Watching The Wire

This might be hard to sum up, but I wanted to offer a space for reflection as to what the “takeaways” are from this course and the series. Big thoughts, little thoughts, whatever – but what do you think is going to stick with you?

While official course response forms are in process, I wanted to open the floor for any thoughts as to what should change – or not change – in next year’s offering of this class. I’m especially interested in what readings you think should be kept or are less relevant, and your thoughts about speeding up the timeline to give us a week post-season 5 to read more analyses of the show and reflect on the series as a whole. Thanks!

there was Jerus Jannick.

All good things must end.

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Just in time for the end of our run of The Wire, HBO has picked up Simon’s new series Treme to debut next spring. The series is about recovery in post-Katrina New Orleans, and stars Wendell Pierce (aka The Bunk!) as a jazz musician. Clarke Peters (Lester) is the other main Wire returnee.

And if you’ve not gotten enough of Simon on journalism this season, here’s a copy of his Congressional testimony from today.

As I mentioned in class, Kyle has connected with Alexa Fogel, The Wire’s casting director, and we can gather some questions to pose to her about the show’s casting and other behind-the-scenes matters. Post them in the comments thread, and hopefully she can reply to some.

My own to start the ball rolling – there were a lot of non-actors in the cast, either in minor cameos or roles of significance (like The Deacon, Det. Norris, and Lt. Mello). Do you have a sense of how decisions were made as to the writing and casting of these parts, which clearly pulled from Simon and Burns’s Baltimore connections? And on-set, how did these non-actors integrate with the more experienced cast?

Every legend has to come to an end…

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Sorry for the delay…

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First the thugs react.

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You might be interested in the series of “What Real Thugs Think of The Wire,” featuring gangsters watching the show: episode one, two, three, and four of this season.

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