HBO
The Wire

Many claim that television series have now surpassed Cinema in terms of quality. Now, though they are different media, and this opinion can be criticized for its absolutism, I must admit that in recent years (perhaps due to a cinematic overload caused by watching almost all the classics in a few years), I have often found more satisfaction in the television-serial world than in the one of the Seventh Art. This is also because, due to its extended timing, the television series presents an excellent compromise between the immediacy of the big screen and the depth typical of literature; the characters no longer have to be sketched, and the events can unfold with the right methods and timing, without any particular rush.

Well, among the most noteworthy series, those of HBO definitely stand out, now a real guarantee, which with The Wire reached one of the pinnacles of recent and not-so-recent television history. I decided to approach this series, as is my custom, with immense delay (it was released in 2002 and concluded in 2008), torn as usual between curiosity and aversion to everything that receives wide public and/or critical acclaim, especially if recent. The first 1-2 episodes seemed to confirm my skepticism, fair enough, well-directed and all, but no significant differences were noticeable from the other dozens of post-CSI police serials, which have now become a real epidemic. Instead, I found myself fully captured by the corrupt world of Baltimore in no time, staying up late in a sequence of “I'll just watch this one and then go to sleep,” with the usual side effects on my love, social, and work life. In fact, what starts as a clash between a police squad and a local band of drug dealers soon expands to offer us a broad and disillusioned overview of life in the "disadvantaged" neighborhoods of large American metropolises, extending to unions and the world of work, politics, education, the press, and much more. Dozens of relevant characters appear, all credible and psychologically developed, there are no real protagonists, but the stories of each character on stage are followed, without easy moralism and sentimentality, but using a wide range of grays and with a strong critical spirit towards institutions (unlike the triumph of Yankee rhetoric in the aforementioned CSI series, where the cops are always good and upright and the bad guys stupid, greedy, and corrupt); each season delves into different themes, but always interconnected.

The high realism had already been hinted at (with obvious limitations, of course, as it is still a product of fantasy and entertainment), or at least the strong verisimilitude of it all, which is largely due to the work of David Simon, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun, who also spent a year with the city's homicide squad and can therefore boast first-hand experience of the events narrated. To get an idea, just consider that the series has also become the basis for academic courses at various prestigious universities, like Harvard. If you haven't yet, I warmly recommend taking a look at this wonderful work (which for me takes a spot on the genre's podium, alongside Six Feet Under and The Sopranos), I'm sure you won't regret it; after all, it is also appreciated by the most tanned man in America!