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the wire
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Things We Like
Jim "Prez" True-Frost, from the greatest show ever on television ever, The Wire, will be taking over the part of Little Charles in the greatest show on Broadway right now, August: Osage County. Good casting.
Jim "Prez" True-Frost, from the greatest show ever on television ever, The Wire, will be taking over the part of Little Charles in the greatest show on Broadway right now, August: Osage County. Good casting.
The Coda
The Wire will never die, as long as die-hard followers like Culture Vulture still remember. Here, from the New York Magazine blog, is a wonderfully geeky frame-by-frame analysis of the final montage from David Simon's crime and corruption drama.
The Wire will never die, as long as die-hard followers like Culture Vulture still remember. Here, from the New York Magazine blog, is a wonderfully geeky frame-by-frame analysis of the final montage from David Simon's crime and corruption drama.
great television
Saying Goodbye to The Wire, Over And Over Again
As you may have heard a million and one times today, last night was the series finale of HBO's The Wire, David Simon's sad and probing look into the lives of some people who lived in an American city once. Today there has been heaps of coverage about the last gasp of the Greatest Television Show In The History of Ever, and it can be a little daunting to sort through it. So, we've gone ahead and put together a little digest of some of the more interesting write-ups after the jump. Plus, a little video bonus. Shiiiiiit. Goodnight, Baltimore. More »
television
The Hubris of David Simon
Credit where it is due: after a mid-season wobble, which shook my devotion to the foundation, The Wire has come together for the conclusion. David Simon's incredibly ambitious drama of crime and corruption in a decaying Baltimore has been compared by Slate's Jacob Weisberg, among others, to the sprawling novels of the 19th century. Most creators would be flattered to be mentioned in the same sentence as Charles Dickens. Simon, who combines cynicism about the possibility of social change with complete faith in the importance of his art, makes grander literary references in a recent radio interview on NPR's Fresh Air. "We've been stealing from a lot of the Greek tragedies... Hubris, a willingness to challenge the gods, a willingness to engage in an argument against one's fate: the same things that Antigone or Oedipus struggled with we gave the same sort of dynamic to our characters... The gods are the post-industrial institutions of modern life. Whoever you serve. Wherever your paycheck comes from. Whatever calling you thought you had. On The Wire, there is every possibility it will betray you." Talk about hubris: such a claim would normally invite ridicule. But Simon, a frustrated former journalist, has defied the fate he's assigned to The Wire's heroes: the former journalist challenged the gods of television with a show that shouldn't have worked, and they let him succeed. After the jump, a clip from the interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross. More »
lolbama
Obama's Favorite TV Show: You Will Never Guess, Ever
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spent an entire day with a reporter for Us Weekly who asked "boxers or briefs" and other similarly pressing questions. The Times is kind of in a snit about it because when Us had Hillary Clinton in its pages, it was to have her make fun of her own worst outfits. Actually, the Hillary story was pretty fun compared with Obama's profile, where he comes across fairly vanilla, which is like a deadly sin in a celebrity magazine. Nevertheless, he does make fun of Stevie Wonder bumbling into things, which is kind of cool, and you'll never ever guess what his favorite TV show is: More »
last night's party
Media Jews Violate Kosher At Spotted Pig
Pictured here, New York's Adam Moss, host of the Oscars party the magazine threw at the Spotted Pig, before ab-obsessed Dave Zinczenko unbuttoned his shirt. Moss, who used to run New York Times' Sunday magazine, is one of the most high-minded of modern editors. Which makes the magazine's web triumph last week all the more disturbing. New York claims 20m pageviews per day for the arty nudes it ran of drunken starlet, Lindsay Lohan. (Yes, jealous.) Moss says the traffic is "addictive". He's joking, for the moment. But wait. (In this week's New York sex diaries, an S&M-loving comedian.) After the jump, lovingly photographed by Gawker's Nikola Tamindzic: Emily Gould; Julia Allison; Alan Cumming and other British luvvies' media gays displaying affection; "Smash" from Friday Night Lights; Marlo's enforcer from cult HBO show, The Wire; and Jews eating piglet. More »
backlash
Why David Simon Should Shut Down The Wire
Devotees of The Wire, myself among them, should be delighted by this hint given by one of the HBO drama's actors. Dominic West, who plays the increasingly manic police detective, Jimmy McNulty, tells the Los Angeles Times some of his colleagues are lobbying David Simon for a movie spinoff, and the show's creator is indeed considering a prequel. But here's the sacrilegious thought, which I can't suppress: the final season is not the triumph that fans had hoped for; and it's time for Simon to let go. More »
suction
The Wire Learns From West Baltimore
Sure, the creator of HBO's The Wire is plugging his nephew's band Dead Meadow (left) in one of the drama's $1.5 million-to-produce episodes, and tapping the acting skills of Emmy-bait Dominic West to make it plausible. Jimmy McNulty this weeks complains to his kids about their music, and they reply, "it's Dead Meadow, Dad, geez." And yes, it's apparently the second time he's pimped the band in as many seasons. But The Wire itself is all about the power of incestuous and uncomfortable relationships, about the "suction" and "grease" deployed to win goodies for lovers, friends, business associates and, especially, family. Well played. [Leather Canary via NYM]
The Ubiquitous David Simon
We love the Wire, even if the newsroom scenes are clumsy. But will former reporter and the HBO show's creator, David Simon, stop with the stream of essays? More importantly, will his fellow journalists, flattered though they are to be dramatized in the latest season of the show, stop running the pieces? Enough, already. [Baltimore Magazine]
We love the Wire, even if the newsroom scenes are clumsy. But will former reporter and the HBO show's creator, David Simon, stop with the stream of essays? More importantly, will his fellow journalists, flattered though they are to be dramatized in the latest season of the show, stop running the pieces? Enough, already. [Baltimore Magazine]
scrapbook
The creator of The Wire, HBO's crime-and-politics drama, used to work at the Baltimore Sun. Here's his press pass, from a recent memoir of his newspaper days, in Esquire. Funniest story: when Simon, as a newbie reporter, thought that oral sex had been legalized in Maryland. Simon is less amused by the transgressions of some former colleagues, portraying them variously as corporate stooges, buffoons and fabricators.
