Word: wiring
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...fifth and final season of HBO's The Wire--TV's greatest current work of social criticism, of drama, of, well, TV--is about the failures of the media. In that spirit, let me begin with an apology. The odds are good that you have not yet watched the first four seasons of The Wire, which returns on Jan. 6, and that means that I as TV critic have failed you. Mea culpa...
...really know what The Wire is you have to know what the wire, lowercase, is. In the first season of the series, in 2002, the wire was a wiretap, which a team of Baltimore cops used in a season-long probe of a drug gang. At first blush, it sounded too conventional for the home of The Sopranos. A police drama on HBO? What's next? A sitcom about a friendly Martian? "We were the 'gritty cop show,'" David Simon, the former police reporter who created the series, recalls of some dismissive early reviews...
...wire is something that connects. All The Wire's characters face the same forces in a bottom-line, low-margin society, whether they work for a city department, a corporation or a drug cartel. A pusher, a homicide cop, a teacher, a union steward: they're all, in the world of The Wire, middlemen getting squeezed for every drop of value by the systems they work for. "Every day, they matter less as individuals," says Simon...
...with many other media organizations--and like The Wire's budget-strapped cops--they're paying attention mainly to the bottom line. Out-of-town owners are demanding higher profits, bureaus are closing, layoffs are draining the institutional memory, and the staff barely has the resources to chase fires, much less do investigative work. One top editor repeatedly asks his troops, in impeccable corporatese, to "do more with less...
...Murano baubles were broken, the Dutchers should sue Iowa officials. By scheduling caucuses for Jan. 3, they managed to stuff presidential politics into the holidays. The ugly consequence: on snowy lawns, placards touting candidates compete with colored lights and wire reindeer. On television and radio, desperate pols vie with desperate retailers for the attentions of holiday audiences. Between the office party, the school pageant and the search for the elusive Wii, who has time for a meet-and-greet with one candidate? And who can volunteer to stuff envelopes at campaign headquarters when there are dozens of cards waiting...