Drug-dealers with pie charts

Grade: D+ The Wire - Season 3 review As far as cop procedural drama’s go, the prevailing criterion has, and always will be plagued by the awareness of spectator; censorship regulations; and/ or marketing appeal. The attraction: to satiate our tastes for cunning and skill, brought forth by both criminal and regulator. There comes a time when sound “realism,” or high drama fails to quench; becoming, rather tedious. The alternative for the literati set must be/ is: The Wire, created by David Simon – a veteran writer of the cop procedural, and a Jewish American ex-police reporter for the Baltimore Sun – such credentials, dispensed accordingly, make for bountiful creativity, when credibility or credence is concerned. Additionally, for the sort of raw, streetwise approach The Wire so ambitiously undertakes, a 50 year-old Jewish man is a precious resource when providing character sketches of impoverished, desperate, black men and women. It seems, once again, that our collective, pop-savvy conscious, has been duped… the demographic the show procures must be- and I am mindful of my ignorance in this subject - - - affluent, quasi-intellectuals, who have moralized in some sense, that by viewing The Wire - which they believe is as precise a depiction as any factual document – they can grasp the entirety of the “black struggle.” The show is a sanction of sorts, when “challenging” issues are pressed, primarily on race. Not too say the execution of the show is not an achievement in itself – an unrestricted, epic theater of cop, criminal, and legislator - or that theatrics should not be effectuated, for the sake of our viewing pleasure – but it is precisely that which is wrong with this picture. As we prosper and delight in the spectacle of the menacing black man, besieged – with brute force- by the valiant, white peace officer - all the while, challenging such behavior as despicable - appraising, from the safety of comforting environments - vouchsafing any indigent individual with our world-wise chivalry. The theory that human behavior is determined by our surrounding circumstances rather than personal qualities is the driving force behind the show - yet, most of what is depicted can be mistaken for farce, bearing in mind, that drug-dealers exhaustively rattle on about trade, industry, and the creation of wealth in conversation. When divergence and novel approaches are concerned, with time, niche functions must reconvene - which applies to the show's momentum... sooner or later, even the best show's are parallel versions of Law & Order. It is such regarded intricacies that attest to David Simon's authoritative expertise and sentiment - to all things we dare not comprehend.