Few other television series have received as much academic, media, and fan celebration as The Wire, which has been called the best dramatic series ever created. The show depicts the conflict between Baltimore's police and criminals to raise a warning about race; drug war policing; deindustrialization; and the inadequacies of America’s civic, educational, and political institutions. The show's unflinching explorations of a city in crisis and its nuanced portrayals of those affected make it a show all about race and class in America.
The essays in this volume offer a range of astute critical responses to this television phenomenon. More consistently than any other crime show of its generation, The Wire challenges viewers' perceptions of the racialization of urban space and the media conventions that support this. The Wire reminds us of just how remarkably restricted the grammar of race is on American television and related media, and of the normative codings of race—as identity, as landscape—across urban narratives, from documentary to entertainment media.
"This bravura collection of essays ratifies the opinion of millions of worldwide fans: The Wire is the urban Grapes of Wrath, with characters as vivid and enduring, and truths as radical and plain-spoken, as those in Steinbeck's masterpiece."
—Mike Davis, University of California, Riverside
"Across its seasons, The Wire set out to combine a highly entertaining television experience with trenchant social argument. In comparable fashion, the essays in this volume take on the challenge of offering consequential cultural analysis in a compelling manner, and they amply provide myriad insights expressed with verve and vitality. A rich, important collection."
—Dana Polan, New York University
"Kennedy and Shapiro have assembled a stellar collection of essays—these consistently smart and engaging pieces illustrate how high quality crime tv operates as a premiere showcase for the tensions and predicaments of early twenty-first century American life and how The Wire in particular emerges as a crucial, compelling cultural text."
—Diane Negra, University College Dublin
Photo: Dominic West as Detective James McNulty, Larry Gilliard, Jr., as D'Angelo Barksdale, and Wendell Pierce as Detective Bunk Moreland. © HBO, Paul Schiraldi. Courtesy of Photofest.
"Kennedy and Shapiro have assembled a stellar collection of essays—these consistently smart and engaging pieces illustrate how high quality crime tv operates as a premiere showcase for the tensions and predicaments of early twenty-first century American life and how The Wire in particular emerges as a crucial, compelling cultural text."
—Diane Negra, University College Dublin
