The Wire

[poliphilo]

I've been reading that The Wire is the greatest TV show ever and I got a chance to watch the first episode last night so I did. 

OK-  it's gritty, OK-  it treats the crims with sympathy (which may be new to TV but isn't new to literature or cinema) but otherwise we get the usual testosterone-heavy shit with a pretty-looking white guy (in a sea of black faces) playing the maverick cop we're supposed to identify with and no women in starring roles except for the token lesbian cop who is so tough she's effectively a man.  (Phew, that was a long sentence!). So- and nobody I've read has noticed this which makes it even sadder-  it comes with racism and misogyny built in. Maybe if I stick with it I'll change my mind, but right now I'm thinking same old, same old.

Comments

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

That would be because it's essentially documentary fiction; the world it's portraying comes with racism and misogyny built in. Stick with it, seriously, the characters are way more complicated and nuanced than you're ever going to get in the first hour of the show.

And if you think McNulty's supposed to be the sympathetic one...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh, OK- you've whetted my appetite.