Grid Effect

As far as Thursday night television goes. last night’s half hour retrospective on The Wire was more entertaining than the past seventeen hours of Survivor combined. Of course, I could listen to David Simon, the writers, the cast and critics discuss this series for weeks and not find it tedious, so it’s a personal preference. Then again I don’t see how anyone could find a series of people being systemically eliminated from a contrived game show more entertaining than an inside look of the first four seasons of the greatest television drama ever made (yeah, I said it).

There wasn’t a lot of introspection or anything. It was more slight jabs at the Emmy’s for unjustly overlooking them time and time again and discussing favorite scenes, characters, themes, seasons, etc. It was basically like a half hour long montage with voice over commentaries. One guy called it modern Dickens, another said it should win the Pulitzer, my favorite description was, “A document of what it’s like to live in contemporary United States”. This might be misconstrued as hyperbole, but rest assured that it’s not.

All in the game.

We also learn that casting was damn near impeccable (I’ll refrain from using actors names to limit confusion). Carver tried out for Herc (to which Dominic West said he’d be horrible in), Norman auditioned for Daniels and Lester, Marlo auditioned for Avon, Dukie auditioned for Michael, etc. In virtually every case they made the right decision, possibly because the characterization is so flawless I couldn’t see any of the actors playing anyone other than who they currently are.

David Simon seemed amused by the whole half-hour spectacle, saying the moments he’s most proud of are the throwaway comedic bits. For someone with such insight, he certainly came off as humble, and I imagine a part of him is almost disappointed that he felt compelled to create something so devastatingly realistic (or that it was even there to depict), and then to have the country at large ignore it has to be fairly disheartening.

Still, he gave us one more season (two more than expected, really). And while I find the series depressing as it portrays every aspect of the system as so corrupt and ineffective, it is portrayed in such a conflicted way that it makes the construction of the series entirely believable. Rendering it insightful and academic as much as it is entertaining (which almost seems shallow to say).

Again, we’re running low on material, but if we’re going to do a synopsis on what’s essentially a half hour clip show, it mine as well be The Wire. Back with more as it comes to us.