7 ms·

Why We're Teaching 'The Wire' at Harvard

114 points by aditya 16y ago

jessor 16y ago
The Wire was an awesome show, probably one of the best I've ever seen. Some characters, like Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, were casted right from the streets. Highly recommended to get a less romanticized view of the streets.
- Tangurena 16y ago
  Snoop's story is tragically sad, but also inspirational as she did get out of the cycle of violence. http://www.amazon.com/Grace-After-Midnight-Felicia-Pearson/dp/0446195189 http://www.amazon.com/Grace-After-Midnight-Felicia-Pearson/d...
  - jessor 16y ago
    Yes. I actually bought and read the book because her character was so moving. Turns out it's just her whole person.
sspencer 16y ago
Disclaimer: I have never seen a single episode of The Wire. Am I alone in thinking that this is a complete waste of time? Why would I go to Harvard to hear learned commentary on a TV show? Granted, this is a critically acclaimed TV show, but it's still just meant to entertain. If I paid the exorbitant Harvard tuition, I would be incensed to be made to study a TV show. Maybe others wouldn't? Does anyone here feel like it's a positive instead of a negative? EDIT: I see that I have apparently angered some people by asking this question, judging by the downvotes. I didn't mean to offend - I just wanted to see what made this show different from other TV, which several of you have explained. Again, my apologies.
- ahi 16y ago
  If I paid the exorbitant Harvard tuition and they made me study a romance novel I'd be pissed too. The Wire isn't pulp. It's the television equivalent of literature. The writing is really that good.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    You really can't fck with the fckin writing on the Wire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbsnSVM1zM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbsnSVM1zM
- johnfn 16y ago
  Why shouldn't universities study TV shows? Lets make an analogy with books. Most books are, in the end, "just meant to entertain", but it would be ridiculous to argue that universities shouldn't study them. Why? Well, some books go beyond just entertainment into a further realm: commentary on the human situation, raising and questioning of philosophic questions, etc. I think that the Wire fits into the same mold as an excellent book. Saying that it's just to entertain misses the bigger goals that it's trying to accomplish. It has brilliant script writing and direction, and it really raises questions into the areas that it portrays (the drug war, corruption in legal areas, etc) that I had never considered before. (And yes, you should watch it. :) )
- andrewvc 16y ago
  You're deriding the course based on medium, not message. Perhaps we also shouldn't use a 'common' language like English and revert to being taught in Latin. Additionally, If you'd actually seen The Wire you probably would not be arguing against this course. The Wire isn't just any piece of entertainment, it's the result of David Simon's years of observations as a journalist in Baltimore, a thesis covering his observations of how institutions fail individuals, in particular the black urban poor in Baltimore. While The Wire may be fictional, it's quite pointed in its messages, and as the author says, it weaves together many connected threads into a unified whole in a way many academic texts lack. Lastly, it doesn't just tell you what's going on in a dry, disconnected tone like an academic text. It makes you truly grok and indeed FEEL what's going on. In my view, that definitely elevates this course.
- rauljara 16y ago
  First: it is a single course, and it does not appear to be a required one. No one is being made to study it. Students are being given the option of studying it. Second: All manner of art is studied in college, from novels, to sculpture, to film. TV is but another genre, and while it an unfortunate history of being a "low art", a lot of recent tv definitely rises to level of a lot of the films that are studied in college today. That being said, I'm a little leery of the context in which the show is being studied. The course is on urban inequality. Even though the wire is very well researched, it's still fiction. If you want to talk about the realities on which the wire is based, why not study those realities directly? Why let an intricately plotted work of fiction serve as your primary window into that world? I'd be fine with showing some scenes from the Wire in a course on urban inequality, but I'd really hate to give students the impression that the Wire is the final authority on what life in Baltimore is like.
  - andrewce 16y ago
    " I'd be fine with showing some scenes from the Wire in a course on urban inequality, but I'd really hate to give students the impression that the Wire is the final authority on what life in Baltimore is like." Hopefully, students will be smart enough to realize that "The Wire" is a work of fiction (as you and others have pointed out). However, the difficult thing about teaching just from research and theory is that it is extremely difficult to gain a concrete understanding without a concrete presentation. When I was going through the teacher education program in college, we read a lot of (what I thought were very compelling) scholarly articles explaining how current practices (regarding instruction, assessment, and so on) were flawed and then proposing better practices. The discussions we had were often of the "Okay, I see what the author is saying" variety, but ended up with very little actionable follow-through. I remember getting in trouble for trying to heed the advice of the research ("I don't care what the research says, we're doing it this way and that's final.") What I am trying to say is that research and statistics are all fine and dandy, but the students at Harvard are mostly white and mostly from reasonably affluent families who live near other reasonably affluent families. Ideally, we could study those realities directly via fieldwork, but that's simply not a possibility for most. So, in lieu of giving these students a completely abstract understanding without any lived experience (even if it is vicarious and fictional), "The Wire" comes in.
