12/19/07: The Wire

I finished the fourth season of The Wire this past weekend. I can't begin to describe how good this show is, and how...important, without it all sounding like hyperbole and I like to think I'm not prone to that. But damn--The Wire is great. And important. This fourth season will be its masterpiece I think. By the end it was heartbreaking. I can't imagine how television could be any better. Now I know that television is not taken "seriously" in cultural terms, and I would agree that most of it is terrible (and not nearly enough of it is terrible in a good way), but cinema, hell, even most literature, cannot match the depth and complexity of narrative and character development that a show like The Wire can provide by virtue of its format. And of course its quality. The Wire deserves to be discussed alongside the great American novels and films that make up the best of our cultural heritage. And that ain't hyperbole.