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Eric Tompkins

Professor Russell Thomas

English 1101

30 September 2020

The Wire: An Evaluation

The Wire is an excellent HBO television series that presents issues and themes that are

especially relevant to society today. Characters in the series encounter problems and tackle

issues in Baltimore, and many characters in the series change as a result of their experiences.

The writers of The Wire aren’t afraid to tackle issues that other television series may be afraid to

confront.

Many television shows don’t want to deal with issues such as drugs and

decriminalization because they don’t want to alienate viewers. The Wire isn’t afraid. Instead,

the show presents a problem and addresses it in an unbiased way. One example is the show’s

characters. Many viewers may not initially be able to relate to them and their flaws, but the

series develops the characters in ways that show they have morals even though their morals

may not appear at first.

Jimmy McNulty is a homicide detective in the Baltimore police department whose

personal shortcomings hold him back. Jimmy does a good job as a detective, but he doesn't

want to get personally involved in the lives of the people of the city that he is working to protect.

Jimmy is only interested in doing his job and getting his paycheck.

As the series progresses, Jimmy changes. A case Jimmy is working on ends badly.

Jimmy has invested time and energy into arresting a criminal, but before Jimmy can arrest him

the criminal gets killed. JImmy is torn up about the situation because he invested so much into

trying to catch the criminal but ultimately the criminal won’t face prosecution for his crimes. All of

the time and effort that Jimmy had invested had been wasted. Jimmy realizes that he needs
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more in his life than just solving cases as a detective. In Season 4, Jimmy stops drinking, pulls

his life together, and becomes a beat cop in Baltimore, actually supporting the community in

which he serves.

Before these experiences, Jimmy was caught in a cycle of policing by politics. Solving

crimes was based on statistics that reported low crime rates so that mayors and governors

could get re-elected. Elected officials were concerned about crime rates which would reflect

positively on them in future elections, so they told police officers to arrest low-level criminals

rather than going after people who were higher-ups and who were truly responsible for the

crimes. Jimmy stopped caring about statistics and started to care about the people in the

community. Mayors and governors didn’t care about the quality of the police work or the people

of the communities they governed, but Jimmy cared about making real change and doing what

was best for the community of Baltimore.

Another excellent character who changes throughout the course of the series from

flawed to relatable is D’Angelo Barksdale. The first time the viewer sees Barksdale, he is getting

off easy during his trial. Witnesses saw Barksdale commit the crime, were threatened that if they

came forward, their lives would be in danger. Shortly after getting off for his crime, Barksdale

sees the dead body of the only character who was brave enough to testify against him.

Barksdale is shaken up because the character who was killed was a normal person with a

family. Barksdale wondered if it was necessary for him to die and also about his role in the

man’s murder.

Later in the series, Barksdale starts working with young teenagers on the street as they

sell drugs. Although Barksdale protects them, he also expects them to sell drugs for his uncle

Avon Barksdale’s organization and bring money back to him. D’Angelo becomes close to the

teenagers and feels conflicted and guilty about getting kids caught up in the drug trade. As the

police are honing in on Avon Barksdale’s organization and his drug trade, two of the teens that
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D’Angelo is working with murder one of the kids that Barksdale had become close with because

that teenager went to the police to confess crimes.

These two events lead to D’Angelo Barksdale becoming disillusioned with the life he is

leading. The change in Barksdale reinforces a theme of the show that sometimes it isn't a

person who is completely bad, but their environment leads them to make bad decisions.

Barksdale did bad things and found himself in bad situations, but he still had people that he

loved and cared about. He felt terribly when bad things happened to those people. With both

McNulty and Barksdale, the show manages to make flawed characters relatable to the

audience.

Another reason why The Wire is an excellent show is because of the relevance of the

show’s themes to today’s Baltimore. The war on drugs is an overarching theme of each season.

The show's first episode shows Jimmy McNulty talking to a potential witness to a recent murder.

The murdered man’s nickname was Snot Boogie. McNulty jokes that the man got that nickname

because one day he didn’t wear a coat and he ended up with a stuffy nose. McNulty observes

that after one mistake of not wearing a coat, the man had this terrible nickname for the rest of

his life.

The show uses this situation as an example of the flaws of the war on drugs. Snot

Boogie got his name after one mistake. The show demonstrates that if a person makes a

mistake and gets arrested for drugs, especially if that person is a teenager, that mistake can

follow the person around forever. The show makes a statement that for the people of Baltimore,

drugs can doom a person’s life forever because it will be on their record for the rest of their life.

For Snot Boogie and for a teenager on the streets in Baltimore, a small decision can have a

lasting negative impact.

Even though the show premiered in the early 2000s, it is still relevant today. This is a

testament to the show’s themes and the quality of writing of compelling characters. The
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relevance of the show however is also concerning because not much has really changed for

people in Baltimore since the show’s premiere.

The Wire was created by a police journalist and a Baltimore detective who took down a

drug lord, so the situations are authentic and relevant. The writers aren’t afraid to show the

viewers what life is like for people in Baltimore, and they do it through characters who may not

seem relatable on the surface. When the viewer watches the series however they see the

impact of the environment. As a result, the viewer is better able to understand life in Baltimore

and to learn about the lives of people in these situations.