First of all, understand something - I do not have Cable - nor Satellite - nor FIOS - nor HDTV - nor any other high priced, fancy-smancy reception. Can’t afford it. But, for about three years now, I have subscribed to NETFLIX. On average, I watch a minimum of 12-15 movies per month, and on a busy month, maybe even 20! That means my cost is only about a Buck a Movie!

NOTE: you have to CLICK on pic to read what Chihuahua is saying!

A Review of THE WIRE

© - 4/08 - Tom Hyland


There have been several HIT HBO Shows that everyone else had raved about, but I had never seen - for YEARS - like, The Sopranos! When it became available on DVD, I then watched all six, or eight? seasons in a row - chronologically! I LOVED IT!

If you like: Murder, Mayhem, Massacred English language, Intrigue, and Suspense - I highly recommend our Anti-Hero, Tony Soprano - Wise-Guy? Good-Guy? Bad-Guy? All rolled up nicely in one big package!

Don? Super-WOP? Psychotic? Neurotic? Erotic? Wad’da Guy! Bad’da Bing - Bad’da Boom!

No - this Review is not about THAT show - that was just a Bonus Report, included for the sheer Fun of it! So, what about The WIRE? It was filmed on location, right here in Downtown Baltimore, Maryland, or as my book so aptly named it, in the vernacular - BAWLMER, Merlyn - Home of The HONS!

But, WOW - what a difference! While my personal experiences growing up here were all about Fun, and Good things - this show is all about - EVIL - CRIME - DRUGS - COPS - CROOKS - CORRUPTION - and the -- DARK SIDE!

Although I had The WIRE in my queue for a long time, for some reason, the First Disc of Season One was NOT available, so I waited, and waited, and waited - until it was! Yesterday, Friday, April 11th, 2008, they finally arrived in my mailbox - Discs 1, 2, and 3 of Season One. And, up until Eleven-Thirty P.M. last night, I watched all EIGHT EPISODES - about eleven or twelve continuous hours - chronologically! And I got calluses on my ARSE to prove it!

Very First Impression? TOO MUCH PROFANITY!

I would be hard pressed to remember one complete sentence that was uttered, even by the Judge character, that was not interspersed with CUSS words! So, WHY were people RAVING over this show? Was it because of a false sense of REALISM? Maybe?

The next most prominent, obviously over-done fact, was the use of the N word - NIGGER! How odd? If a white person uses that word, anywhere, anytime, for any reason - he is a RACIST, or a BIGOT! But if a black person, or more properly politically correct, an Afro-American uses it - OVER, and OVER, and OVER, and OVER - ad nauseum - it’s OKAY! And if a Script Writer puts it in an HBO Show - it’s ART! Go Figure!

That, Dear Readers, is what this show is all about - Drug dealers, Drug addicts, Drug pushers, NARC cops, Homicide cops, even little children - incessantly saying: F**K you, NIGGER - no, F**K you, NIGGER - and ON, and ON, and ON! If you are the type of person that simply loves RAP - I don’t, and would not even call it Music - I call it NOISE - VULGAR NOISE - then, you will also love this show!

The dialogues, the monologues, the ‘asides’ - are all repetitious rantings of: MF this, and F that, and you N, and CS this, and C that … as a Sixty-Seven year-old, who has been around a bit, served a stint in the Army, put myself through college working full time days, and attending night school, and having put two children through college also, and outlasting a marriage of thirty-four years, and shooting pool in BARS for the past seven years - I am NOT a PRUDE! I have heard it ALL! But, in my heart of hearts, this show is OVER-DONE!

If the intention of the WIRE was to show the plight of poor, black, inner-city people - to make you somehow feel sorry for them, to understand how hard it is for them - then, it FAILED MISERABLY!
If the intent was to paint a picture of Baltimore to the outside world, as nothing but a SICK, DECREPIT SOCIETY - then, it succeeded in this regard!

Other than a few scenes, showing a brief glimpse of NORMAL day-to-day living, such as only ONE SCENE in a FINER RESTAURANT, you are BURIED in ELEVEN HOURS of the PROJECTS, and the TENEMENTS of the GHETTO - DISMAL - DESPONDENT - and DEGRADING!

I remember well, how good people of Italian ancestry raised a HEW and CRY about the portrayal of their ethnic group, when the movie, The Godfather came out. But it was a HIT! Then came the Sequel, and then yet another - ALL HITS!

While the WIRE does present about five or six prominent black Police Officials who somehow MADE IT into the mainstream of society, despite coming up from the same ROOTS - all the rest of the remaining characters are portrayed as HOPELESS - DENIGRATED - DESPICABLE LOST SOULS!

If there is such a thing as REDEEMING MERIT in this show, one would be hard-pressed to find it! To that end, one short line comes to mind - when one of the characters makes some statement about the WAR ON DRUGS, another character comments: “YEAH, BUT WARS END!”

If anyone should choose to watch this show, in spite of this review, I can only suggest that you try to realize that the so-called REALISM presented is most probably TRUE IN EVERY OTHER MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREA OF AMERICA - NOT JUST BALTIMORE!

In closing, let me say this - although all of the above can easily be regarded as a Negative Review - the acting of many of these young actors is very well done, and believable. And the PLOT itself, to find, track down, and capture the main villain does have me HOOKED! This means that I will watch more - if only to hopefully see Justice Served!

If somehow, this occurs by the end of this First Season, I doubt very much that I will bother with any Second Season! Like I said before, although not a PRUDE - TOO MUCH PROFANITY is TOO MUCH!

THE WIRE? THE PATRIOT ACT? THE CONSTITUTION? JUST HOW FAR DOES ONE GO - BEFORE BECOMING ONE OF -‘THEM?’