David Simon's Press Pass
The creator of The Wire, HBO's crime-and-politics drama, used to work at the Baltimore Sun. Here's his press pass, from a recent memoir of his newspaper days, in Esquire. Funniest story: when Simon, as a newbie reporter, thought that oral sex had been legalized in Maryland. Simon is less amused by the transgressions of some former colleagues, portraying them variously as corporate stooges, buffoons and fabricators.
A Show About Us
Yet more on The Wire, and what it reveals about journalism. The newspaper industry is much like the city of Baltimore: slightly horrified by the attention, but pleased it has its own HBO drama. [CJR]
Yet more on The Wire, and what it reveals about journalism. The newspaper industry is much like the city of Baltimore: slightly horrified by the attention, but pleased it has its own HBO drama. [CJR]
gossip roundup
Owen Wilson's Problems Are Caused By Men's Vogue
- Otherwise levelheaded Owen Wilson and scientologist Will Smith are being "driv[en] ... crazy" by Men's Vogue, which totally promised them the cover. [Daily News]
- Omar from The Wire can't get his posse into his own premiere party, even after he starts whistling "Farmer in the Dell." [NYP]
- At CNBC, Erin Burnett's bosses make it known she can discreetly accept jet rides from plutocrats like Maria, but not so much with the actual published list of demands for sugar daddies. [NYP]
cults
Worship The Wire after this four-minute indoctrination!
HBO's The Wire will cure cancer, save your newspaper and stand for millennia as the highest recorded form of human culture ever, every publication in the world reported this week. Gawker commenters have called the Wire "the best show ever," "completely addict[ing]," "really that good" and "I fucking love this show." But apparently "getting people to watch it is like pulling teeth" — hence the video after the jump, providing four seasons of backstory in four minutes. More »
the wire
The Writers Always Have The Last Say
John Carroll (pictured speaking) became a newspaper martyr when in 2005 he resigned as editor of the Los Angeles Times rather than implement budget cuts demanded by the penny-pinching corporate overlords. But that wasn't enough for David Simon, creator of The Wire, the HBO drama about crime, politics and the media in Baltimore. Simon, a former reporter at the Baltimore Sun, still blames Carroll for "single-handedly destroying" the newspaper; he's the model for the bland manager of Simon's television show who urges staff to do "more with less". [Baltimore Sun via Fimoculous]
culture wars
Wire creator to NYC: "You don't know shit anymore!"
New York's media establishment may have decided that it loves the Wire. (Slate editor Jacob Weisberg was among the talking heads comparing the HBO drama to a great 19th century novel in the promo.) But David Simon, creator of the Baltimore-based show, doesn't return the regard. To be sure, Simon is generally bitter, holds a grudge and if you ask him what he thinks about Washingtonians, he'll say "fuck them." But the man reserves his real disdain for the East Coast Fantasy Island of New York. This is a 2006 link, but worth reprising. Baltimore blogger Eebmore transcribed a talk Simon gave at Eugene Lang College of the New School (famous alumni include: Ani DiFranco, Matisyahu, Sufjan Stevens and...Emily Gould!) and it's one of the best takedowns of New York we've heard. "You don’t know shit anymore!" and then some, after the jump. More »
grudging praise
The Wire, HBO's beautifully weary drama, documents the decline of industrial America. Having explored the docks, and failing schools, the fifth and final season introduces a new setting: the depressed newsroom of the Baltimore Sun, as it struggles to stay relevant in the increasingly binary American newspaper industry. Most telling line, from a bitter Sun reporter yearning to do real journalism: "The Times, The Post. Where else?" (Click the video for one of the sadder scenes from last night's show; after the jump, more on The Wire and the media.) More »
'The Wire' Was Hot
The Wire, HBO's beautifully weary drama, documents the decline of industrial America. Having explored the docks, and failing schools, the fifth and final season introduces a new setting: the depressed newsroom of the Baltimore Sun, as it struggles to stay relevant in the increasingly binary American newspaper industry. Most telling line, from a bitter Sun reporter yearning to do real journalism: "The Times, The Post. Where else?" (Click the video for one of the sadder scenes from last night's show; after the jump, more on The Wire and the media.) More »
brilliant
