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David Simon's lament in Esquire: "A newspaper can't love you back."

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Double Down, Jan 15, 2008.

  1. Oh, I am. It's certainly entertaining. I was just comparing it to "The Sopranos," not "Law & Order"
     
  2. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    I don't want to knock The Sopranos too much because it was exceptional and different and will probably go down at the most important television show of my lifetime. But it was also, very often, artsy and avant garde and pretentious in ways The Wire never is.

    Many people, including Chase and Simon, have made similar points, but here is the difference:

    The Sopranos is Shakespearian -- brilliant and tragic, but at the same time, messy and symbolic and full of unnecessary characters who do not advance the plot. These characters allow the writer to explore the form of storytelling, plumb the depths of various human emotions and to go on various philosophical journeys for the sake of art. It's not about plot, but about how the characters interact with one another and the emotions produced by these interactions, be it husbands and wives, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, friends and lovers, generals and soldiers. Our choices make us who we are, but for the most part, psychotherapy is bullshit. Its episodes are part of the larger plot, but very often, they're tiny self-contained short stories. One-hour movies. (See: College, University, Pine Barrens, Columbus Day, Sopranos Home Movies, Kennedy and Heidi, etc.). Although the minor characters matter, it's really about Tony. His character moves the story forward.

    The Wire is a Greek tragedy -- Every piece is a part of the story. There are no wasted characters, no 20 minute heroin trips where Chris stares off into the sky looking at fireworks. The Gods fire lightening bolts down on the mortals for no reason other than to fuck with them for sheer entertainment. The theme is how intitutions always triumph over individuals and how in modern America, each of us is worth less. Reform is impossible, at least by individuals. Like the Sopranos, there are moral complexities, but who is doomed and who is saved is not a matter of choices, it's a matter of stupid luck and fate. The Wire almost never has self-contained episodes, only seasonal arcs. The casual viewer of The Sopranos can quickly understand what's going on. The casual viewer of The Wire shouldn't even bother. There is a reason why most people can name specific titles of Sopranos episodes, but mostly cannot do so for The Wire. (Unless you're a nutjob like me, then you know that "All Prologue" is the best episode of Season 2 and probably the best of the series with the possible exception of "Bad Dreams", "Middle Ground", "Dead Soldiers" and "Final Grades.") In the Wire, the characters serve the plot, not the other way around like in the Sopranos. No other show would be so bold as to essentially lose McNulty, arguably the main character, for an entire season and have it turn out to be, ultimately, the best season of the entire series.

    The Wire is the better show. I think most people who have watched every season of both will tell you that, even big-time Sopranos fans. But both are exceptional. There's just no equivalent in The Wire to the first half of Season 6 of the Sopranos. I admire the Kevin Finerty journey into purgatory for the sake of experimenting and stretching the conventions of episodic television, but there was also a lot of mental jerking off going on when Tony was in a coma. That does not happen on The Wire.
     
  3. Boobie Miles

    Boobie Miles Active Member

    Umm yeah, that's a pretty fantastic breakdown of the differences of the two shows. I assume you're a sportswriter being on this board, and if you are I'm sure you're good, but man you could certainly do some TV stuff too.
     
  4. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    It's been a while since I've had a week as busy as this one, but when I started reading that piece I couldn't put the magazine down until I was done. I'm not generally a doomsday-theory person, but when I read, "Brother, we got out just in time," I couldn't help but think that someone in the Titanic lifeboats must had said the same thing.
     
  5. PeteyPirate

    PeteyPirate Guest

    Who's the guy who made up stories in the Baltimore Sun? This event has been alluded to enough so that his name would have come up on the Internets.
     
  6. pseudo

    pseudo Well-Known Member

    http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=10193
     
  7. You can also buy his book. Apparently he's now a soccer coach.

    http://soccerheadbook.com/about.html
     
  8. scalper

    scalper Member

    This was a great article. Depressing as hell, but great nonetheless.
     
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