, with some stories self-contained in a single episode, other plots taking several episodes to come to fruition and some larger plots unfolding across and between seasons. The series also heavily focused on more realistic issues and stories with less interest in the cliches of genre television, and significantly less emphasis on 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. Hill Street proved enormously influential, with many shows picking on its storytelling devices. Bocho's own subsequent project, LA Law, took many of Hill Street's storytelling ideas and applied them to the court drama genre with great success, whilst St. Elsewhere applied a similar story arc structure to a hospital drama format (culminating in the infamously surreal final episode of the series).

In 1982, although with far more limited popular success, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker developed Police Squad!, a comedy series starring Leslie Nielsen as cop Frank Drebin (and, famously, Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln). The series was designed to deliberately target the cliches of cop show television and indeed seemed to delight in annoying the syndication channels by including a reference in every episode to every previous criminal case Drebin had investigated (so at the end of the sixth episode he name-checks all five previous criminals arrested in the five previous episodes). However, it is fair to say that it was probably Hill Street Blues that had a bigger impact on the rise of the arc show that followed.


Still, whilst shows like Hill Street were a big success, the more traditional episodic model still remained the norm, although recurring storyline elements were now slightly more common. Whilst the hugely successful Miami Vice was a big hit with its mostly episodic structure, some subplots (such as romances or the progress of a lead character's divorce) did unfold over multiple weeks.

In 1987 Star Trek: The Next Generation commenced airing in first-run syndication. With the show being sold immediately into syndication, there was even greater pressure than normal not to include ongoing story elements, but nevertheless some crept into the show. The pilot episode established romantic tension between Commander Riker and Counsellor Troi, and between Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher, and the hint of a suggestion (later thankfully forgotten) that Picard was actually the father of Crusher's son Wesley. Other early character points established included Lt. Worf's difficulties with being the first and only Klingon in Starfleet, Lt. Yar's difficult and painful upbringing causing problems with her attitude and Data's wish to become human. For the most part these elements were kept firmly in the background and brought forward only when needed for a particular episode, although Picard's slowly growing acceptance of Wesley Crusher competence and the latter's development into a full crewmember did qualify as a story arc of sorts.


A more ambitious arc was set in motion halfway through Season 1. With the new 'main' enemy, the Ferengi, not working out as planned, the writers decided to introduce a considerably more dangerous threat, an insectoid alien race who would incorporate a hive-like intelligence and ferocious appetite for consuming technology. These aliens would be established late in Season 1 as a growing threat that would also reintroduce the Romulans to the Star Trek universe after a lengthy absence. The original plan was for Season 1 to end with these new insectoid aliens launching a failed attack on Starfleet HQ, followed up by the Romulans and Federation coming to the brink of war due to the alien machinations, with the aliens being 'outed' in the Season 2 opener and the Federation and Romulans joining forces to defeat them once and for all. However, the prohibitive cost of the planned alien effects and then a writer's strike between Seasons 1 and 2 that led to the crippling of most of the second season effectively ruined these plans. The first episode became an unrelated stand-alone called Conspiracy, the second (The Neutral Zone) relegated the alien threat to a remote and vague rumbling of problems on the horizon and the third was dropped altogether, replaced by The Child, an old script for the abandoned Star Trek: Phase II project from the 1970s which introduced Guinan, a new and highly enigmatic regular character played by Whoopi Goldberg.

However, this 'pipe-laying' for an abandoned storyline nevertheless proved to be beneficial later on in Season 2. With the aliens behind the attack on the Neutral Zone colonies still unknown and Guinan's background still a mystery, the writers re-introduced the alien threat in a different (and cheaper) guise, as a race of cybernetically-enhanced humanoids called the Borg. Guinan's race was revealed to have been almost destroyed by them. With the Borg now aware of the Federation's existence, it was made clear that they would now be coming to destroy and assimilate the Federation, and periodic references were made throughout Season 3 to the Federation preparing new weapons and defensive measures. These were put to the test at the end of Season 3 when the Borg invaded the Federation in full force, annihilating a Starfleet battle group in the Federation's greatest military defeat in its history and assimilating Picard.

18 June 1990. The day The Next Generation finally stepped out from its predecessor's shadow.

Star Trek: The Next Generation had successfully transitioned from a purely episodic show into one that, whilst still mostly consisting of stand-alone episodes, was no longer afraid to reference previous episodes and employ real character development. It's story arcs were still unplanned, but the writers were able to use the wealth of history and backstory to generate new storylines that gave rise to the feeling of a much more connected whole. The benefits to this form of long-form storytelling was made clear in the Season 3 cliffhanger ending, The Best of Both Worlds, still widely regarded as the finest episode of Star Trek in its history. The use of a cliffhanger ending to a whole season, with the audience left reeling and anxiously discussing the show and waiting for its return over a whole summer, was a major success and quickly became something The Next Generation and its spin-offs (and later their rivals) used every year.

