Having just watched the finale of Season 3, I find myself unsurprised to report that it was even better. In fact, The Wire up to this point has been so good that I genuinely wonder if television drama can get any better. For all my prattling on about the evolution of television - as if it's constantly moving towards being something better, something more - it's very difficult to imagine ways in which The Wire could be improved upon. Could it really be that this show represents the peak of the medium's capability?
It's a question of taste, I suppose. One of The Wire's greatest achievements, in my opinion, would be the way it has evolved beyond standalone episodic narratives. But to suggest that television's episodic nature is a failing is not a charge that can be laid down so definitively. Many people see the episodic nature of television as a bonus; some would even write off The Wire completely due to its deviant nature. However, if we're looking at television as an art form, such opinions can be squarely brushed aside. Arguments about whether TV should be essentially episodic are not arguments about the merits of television; they are personal admissions of the way certain people prefer to watch television. A predilection for short stories over novels, for example, does not affect one's judgement on what constitutes good writing. To this end, form is flexible; it is the execution that is important. And The Wire's ability to disseminate such a consistent, dense and complex story so flawlessly over about twelve hours is truly remarkable.
Perhaps what makes it so remarkable is just how different it is to anything else on television. When defining "Quality TV", in fact, Robert Thompson's first criteria was as follows:
"Quality TV is best defined by what it is not. It is not "regular" TV ... In a medium long considered artless, the only artful TV is that which isn't like all the rest of it. Quality TV breaks rules. It may do this by taking a traditional genre and transforming it, as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and Moonlighting did to the cop show, the doctor show, and the detective show, respectively. Or it may defy standard generic parameters and define new narrative territory heretofore unexplored by television" (Thompson, 1996; 13)
The Wire is all of those things. And, of course, when thinking about the way in which The Wire has eclipsed a show like Hill Street Blues - lauded by Thompson as the first quality television show - it's difficult not to wonder if I am being too generous with my praise, or perhaps even short-sighted. But one must also think about whether a time ultimately comes in the lifespan of any medium that a pinnacle is reached, an ideal template created. Now, having been bogged down in its role as a tool for commerce for so long, television is finally flourishing as an art form, and maybe that time has come.
What seems particularly special about The Wire is how little it feeds to its audience. The rewards are there in abundance, but nothing is so prosaic as to demand or manipulate a reaction from the viewer, something even some of the best TV shows find themselves guilty of on occasion. Instead, and for the first time in my experience, The Wire feels like a show that just is; a show with no other agenda but to be as good as it possibly can. Compare it to other shows and it is difficult not to notice the absence of so many regular little devices unique to TV and often born of its institutional limitations; either covering up faults or going out of its way to meet industrial standards (commercial concerns). Little things like the absence of a "Previously on..." recap or dramatic act breaks designed to make sure you don't change the channel during the commercial; lame duck cliff-hangers or plot twists to make sure you tune in next week. The Wire feels like it's above those things in a way no other TV ever has been. And with audiences becoming exponentially savvier to such TV practices, such pureness of intent feels likely to become more important across the board. The last thing audiences want is to feel patronised by their light entertainment, and The Wire steadfastly refuses to do that. All it seems to want is to tell its story.
It is perhaps in this context that The Wire best represents the peak of television's evolution. Whether you like it or not - maybe you hate cop shows or prefer fantasy to realism or something - it's a show that has unshackled itself from the chains of convention and excelled as a result. What more could you ask? Where else is there for television to go but wherever the hell it wants to?
You have to watch it.
If you're still not convinced or are looking for something more like an actual review and less like frenzied rambling, watch Charlie Brooker talk about it much more sensibly and just see if he can't convince you...
I'll second everything he said, but then I'll go back to frenzied rambling. Best show ever. Watch it. Watch it. Watch it. Beg, buy, borrow, steal, watch, watch, watch.
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