- wriq 16y ago
  Disclaimer: I believe 'The Wire' is the greatest TV series I have ever seen Well it seems to be a class on urban inequality that uses characters from The Wire as examples. The show was critically acclaimed and many of the characters are based off people known by the creators (a Balitmore Police Officer/School Teacher & Baltimore Sun Reporter) "Our seminar was designed for 30 students; four times that many showed up for the first class last week." Using the show to promote a class discussing a real sociological problem seems like a good idea.
- tptacek 16y ago
  The Wire is based off multiple people's journalism careers in the city of Baltimore. It's fictional, but it's fiction intended to synthesize David Simon's worldview about the failure of institutions (of all kinds) in modern American cities; it's a more effective communicator of that message than his raw reporting would be, and that raw reporting is clearly fair game for a class. If it makes you feel better, check out _ Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets_ and _ The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood_ --- both great books, as gripping as The Wire, and used throughout the series as source material. Both totally nonfic.
  - scott_s 16y ago
    I was going to point out both books. The Corner is one of the most soul-crushingly depressing books I've ever read. I could only read a few pages at a time. The knowledge that these were real people made it feel like I was actually watching these people's lives either fall apart around them, or get even worse than they already are.
- potatolicious 16y ago
  Disclaimer: I have never read a single page of "1984". Am I alone in thinking that this is a complete waste of time? Why would I go to Harvard to hear learned commentary on a mere novel? Granted, this is a critically acclaimed novel, but it's still just meant to entertain. If I paid the exorbitant Harvard tuition, I would be incensed to be made to study a mere novel.
  - deadbeat 16y ago
    >I would be incensed to be made to study a mere novel. Except, possibly,in an English class. Which in fact (not at Harvard) is where I read 1984. A pretty sucky novel in all.
- djhworld 16y ago
  I'm not really that clued up on the different schools of Harvard, but from the website the course appears to be run from their Government division. So this sort of thing would be suitable for use in an undergraduate politics programme as it gives some of the dry academic theory that places NO emphasis on the human aspect of poverty a bit more life in the form of studying modern literature, or in this case film.
- amirmc 16y ago
  From the article: "Of course, our undergraduate students will read rigorous academic studies of the urban job market, education and the drug war. But the HBO series does what these texts can't. ... With the freedom of artistic expression, 'The Wire' can be more creative. It can weave together the range of forces that shape the lives of the urban poor." It's not simply commentary on a TV show. The show illustrates points from a wider academic course.
- jsz0 16y ago
  It's a TV show about real issues. I'm guessing the course focuses on the core issues represented in the show more than the entertainment value. I would compare it to using Greek mythology as a framework for learning about ancient Greek civilization and culture.
  - WalterBright 16y ago
    Do you really want the future policymakers of America to base their ideas on hollywood movie scripts?
- jakarta 16y ago
  I think you should have read the linked article before criticizing the idea. They make the reasons for teaching The Wire quite clear in the article and provide a good argument.
- sumeetjain 16y ago
  I strongly disagree with your initial reaction (as do most people, it seems), but I upvoted you and am a bit perturbed that you were downvoted so heavily. Nothing in your comment was offensive or silly. You asked good questions respectfully and clearly gave lots of people the impetus to post their own thoughts.
- barmstrong 16y ago
  You aren't alone. Paying to take a class where you study The Wire (which is an awesome TV show btw) is definitely a waste of time and money.
- e40 16y ago
  What annoys people is that you haven't seen a single episode but you have an opinion. Gather information, then decide. Not the other way around.
mikewilt 16y ago
Terrible idea. Should do a class on "The World According to Jim" or "How I Met Your Mother" instead. ;) Actually, it's very cool; I love the Wire. However, I am a little surprised it's not the Harvard English department touting a course on The Sopranos...
pchristensen 16y ago
See also: http://www.slate.com/id/2245788/ http://www.slate.com/id/2245788/
zeeg 16y ago
I still can't believe how they ended it with Omar like that.
- tptacek 16y ago
  The one truly great thing about the last season was that they reincarnated his character. He was the one character whose arc was perfect from season 1 through season 5.
  - thedz 16y ago
    I know, right? When that Viper showed up in Baltimore, I was like WTF, that character's supposed to be dead. Not realistic at all.
  - amirmc 16y ago
