Huh, interesting. I've also felt the pull to rewatch The Wire lately.
Someone - either Alan Sepinwall or at the AV Club - once wrote a review I've never forgotten, which was that "Deadwood", "Sopranos" and "The Wire" best represented America because they showed America at its different stages (slightly out of order in terms of when the shows aired): Deadwood its uber capitalistic, corrupt birth while also mired in a sense of community and wrong vs right; Sopranos in the middle of its lifespan, flailing about in the result of what won the aftermath of its birth; and Wire as its inevitable decline and death, showcasing how very much the sins of capitalism, lack of moral care, and thus the immoral choices in its birth led to its bitter end. At the time I thought it a rather over the top characterization - hey, I had come up through the 90s, when everything did seem like it could only get better, even though I was naive about the rot and Reaganism underneath - but now I understand that commentary in a way I didn't then.
Anyway, lately I've been thinking about that a lot. As great as The Sopranos was, I really do think The Wire and Deadwood capture America in a way very few pieces of media have . . . and of the two, perhaps in that desperate way we use media to undestand our world - only in this case I find my attempt clawing and mewling to fully comprehend what's happening - The Wire is to what I've returned.
Someone - either Alan Sepinwall or at the AV Club - once wrote a review I've never forgotten, which was that "Deadwood", "Sopranos" and "The Wire" best represented America because they showed America at its different stages (slightly out of order in terms of when the shows aired): Deadwood its uber capitalistic, corrupt birth while also mired in a sense of community and wrong vs right; Sopranos in the middle of its lifespan, flailing about in the result of what won the aftermath of its birth; and Wire as its inevitable decline and death, showcasing how very much the sins of capitalism, lack of moral care, and thus the immoral choices in its birth led to its bitter end. At the time I thought it a rather over the top characterization - hey, I had come up through the 90s, when everything did seem like it could only get better, even though I was naive about the rot and Reaganism underneath - but now I understand that commentary in a way I didn't then.
Anyway, lately I've been thinking about that a lot. As great as The Sopranos was, I really do think The Wire and Deadwood capture America in a way very few pieces of media have . . . and of the two, perhaps in that desperate way we use media to undestand our world - only in this case I find my attempt clawing and mewling to fully comprehend what's happening - The Wire is to what I've returned.