The Next Generation's embrace of this story-telling technique also allowed writers to pen episodes that weren't necessarily fully resolved at the end, with elements left open to set up future 'sequel' episodes. An early fan of this technique was a young staff writer named Ronald D. Moore, whose fourth episode, Sins of the Father, saw Lt. Worf dishonoured in the eyes of the Klingon Empire and forced to bear the shame for a crime apparently committed by his father. Worf discovered that the crime was actually committed by another Klingon noble family, the Duras, but this fact emerging would tear the Empire apart in civil war, so he accepted the dishonour for the sake of peace. This was obviously an unsatisfactory arrangement, and in the Season 4 episode Reunion Worf became a blood-enemy of the Duras family, leading to his alliance with their rival for the Chancellorship of the Empire, Gowron, and to the outbreak of full-scale civil war, in which Worf finally regained his honour and name. Moore orchestrated most of this storyline, writing Sins of the Father, Reunion and the Redemption two-parter, forming a single coherent piece of drama and character development that unfolded over two years (and, four years later, would later be revisited in Deep Space Nine).

A scene from Twin Peaks unusually not dripping in deep symbolism and visual clues to the show's central mysteries. Also, note a surprising lack of cherry pie in this shot.

Star Trek: The Next Generation proved to be a vanguard of a new wave of arc-based shows that finally began moving the format to the norm in the early 1990s. Twin Peaks, developed by David Lynch, was a massive success, with the gradually unfolding mystery of who killed Laura Palmer enthralling millions of viewers each week across the world. The symbolism and surreal imagery of the show was debated in numerous magazine letters pages and on very early Internet message boards. The show also built up a notable 'mythology' of creatures, characters, entities and recurring storyline elements. The benefits of Twin Peaks' 'myth-arc', with its fiercely loyal, obsessive fanbase, became clear. However, a weakness of arc-based storytelling also became clear. The casual viewers, although fascinated by the Laura Palmer mystery, were less intrigued by the secondary storylines. Once the Laura Palmer mystery was resolved early in Season 2, audience figures plummeted and the show was cancelled, leaving the hardcore fans frustrated with the ending (that saw the main character apparently trapped in some weird other dimension).

Whilst Twin Peaks' fate proved one possible headache caused by arc-based storytelling, another was demonstrated by the CBS show Beauty and the Beast, which ran from 1987 to 1990. In an updated version of the fairytale, Linda Hamilton played a district attorney named Catherine who discovered the 'world below', a group of people ostracized from society living a secretive life in tunnels below New York, whilst Ron Perlman played Vincent, a large disfigured man who became Catherine's protector. The first season comprised stand-alone episodes with the development of Catherine and Vincent's relationship as an ongoing story element. This element came more to the fore in Season 2, as did the arrival of recurring villains. Beauty and the Beast's key weakness was exposed, however, at the start of Season 3 when Linda Hamilton elected to leave the show. Catherine's violent murder and Vincent's quest for bloody vengeance proved a development more than the show could sustain, with a drop in audience numbers and cancellation swiftly following. Interestingly, one scriptwriter and producer on the show who was credited/blamed for the shocking death of a key character was a guy named George R.R. Martin, whose frustrations with the creative limitations of television led to him starting to write a novel a few months after the show's axing, a novel in which the key character is also unexpectedly and abruptly killed halfway through...

"So, is our show going to have a happy ending?"
"George R.R. Martin is one of our writers. What do you think?"
"Oh yeah."

Despite the relative failures of Beauty and the Beast and Twin Peaks, arc-based storytelling became more and more popular. NYPD Blue, a successor of sorts to Hill Street Blues, began airing in 1993 and also featured a reuse of the earlier show's use of short, medium and long-running storylines. Another cop show airing on NBC, Homicide: Life on the Street (based on a book written by a Baltimore reporter named David Simon), also featured similar storytelling devices in its attempt to depict crime and police work in a much more realistic manner than previously attempted.

1993 also proved to be the year that the story arc in science fiction television really kicked into overdrive with the arrival of The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and apparently the first TV show, SF or otherwise, which had its story arc developed and pre-planned in full beforehand. This show was called Babylon 5, and we'll pick up on that next time.