    You should add 'Spoiler' to the start of your post. I've only watched up to Season 2.
    - barredo 16y ago
      Not that you are wrong. But when do we start & stop using 'spoiler' tags? A week after the episode was on TV for the first time? A month? A year? And with movies? I guess it's right to not use the tag when talking about Star Wars, for instance. I guess too that The Wire's 5th season was enough years ago to don't use spoiler tags. I've learned this the hard way (Dexter 5th season finale, amongst others) and stopped worrying about this. It's the Internet, there will be spoilers no matter how careful you browse. Again, the only thing I can think of where using spoiler tags was absolutely necessary is in unreleased shows/movies/narrative
      - amirmc 16y ago
        All very good points. I admit I was expressing my grief rather than offering something constructive. My sympathies re: Dexter season finale.
    - 16y ago
sfs 16y ago
Obligatory: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/
- sfs 16y ago
  Also, since this is Harvard: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/98-the-ivy-league/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/98-the-... And because the students taking this course probably aren't physics majors: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/47-arts-degrees/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/47-arts...
elptacek 16y ago
He left off a couple of important points. Because The Wire is drama, you get to know the characters as people. There is a huge difference between looking at "urban, ethnic and impoverished" on paper and getting to know and appreciate the characters as individuals. <insert spoiler alert here> Season 4 follows the youngest generation and ends by showing you how each character steps into the place vacated by a character from the older generation. This was the most painful season for me to watch, seeing young people being trapped and molded into another wave of failure. This cycle is a topic dear to my heart, and one I believe would not require mountains to break. The cycle perpetuates because we're all afraid to touch it... myself included. The subset of our society that is undereducated and economically, socially and emotionally depressed is a component of the whole. And if we own the whole, we own all of the problems, including those of the subset. This is a course I would love to take, if only because I have some very, very strong opinions on the phenomenon. But I'll spare HN the details.
- Devilboy 16y ago
  The mayor of Iceland's capital agrees: http://www.nerve.com/scanner/2010/06/28/new-mayor-of-reykjavik-demands-that-all-cabinet-members-see-the-wire http://www.nerve.com/scanner/2010/06/28/new-mayor-of-reykjav...
- sandykory 16y ago
  I'm also a huge fan of the show...For the interested who want nonfiction but also want a compelling narrative arc, there's a great documentary by Stacy Peralta ("Lords of Dogtown," "Riding Giants") on gangs in LA, "Crips and Bloods: Made in America." It's part history, part interviews with current and former hardcore gangbangers. Two great nonfiction books on similar subjects that are highly readable: A Hope in the Unseen, Ron Suskind (based on Suskind's Pulitzer-winning newspaper series) Makes Me Wanna Holler, Nathan McCall (an ex-hood turned WaPost reporter)
WalterBright 16y ago
Why not study real life instead of fiction? Fictions are, by definition, not even pretending to be accurate.
- blhack 16y ago
  >Fictions are, by definition, not even pretending to be accurate. This fiction is set in reality, it's just that the specific sequence of events hasn't actually taken place.
  - WalterBright 16y ago
    The trouble with the specifics is since it's a work of fiction, there is no way to tell what is real and what is made up. Hence, reputable historians and sociologists should study reality from reputable sources.
    - jacobolus 16y ago
      One thing every historian learns early on is that there are no perfect sources, no single narrative. (Go watch the film Memento if you want to see some fantastic philosophical musing on this topic: we can’t ever completely trust things written in the past, especially after we’ve lost the full context of an author’s motivation) The real world is big and complicated and messy. One thing a show like The Wire gets to do that would be nearly impossible for an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships, their private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public institutions.
      - philwelch 16y ago
        One thing a show like The Wire gets to do that would be nearly impossible for an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships, their private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public institutions. Sounds like an ethnography, actually. This is exactly what anthropologists do in the field.
holychiz 16y ago
Love that show! the entrepreneurs here would truly appreciate Stringer Bell and perhaps, Marlo Stanfield, but everybody'd love Omar! Just one course? the fans of "The Wire" know that there's enough complex storylines and richness of characters for somebody to do a PHD thesis on the show. -- Avon:"the game IS the game...Always!"
- michaelbuckbee 16y ago
  I actually thought the kid who was selling snacks out of his backpack and using statistics to win at dice was the most notable entrepreneur.
jasonkester 16y ago
The article is coming up 404 now. Google has it in their cache though: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/commentary/teaching-the-wire-at-harvard http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome...
lamby 16y ago
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit.
- wr1472 16y ago
  It's Omar Yo

