It's All In The Game

The creator of my favourite American TV series ever, The Wire, appeared at The Guardian Hay Festival this weekend - the only plausible reason I can think of to travel to the depths of rural Wales and hang out with a cliquey collective of literary geeks and left-wing librarians. David Simon, the genius behind unforgettable characters like McNulty, Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale, and co-author of Homicide and The Corner (top of my Amazon wish list), spoke to a room full of Guardian-reading, middle class media-types who were either hard-core Wire fans (like me) or just wanted to find out what all the fuss is about. For those of you not familiar with The Wire – where have you been?! In a nutshell, it’s the most addictive, life-consuming and talked about show on both sides of the Atlantic.

According to one of my favourite blogs, www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, the reason so many middle-class white people like The Wire is simple… “For white people to like a TV show it helps if it is: critically acclaimed, low-rated, shown on premium cable, and available as a DVD box set… If you attempt to talk about an episode they have not seen yet, they will scream and cover their ears. In white culture, giving away information about a film or TV series is considered as rude as spitting on your mothers grave. It is an unforgivable offense… For the past three years, whenever you say ‘The Wire’ white people are required to respond by saying ‘it’s the best show on television.’… So why do they love it so much? It all comes down to authenticity. A long time ago, someone started a rumor that when The Wire is on TV, actual police wires go quiet because all the dealers are watching the show. Though this is not true, it seems plausible enough to white people and has imbued the show with the needed authenticity.”

I must confess to adhering to this stereotype. Instead of saying ‘yes’ at work now, I have resorted to mumbling ‘no doubt’ or ‘true, dat’. Half my colleagues give me a quiet nod of recognition whilst others look bewildered. It takes several episodes before the viewer can even begin to understand these drug-dealing colloquialisms and complex street vernacular but this is what makes The Wire so inimitable. As Omar says, ‘a man’s gotta have a code’.

As well as being popular amongst yuppie white kids whose lives are far removed from the drug-infested existence of Baltimore’s impoverished residents, the show’s cult-like following includes Barack Obama, Jay-Z and Eminem. The Detroit rapper confessed in a recent interview to watching The Wire in it’s entirety during his career break - describing it as ‘like crack’. Now, I’ve never dabbled with crack but if it’s anything like as good as The Wire… I may need to get down to the corner and get a re-up.
















The Wire is now showing on BBC Two.