So I've finally watched the first season of the critically acclaimed, proudly low-key HBO crime drama The Wire, which ran from 2002-2008. It is an excellent show, very well made, very compelling and, yes, very deep. I enjoyed it. I especially appreciated that the creators of the show seem to understand that narrative strength lies in characters.
However, it is a crime drama, and its unavoidable adherence to genre conventions meant it didn't quite reach the depths of other standout dramas of the past decade (The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Big Love*). I understand what creator David Simon is doing - presenting a rich depiction of contemporary life via a crime drama. However, when the strongest aspects of a program are the characters, narrative arc and wider subtext of certain concepts, it's a shame we have to be presented with the requisite genre devices - the piece by piece puzzle-solving played out from various angles, the lawyer-talk, the flak-jackets. Indeed, all of these are done well, most of the time do not feel gratuitous, and all serve a greater purpose than JUST to show us the procedure. For instance, character development plays out in these scenes (one that comes to mind is the darkly hilarious scene in episode 4, when the detectives Moreland and McNulty, above, recreate a murder scene saying only the word 'fuck' or a colorful variant). It's just... the writing and acting are so good, I wished it moved a little further away from convention, presented less of the "CSI" stuff and more of the "this is what it's like in Baltimore, and these are the people who live there" stuff. Because that was the really genre-breaking stuff.
You could say the criticism is a little unfair. I'm having a go at a show precisely because it is too good for its genre. Maybe a better angle to take is this: "Hey! You! Yes, I'm talking to YOU, Law and Order, CSI, NCIS, and all of your many spin-offs. Yeah, WTF? The Wire just pwned all of your asses!" Yes, The Wire really does set a new standard for crime drama, and that is no mean feat.
I will check out season 2, maybe it will lessen its reliance on convention and really soar as pure, solid Drama, capitalisation intended.
* I realise an argument could be made that some of those programs are in specific genres - Mad Men and Deadwood are period-pieces, The Sopranos is a gangster show, and the other three are essentially family-dramas - but those shows all try, quite explicitly, to move away from conventions of genre, it is what has made them so critically acclaimed. When I think of those shows, I think of just pure 'Drama.' I really struggle to put them in a genre because, really, none of them are faithful to the usual narratives or devices.
UPDATE (12 May 2010): I attempted season 2 of The Wire, but for whatever reason didn't get past the first episode. This show expects a lot from it's viewers, and I suspect I was not in the right frame of mind for a slow-burn opening episode. I will attempt again, when I'm feeling curious. Perhaps once Breaking Bad season 3 ends.