114 points by aditya 16y ago

The Wire was an awesome show, probably one of the best I've ever seen. Some characters, like Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, were casted right from the streets. Highly recommended to get a less romanticized view of the streets.

Tangurena 16y ago
Snoop's story is tragically sad, but also inspirational as she did get out of the cycle of violence. http://www.amazon.com/Grace-After-Midnight-Felicia-Pearson/dp/0446195189 http://www.amazon.com/Grace-After-Midnight-Felicia-Pearson/d...
- jessor 16y ago
  Yes. I actually bought and read the book because her character was so moving. Turns out it's just her whole person.

sspencer 16y ago

Disclaimer: I have never seen a single episode of The Wire. Am I alone in thinking that this is a complete waste of time? Why would I go to Harvard to hear learned commentary on a TV show? Granted, this is a critically acclaimed TV show, but it's still just meant to entertain. If I paid the exorbitant Harvard tuition, I would be incensed to be made to study a TV show. Maybe others wouldn't? Does anyone here feel like it's a positive instead of a negative? EDIT: I see that I have apparently angered some people by asking this question, judging by the downvotes. I didn't mean to offend - I just wanted to see what made this show different from other TV, which several of you have explained. Again, my apologies.

ahi 16y ago
If I paid the exorbitant Harvard tuition and they made me study a romance novel I'd be pissed too. The Wire isn't pulp. It's the television equivalent of literature. The writing is really that good.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  You really can't fck with the fckin writing on the Wire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbsnSVM1zM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQbsnSVM1zM
johnfn 16y ago
Why shouldn't universities study TV shows? Lets make an analogy with books. Most books are, in the end, "just meant to entertain", but it would be ridiculous to argue that universities shouldn't study them. Why? Well, some books go beyond just entertainment into a further realm: commentary on the human situation, raising and questioning of philosophic questions, etc. I think that the Wire fits into the same mold as an excellent book. Saying that it's just to entertain misses the bigger goals that it's trying to accomplish. It has brilliant script writing and direction, and it really raises questions into the areas that it portrays (the drug war, corruption in legal areas, etc) that I had never considered before. (And yes, you should watch it. :) )
andrewvc 16y ago
You're deriding the course based on medium, not message. Perhaps we also shouldn't use a 'common' language like English and revert to being taught in Latin. Additionally, If you'd actually seen The Wire you probably would not be arguing against this course. The Wire isn't just any piece of entertainment, it's the result of David Simon's years of observations as a journalist in Baltimore, a thesis covering his observations of how institutions fail individuals, in particular the black urban poor in Baltimore. While The Wire may be fictional, it's quite pointed in its messages, and as the author says, it weaves together many connected threads into a unified whole in a way many academic texts lack. Lastly, it doesn't just tell you what's going on in a dry, disconnected tone like an academic text. It makes you truly grok and indeed FEEL what's going on. In my view, that definitely elevates this course.
rauljara 16y ago
First: it is a single course, and it does not appear to be a required one. No one is being made to study it. Students are being given the option of studying it. Second: All manner of art is studied in college, from novels, to sculpture, to film. TV is but another genre, and while it an unfortunate history of being a "low art", a lot of recent tv definitely rises to level of a lot of the films that are studied in college today. That being said, I'm a little leery of the context in which the show is being studied. The course is on urban inequality. Even though the wire is very well researched, it's still fiction. If you want to talk about the realities on which the wire is based, why not study those realities directly? Why let an intricately plotted work of fiction serve as your primary window into that world? I'd be fine with showing some scenes from the Wire in a course on urban inequality, but I'd really hate to give students the impression that the Wire is the final authority on what life in Baltimore is like.
- andrewce 16y ago
