![]() ![]() The net effect is a forensic fictionalisation of economic bankruptcy in the docks and trade unions, corruption and bureaucratic degeneracy in municipal politics, chaotically incompetent and helpless leadership in the police department and school system, and comparably cynical sociopathic management in local media and drug-dealing franchises.Įarly-90s West Baltimore sees another teenage gangbanger murdered and, as we encounter his peers and police investigators, the suspected ‘corner-boss’ culprit wriggles free after witness intimidation. The self-defeatingly stupid but electorally compelling ‘War on Drugs’ focuses the five seasons’ test-case of the dysfunctional amorality of postmodern government – subsequent narratives expanding these narrowly-delineated parallel micro-worlds into the contemporary social complexity of a tragically ailing urban America and the terminally failing institutions nominally charged with its welfare. “A political tract masquerading as a cop show”, the first season introduces central characters and situations in the inner-city narcotics trade and its policing in Baltimore, Maryland – or in local street argot ‘Body-More, Murdaland – intended to represent any decaying second-tier rust-belt metropolis. Widely acclaimed as the best television ever, US crime saga The Wire finally arrives on freeview here, continuing on BBC 2 into the summer. ![]()
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