Ten and a half months later...

So is The Wire the best thing on TV in the last twenty one years? Yes - because apart from anything else this allows The World At War and most importantly The Phil Silvers Show their rightful place in the TV Pantheon. What about The Sopranos or The Wire? First allow me to explain why The Sopranos is not quite as good as The Wire. The Sopranos is great television, moving, funny, shocking but rarely meaningful. It's derivative which is not necessarily a bad thing but it depends on you getting references to The Godfather and the way a vicious crime boss is sometimes depicted as Homer Simpson is a touch of genius. But there's no moment when you say to yourself, 'That's just like my life!' Now I'm not 'police' and despite the fact I taught in an urban comprehensive in South London does not really make my life like Prez's school in season four but the way in which public service jobs have been reduced to target setting so that the targets are ends in themselves speaks to a very wide audience. All of the characters have their good and bad points there's moral ambiguity all around which makes everything seem more realistic. Towards the end of Season Three where a prominent public servant is spotted in a gay bar his hypocrisy and duplicity is not dwelt upon and preached about it's just noted - all of this resonates with our everyday experience of people. As has been pointed out already by somebody else The Wire is like a novel -you cannot skip the chapter it demands effort but rewards the viewer not just with TV entertainment but the the same reward that great literature brings. The characters are so strong and the acting is simply phenomenal - especially that of the school children. It is so easy to forget that these little guys are acting it's incredible.

What about The Shield? Well it too is great television brilliantly acted and superbly written - it too creates all sorts of moral dilemmas that test our consciences but for me it does not transcend the genre of a cop programme - and it is very much from a police perspective which is fine in itself but it lacks the depth of The Wire. The viewer is given less perspective of the LA politician and little insight into gang members despite it being about much of the same subject matter. Consider what the viewer has learnt about Baltimore drug dealing or teaching or municipal politics with what we learn from The Shield.