18 Years Later, HBO’s Crime Drama Masterpiece Is Still Essential Viewing

HBO has developed a reputation for making must-see television that becomes monocultural, but one of its greatest shows ever was never a major awards contender. Despite the praise that it received from television critics, The Wire was underrated throughout its entire run and had to be fought to get renewed. It received only two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for its five seasons, and (at the time) had no major stars involved. The Wire isn’t just a great work of television but a groundbreaking leap forward in modern storytelling, offering sharp sociopolitical critiques through brilliantly written drama. The fact that The Wire exists is a miracle, as is the fact that the series is still so relevant 25 years after its debut.

While not directly based on a true story, The Wire was created by the former journalist David Simon, who had spent over a decade on the crime beat in Baltimore, Maryland before he got into television. Simon had absorbed a lot of information about the systemic issues facing different institutions in the city he loved, and he had the insight to understand how they were all connected. That The Wire was inspired by some of the real people and circumstances Simon experienced made the show even more realistic and helped connect to the larger ideas that he was hinting at. The Wire was a show of the moment when it originally aired, but now it serves as an origin story for current societal woes.

‘The Wire’ Is a Different Type of Crime Epic

While it was hardly the first crime show that attempted to take a more grounded perspective, The Wire’s most radical quality is the enormity of its perspective. The series doesn’t frame any group of characters as “heroes” or “villains,” and employs a massive ensemble without a focal protagonist. It’s not just that The Wire depicts the “war on drugs” from the perspective of both cops and criminals, but that the show puts both of their goals in context; economics is what drives the entire series, as city spending policies and the profit to be made off of illegal substances only exacerbate the violence that puts innocent people in the crossfire. While Simon shows an incredible degree of cynicism in institutions and what they represent, he displays nothing but empathy for individuals, no doubt inspired by his experiences as a journalist. That the show was able to toggle between the various members of such a stacked cast is still an incredible feat, given that there are prominent characters that are absent for major story arcs and episodes.

The Wire had the goal of being informative, but the series understands that an audience needs to be taught how to watch it. Simon’s approach to structuring the seasons was such a great device, because he was able to steadily increase the complexity and widen the aperture. Season 1 is solely focused on the drug trade, but each subsequent installment adds a new degree of infrastructure that fits into the larger story; Season 2 examines the role of the shipping ports within drug trafficking, Season 3 looks at how local elections influence policy, Season 4 shows how elementary-age children are wrapped up within criminal activities, and Season 5 allows Simon to critique his own industry by showcasing the corrupt practices of journalists who write misleading or fictitious stories. Slowly growing the ensemble was a smart way to ensure that viewers didn’t get overwhelmed, and it makes The Wire more rewarding upon a rewatch. Although there was some criticism at the time that Season 2 was “boring,” its ideas about honorable people being corrupted set the stage for the political and educational subtext that follows.

‘The Wire’ Changed Prestige Television

The Wire would be the first of many projects that Simon created for HBO that addressed topical issues, but the show stands out for capturing a specific moment in time. Unlike television shows that try to be relevant and quickly feel antiquated, The Wire can be viewed today as a period piece about the escalation of division within the Bush era. Many of the concepts that Simon hints at would become major topics of discussion in the decades that followed, including gentrification in Black communities, corruption within law enforcement, and sensationalistic news stories that contributed to stereotyping.

The Wire is the rare show that ends just as strongly as it begins because all five seasons are masterpieces and don’t feel derivative. Season 3 is so precise and methodical in its breakdown of how local politics work that the emotional undercurrent of Season 4 hits like a ton of bricks because it shows the direct consequences of who is elected. The show’s pilot, “The Target,” is a masterclass in setting tone, and the finale, “-30-,” is both introspective and ambiguous, allowing the audience to make their own judgments about what Simon was trying to say. Although the influence of The Wire can be felt in how many current dramas are made, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t just as entertaining to watch today.