What are humans worth? Are some worth more than others? Is the drug trade really any different than any other industry? Does the American Dream exist anymore? Does capitalism work? And if it works, for whom does it work? These are just some of the questions that David Simon's ambitious show, The Wire begs its viewers in interact with.
The show comes to us, not touting lofty ideologies or an agenda - it comes to us simply as a story in its purest form. It comes into our living rooms and doesn't tell us what to think, but begs us to please think about the world in which we have created, and participate in. It's an elaborate story of a decaying city, with an ever-widening gap between the classes that contain many intricate layers which Simon & Company give you the opportunity to unpack. It is a story both about the people we have thoughtlessly left behind in order to keep the industries of our communities going, and about the people who are left to put the pieces together. How do we deal with the poor and the oppressed? Do we ignore them, or do we fight for them (or with them)? Interestingly enough, The Wire is asking some of the same questions as Jesus was asking people about the poor, and the disenfranchised. The response doesn't seem to be that much different in 21st century Baltimore than it was in 1st century Palestine. The fact remains however, you cannot simply watch this show passively.
If you've never seen the show (and if ratings are any judge, you haven't), it centers around the drug trade in Baltimore and adds layers to the city with each successive season. And while a show of this nature easy falls prey to stereotypes of "cop shows", where good and evil are easy to identify, it is the brilliance of The Wire to defy conventions and blur the previously clear line of who is good and how to deal with evil.
The real beauty of The Wire comes out not when we analyze it to death and discuss the tightness of the writing or the impeccable acting, but rather when we allow the show to read us. When we realize that the questions that have been left unanswered in Baltimore are the same questions that are unanswered in us: do we truly care about our poor people? Is the American Dream a dying myth? How can we sit by and watch the world around us and do nothing? The Wire presents far more questions than answers, but they are questions that must be dealt with.