  " I'd be fine with showing some scenes from the Wire in a course on urban inequality, but I'd really hate to give students the impression that the Wire is the final authority on what life in Baltimore is like." Hopefully, students will be smart enough to realize that "The Wire" is a work of fiction (as you and others have pointed out). However, the difficult thing about teaching just from research and theory is that it is extremely difficult to gain a concrete understanding without a concrete presentation. When I was going through the teacher education program in college, we read a lot of (what I thought were very compelling) scholarly articles explaining how current practices (regarding instruction, assessment, and so on) were flawed and then proposing better practices. The discussions we had were often of the "Okay, I see what the author is saying" variety, but ended up with very little actionable follow-through. I remember getting in trouble for trying to heed the advice of the research ("I don't care what the research says, we're doing it this way and that's final.") What I am trying to say is that research and statistics are all fine and dandy, but the students at Harvard are mostly white and mostly from reasonably affluent families who live near other reasonably affluent families. Ideally, we could study those realities directly via fieldwork, but that's simply not a possibility for most. So, in lieu of giving these students a completely abstract understanding without any lived experience (even if it is vicarious and fictional), "The Wire" comes in.
wriq 16y ago
Disclaimer: I believe 'The Wire' is the greatest TV series I have ever seen Well it seems to be a class on urban inequality that uses characters from The Wire as examples. The show was critically acclaimed and many of the characters are based off people known by the creators (a Balitmore Police Officer/School Teacher & Baltimore Sun Reporter) "Our seminar was designed for 30 students; four times that many showed up for the first class last week." Using the show to promote a class discussing a real sociological problem seems like a good idea.
tptacek 16y ago
The Wire is based off multiple people's journalism careers in the city of Baltimore. It's fictional, but it's fiction intended to synthesize David Simon's worldview about the failure of institutions (of all kinds) in modern American cities; it's a more effective communicator of that message than his raw reporting would be, and that raw reporting is clearly fair game for a class. If it makes you feel better, check out _ Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets_ and _ The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood_ --- both great books, as gripping as The Wire, and used throughout the series as source material. Both totally nonfic.
- scott_s 16y ago
  I was going to point out both books. The Corner is one of the most soul-crushingly depressing books I've ever read. I could only read a few pages at a time. The knowledge that these were real people made it feel like I was actually watching these people's lives either fall apart around them, or get even worse than they already are.
potatolicious 16y ago
Disclaimer: I have never read a single page of "1984". Am I alone in thinking that this is a complete waste of time? Why would I go to Harvard to hear learned commentary on a mere novel? Granted, this is a critically acclaimed novel, but it's still just meant to entertain. If I paid the exorbitant Harvard tuition, I would be incensed to be made to study a mere novel.
- deadbeat 16y ago
  >I would be incensed to be made to study a mere novel. Except, possibly,in an English class. Which in fact (not at Harvard) is where I read 1984. A pretty sucky novel in all.
djhworld 16y ago
I'm not really that clued up on the different schools of Harvard, but from the website the course appears to be run from their Government division. So this sort of thing would be suitable for use in an undergraduate politics programme as it gives some of the dry academic theory that places NO emphasis on the human aspect of poverty a bit more life in the form of studying modern literature, or in this case film.
amirmc 16y ago
From the article: "Of course, our undergraduate students will read rigorous academic studies of the urban job market, education and the drug war. But the HBO series does what these texts can't. ... With the freedom of artistic expression, 'The Wire' can be more creative. It can weave together the range of forces that shape the lives of the urban poor." It's not simply commentary on a TV show. The show illustrates points from a wider academic course.
jsz0 16y ago
It's a TV show about real issues. I'm guessing the course focuses on the core issues represented in the show more than the entertainment value. I would compare it to using Greek mythology as a framework for learning about ancient Greek civilization and culture.
- WalterBright 16y ago
  Do you really want the future policymakers of America to base their ideas on hollywood movie scripts?
jakarta 16y ago
I think you should have read the linked article before criticizing the idea. They make the reasons for teaching The Wire quite clear in the article and provide a good argument.
sumeetjain 16y ago
I strongly disagree with your initial reaction (as do most people, it seems), but I upvoted you and am a bit perturbed that you were downvoted so heavily. Nothing in your comment was offensive or silly. You asked good questions respectfully and clearly gave lots of people the impetus to post their own thoughts.
barmstrong 16y ago
You aren't alone. Paying to take a class where you study The Wire (which is an awesome TV show btw) is definitely a waste of time and money.
e40 16y ago
What annoys people is that you haven't seen a single episode but you have an opinion. Gather information, then decide. Not the other way around.

