(Re)Viewing The Wire

We don’t have cable television at home. My wife is absolutely against having it installed. She claims that I wouldn’t get much writing done, saying that I’m a television addict.

And she’s right about this. If I had cable I would sit all day on the couch, remote-control in hand, surfing the vast wasteland. (I am indebted, of course, to Marshall McLuhan for this expression.)

We do, however, have a television and a dvd player. We also have dear friends who collect excellent television series and they are kind enough to loan them to us. Among the shows we’ve watched—and we’ve seen many good ones—The Wire has settled at the top of our list of favorites.

I had seen the series before, over a year ago, during a school vacation in which my wife was travelling. The Wire hooked me early on and I was so touched at the conclusion of the final episode that I wrote the piece “The darkness beyond our front porches: on viewing The Wire,” which appeared in The Panama News (click HERE to read).

I spoke so often about The Wire that I decided to borrow it and watch it again, this time in my wife’s company. This excellent show—because of its outstanding writing, acting, and production—gained another fanatical convert after we watched the concluding episode of the fifth, and final, season.

It’s needless to add, but I shall do so anyway: We highly recommend The Wire—this series embodies the best traits of imaginative and intelligent television.