I’m re-watching the show “The Wire” and when I first watched it years ago, I felt that it played out like a really good book. That’s exactly what it is: a book that happens to be played out on screen.
There’s dense, literary writing. The dialogue isn’t dumbed down. It trusts the audience to keep up. Characters speak in their own rhythms, slang, and dialects without exposition dumps. Like in a novel, you have to infer meaning from the context. It also unfolds slowly, like layered storytelling. There are so many details that pay off later. Threads from earlier episodes or seasons come back in meaningful ways–like motifs in a novel.
The huge ensemble cast presents multiple POVs just like in a novel. There’s no single protagonist. You jump between characters on different levels of society–from cops to kingpins, teachers to kids, journalists to politicians.It’s not about “what happens next.” It’s about why systems fail–the drug war, education, the media, capitalism. It’s about institutions grinding people down.
There’s also the moral complexity. There are no good guys or bad guys. There are just flawed people trying to survive. Like in a serious novel, everyone is both protagonist and antagonist, depending on the chapter.
It’s one of those rare shows where the more attention you give it, the more it gives back. Much like in a good book, it wants you to sit with it, rewatch it as I’m doing right now, and pick it apart.
“You come at the king, you best not miss.” -Omar Little
Sisyphus Shrugged 
I’ll watch it after that review, sounds great! One of the things that irritates me about TV and movies is that idea that people are a ‘kind’ there is good and bad, exciting and boring in everyone. Anyone who leads a charmed path through life I find hard to believe, it gets worse with age I find.
I ordered Blood Meridian btw, looking forward to reading it.
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I’m so glad you bought it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Xander couldn’t get into it because of the author’s writing style, but I’ve asked him to give it another try one day. I hope he does.
Being straight-laced is kind of boring to me which is why I’m drawn to anti-heroes over your typical hero in shows and movies and literature. I’m starting the graphic novel “Watchmen” tomorrow and all the “heroes” in it are flawed and fucked up in one way or another. Can’t wait to finish it so I can write about it and get other people’s opinions.
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I went into ordering it without knowing much about it or the author, I didn’t realise he wrote ‘No country for old men.’ I do like that kind of thing, it makes the read more of a discovery. It should be here in a week or two, I’ll let you know what I think.
The point of stories is to entrance isn’t it? I know people find a type of sedative state when they watch or read repetitive or predictable movies/books relaxing, but it’s getting ridiculous. I think part of the attraction is working out the simple plots then beaming with self-congratulation. That kind of thing reminds me a lot of gaming, there’s not much to it other than reflex, DIY heroics will get you scores and increasingly ridiculous weapons.
Anti-heroes are always cooler, same with alternative music, weird films, and so on, my friend Kate and I had this thing were when we were going to do something risky we’d quote that Doors film with Val Kilmer as Morrison – “Where’s your will to be weird.”
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I JUST saw that movie for the first time on Saturday. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have so much more respect for Morrison and The Doors after watching it. We also watched Tombstone which was entertaining as fuck.
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I was surprised by it too, I tried to read that book – No one here gets out alive but it annoyed me, Morrison annoyed me and Sugarman the author flat out says he was a god. Film was cool though.
I’ve never seen Tombstone – I’ll watch it. Thanks for the tip.
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