mikewilt 16y ago

Terrible idea. Should do a class on "The World According to Jim" or "How I Met Your Mother" instead. ;) Actually, it's very cool; I love the Wire. However, I am a little surprised it's not the Harvard English department touting a course on The Sopranos...

pchristensen 16y ago

See also: http://www.slate.com/id/2245788/ http://www.slate.com/id/2245788/

zeeg 16y ago

I still can't believe how they ended it with Omar like that.

tptacek 16y ago
The one truly great thing about the last season was that they reincarnated his character. He was the one character whose arc was perfect from season 1 through season 5.
- thedz 16y ago
  I know, right? When that Viper showed up in Baltimore, I was like WTF, that character's supposed to be dead. Not realistic at all.
- amirmc 16y ago
  You should add 'Spoiler' to the start of your post. I've only watched up to Season 2.
  - barredo 16y ago
    Not that you are wrong. But when do we start & stop using 'spoiler' tags? A week after the episode was on TV for the first time? A month? A year? And with movies? I guess it's right to not use the tag when talking about Star Wars, for instance. I guess too that The Wire's 5th season was enough years ago to don't use spoiler tags. I've learned this the hard way (Dexter 5th season finale, amongst others) and stopped worrying about this. It's the Internet, there will be spoilers no matter how careful you browse. Again, the only thing I can think of where using spoiler tags was absolutely necessary is in unreleased shows/movies/narrative
    - amirmc 16y ago
      All very good points. I admit I was expressing my grief rather than offering something constructive. My sympathies re: Dexter season finale.
  - 16y ago

sfs 16y ago

Obligatory: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/

sfs 16y ago
Also, since this is Harvard: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/98-the-ivy-league/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/98-the-... And because the students taking this course probably aren't physics majors: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/47-arts-degrees/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/47-arts...

