@Biskie
Have you got to the surreal bit where the English actor playing McNulty pretends to be English? I once had a friend whose dad was a ‘master’ in a prep school and we sat through a production of Oliver where the prep school kids had to pretend to be poor kids imagining what it would be like to be posh kids. All very odd.

I’m recently converted and have all of the (probably irritating) devotional zeal of a recent convert.

Have watched some of series 1 (and can testify to how you can’t skip bits out) and have watched series 2 on BBC2 – last episode was on Wed night.

I really wanted to – not hate it – but like it with reservations, so that I could distance myself from the adulation, be sophisticated blah blah blah.

But, quite simply, it really is that good. Series 2 is focussed on the stevedores of Baltimore and some of the subtexts (decline of production etc) are v interesting. The final ten minutes of the penultimate episode is as moving a piece of television as I can remember seeing. And the characters are fantastically drawn out. (All the Sobotkas are brilliant examples). Very few characters are un-really good or bad (maybe the lawyer, Levy, is an exception, Gordy, though worth it for that scene with Omar). I hunger to watch more! And again and again!

Basically, it poses a great threat to future chances of finding a nice girl, gainful employment, a pristine high street in london, etcetc.

By the way, the producer of The Wire’s written two books from his journalism days: first was Homicide (which follows Baltimore’s, er, homicide unit for a year). This is not, on paper, my kind of thing. But, egged on by a colleague, I relented. And basically put life on hold to finish it. Brilliantly absorbing and quite jarring for what it shows about ‘targets culture’ when applied to, er, murder.

The other is The Corner – which focusses on a few blocks of West Baltimore over the course of a year. It is co-authored (with a former policeman David Simon met doing Homicide) and is a little closer to what The Wire is about. Just started – but v good so far.

I’m wary of treating Simon as some sort of guru or genius. But, came across him talking on youtube and he’s very interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNkL12QD68
(with parts 2 and 3 linked in sidebar).

One final thing: I find it interesting how often he refers to Greek tragedy. He means it substantively. There’s definitely something to it. Looking back, that scene I mentioned above (which is on youtube but I don’t want to ruin it by isolating it for anyone who’s never watched it) is the culmination of a tragedy. But it also has a little resemblance to some conventions of Greek Tragedy (representations of death, sex, etc).

Anyhow, like you Gordy, I’ve become a shameless, brazen, fanatical evangelist. If I lived in Georgia, I’d be a door-to-door Wire salesmen. I recently-ish changed second supervisor. Met with new one, who’s great. And we were chatting. And it turns out he lived in Baltimore for not far off a decade. You seen The Wire?, he asked. We have a v good working relationship.