I've been putting off Netflixing The Wire, simply because the likes of grimy, cuss-happy Deadwood and blinky, shiny, sexy Doctor Who have been occupying my TV-on-DVD devotion of late. An excerpt from the interview is here; the whole thing is really enlightening and inspiring, that there are some people working in Hollywood's idiom who are actually fucking real and principled about what they do.
This is the part of the interview that made me jump to queue up the show and trumpet a little of its creator's awesomeness:
DAVID SIMON: My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.
Ha! So maybe David Simon's a little more David Milch than I thought. This is also, by the way, my intellectual objection to spending my life churning out articles about fucking dog parks or property taxes or "Midtown Raleigh" at the likes of The News & Observer. (ETA: Although the seeming drudgery of straight news reporting doesn't appeal to me, their arts/entertainment/lifestyles coverage is pretty damn good for the Triangle's sadly undersized cultural scene.)
Thoughts on The Wire forthcoming. It's gonna be intense.
Yeah, Believer cd was kind of *yawn*. Their cds often are too self-consciously ecceclectic/weird/indie to result in a cohesive, satisfying mix. Still have not gotten around to reading it yet, let alone the August one, but that David Simon interview (from what you've quoted) sounds awesome. Haven't watched The Wire either and am always given a lecture about how it's the greatest thing ever every time I tell mention that to somone.
ReplyDeleteIt is very good indeed. Also worth noting that two principals - Dominic West and Idris Elba - pull off all that Baltimorean (?) patois despite hailing from the UK.
ReplyDeleteAside from the verisimillitude, from a plotting point of view the show is a marvel. Hanging threads from season one get paid off in four. But don't let the general vibe of overpraise put you off; it's not one of those worthy and sometimes boring shows (can I cite The West Wing here?). After a few episodes you'll be engrossed.
Everyone I know who has started watching The Wire has become obsessed. My theory is that Baltimore is just very compelling somehow (John Waters, Homicide: Life on the Street).
ReplyDeletenot to cross-reference with facebook too much, but yeah yeah let's go see superbad, because we are teenage boys inside.