elptacek 16y ago

He left off a couple of important points. Because The Wire is drama, you get to know the characters as people. There is a huge difference between looking at "urban, ethnic and impoverished" on paper and getting to know and appreciate the characters as individuals. <insert spoiler alert here> Season 4 follows the youngest generation and ends by showing you how each character steps into the place vacated by a character from the older generation. This was the most painful season for me to watch, seeing young people being trapped and molded into another wave of failure. This cycle is a topic dear to my heart, and one I believe would not require mountains to break. The cycle perpetuates because we're all afraid to touch it... myself included. The subset of our society that is undereducated and economically, socially and emotionally depressed is a component of the whole. And if we own the whole, we own all of the problems, including those of the subset. This is a course I would love to take, if only because I have some very, very strong opinions on the phenomenon. But I'll spare HN the details.

Devilboy 16y ago
The mayor of Iceland's capital agrees: http://www.nerve.com/scanner/2010/06/28/new-mayor-of-reykjavik-demands-that-all-cabinet-members-see-the-wire http://www.nerve.com/scanner/2010/06/28/new-mayor-of-reykjav...
sandykory 16y ago
I'm also a huge fan of the show...For the interested who want nonfiction but also want a compelling narrative arc, there's a great documentary by Stacy Peralta ("Lords of Dogtown," "Riding Giants") on gangs in LA, "Crips and Bloods: Made in America." It's part history, part interviews with current and former hardcore gangbangers. Two great nonfiction books on similar subjects that are highly readable: A Hope in the Unseen, Ron Suskind (based on Suskind's Pulitzer-winning newspaper series) Makes Me Wanna Holler, Nathan McCall (an ex-hood turned WaPost reporter)

WalterBright 16y ago

Why not study real life instead of fiction? Fictions are, by definition, not even pretending to be accurate.

blhack 16y ago
>Fictions are, by definition, not even pretending to be accurate. This fiction is set in reality, it's just that the specific sequence of events hasn't actually taken place.
- WalterBright 16y ago
  The trouble with the specifics is since it's a work of fiction, there is no way to tell what is real and what is made up. Hence, reputable historians and sociologists should study reality from reputable sources.
  - jacobolus 16y ago
    One thing every historian learns early on is that there are no perfect sources, no single narrative. (Go watch the film Memento if you want to see some fantastic philosophical musing on this topic: we can’t ever completely trust things written in the past, especially after we’ve lost the full context of an author’s motivation) The real world is big and complicated and messy. One thing a show like The Wire gets to do that would be nearly impossible for an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships, their private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public institutions.
    - philwelch 16y ago
      One thing a show like The Wire gets to do that would be nearly impossible for an academic paper is follow dozens of characters, their relationships, their private lives, their motivations, their interactions with public institutions. Sounds like an ethnography, actually. This is exactly what anthropologists do in the field.

holychiz 16y ago

Love that show! the entrepreneurs here would truly appreciate Stringer Bell and perhaps, Marlo Stanfield, but everybody'd love Omar! Just one course? the fans of "The Wire" know that there's enough complex storylines and richness of characters for somebody to do a PHD thesis on the show. -- Avon:"the game IS the game...Always!"

michaelbuckbee 16y ago
I actually thought the kid who was selling snacks out of his backpack and using statistics to win at dice was the most notable entrepreneur.

jasonkester 16y ago

The article is coming up 404 now. Google has it in their cache though: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/commentary/teaching-the-wire-at-harvard http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome...

lamby 16y ago

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit.

wr1472 16y ago
It's Omar Yo