In every group of friends, there’s always one person who is too into The Wire. This guy is constantly chastising you for not watching the show and thinks he’s too good for Law & Order SVU. Whatever, Law & Order SVU really isn’t so bad. It’s certainly better than thinking.
Anyway, this friend is about to get the backing of the MSM, as the final season of The Wire takes place at a degenerating paper that’s a stand-in for The Baltimore Sun.
The season hasn’t even started yet, and Variety is already breathless over it:
Simon's newspaper is a microcosm of a media industry that often seems to have lost its moral compass, as well as a corporate culture where truth is sacrificed on the altar of neglect more than malevolence. … The best look at newspapers in movies or TV? Hands down, the prize goes to The Wire.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Sun laid off its editorial board head, Dianne Donovan a few weeks ago. The paper has tasked its editor, Tim Franklin, to pick a new one, which is a little awkward in terms of the whole separation of news and opinion thing. In the nearly six years that Donovan worked at the Sun, the editorial board has shrunk from 17 or 18 members to eight.
Hmm, guess it’s time to upgrade our cable package and get HBO.
Editorial Director
The Wire is one of the the greatest TV shows EVER. And I wouldn't DREAM of watching Law and Order SVU. I guess that makes me that one person in my group of friends…oh well…
I interned for The Sun and it was the most soul-numbing and soul-crushing experience of my life. The morale is so low, and the staff is shrinking by the day.
It'll be interesting to see how The Wire handles the media, another large behemoth that's mostly ineffectual for providing positive social benefit. Add to that a 10-episode cap in the final season, a pile of unresolved situations (Marlo, Omar, Michael, Dookie) and we're looking at one hell of a season!
I LOVE the Wire, and I try to convince other people (unsuccessfully) to watch it. That being said, I think it's a total dick move to slam other people TV watching habits. I don't consider my opinion to be the end all be and all, and to each his own, you know?
I tried to watch the Wire with the commentary on, and stopped ten minutes in because David Simon comes across as such a preening c*nt. "I'm so smart, blah, blah. See those train tracks? They mean something so utterly profound, the earth would stop spinning on its axis if you knew the reason for the train tracks. Of course, no one has EVER figured out what they mean, because I am the smartest, most talented human being on all of Earth. Actually, I'm really God in disguise, but I try to keep it quiet."
GAH! STFU David Simon! It's just a f-ing TV show. A great one, my favorite one to be sure, but it remains a TV show and nothing more. The day your TV show cures cancer or gets the janjaweed to disarm in Darfur, I'll treat it with the same reverence you do.