Letters to the Editor
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Wow I did not know
I thought with the massive adfest on Salon that The Wire was a new show. Who'd a thought that it was this far in? Oh anyway I don't have HBO since they don't show movies and who needs another gritty cop show about misfortunate yet noble minorities anyway?
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I LOVE THE WIRE LIKE A FAT GIRL LOVES CAKE...
I love The Wire like a fat girl loves cake. And since I'm a fat girl,that means that I love The Wire A LOT. I could wax poetic on the many reasons to watch the show, but if you ain't on the bandwagon by now and haven't at least rented the first season on DVD, then let me not interrupt you from watching COP ROCK! LOL
So, I noticed that HBO has new episodes of The Wire on Comcast On Demand before each new show hits the HBO channels. Does anyone know if On Demand viewship is included when overall viewership is calculated? If not, I think there's a conspiracy! Yeah, I said it! LOL So I sent the following letter to HBO (don't think I'm crazy yall):
Dear HBO:
I heard that The Wire got low ratings for its 2006 season premiere. Might that be because it was on Comcast On Demand first? Is the viewership for the show on On Demand accounted for when calculating ratings?
I've loved the show for the past 3 seasons and is one of 3 reasons why I didn't cancel my subscription to HBO after you all cancelled Carnivale (Bill Maher and Def Comedy/Poetry being the other 2). So since I've also heard that The Wire is up for cancellation after its 5th season and HBO has never seen fit to submit The Wire for the same accolades that the Sopranos enjoyed, I'm trying to figure out why you'd undercut the viewship of each show (if you pay attention to that sort of thing) by making it available on On Demand BEFORE each new show comes on. Isn't the point to watch HBO, with On Demand as back up? Not that I don't love the freebie, but I'd hate to hear about "low ratings" for The Wire because everyone was watching the show On Demand first. If you're doing that with every show on HBO, that's unfortunate. But if you're not, that's even more peculiar.
To end, HBO has always been a staple in my cable line up, but it sure isn't for the movies (can we say NETFLIX!). And I'm sorry, but Rome and Big Love aren't cutting it. If I wanted disfunctional surburbia, I'd watch Showtime's Weeds (ain't nothing gonna beat a white woman selling weed and getting away with it!). If you're going to undercut your own shows with On Demand, please realize that you're also living on borrowed time in my household.
----The End----
What do you all think?
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thanks, heather . . .
. . . for continuing to eloquently support 'the wire,' which has been so consistently compelling for its first three seasons, despite being one of HBO's poorest rated original series. what david simon & co. are doing, i think, is as innovative as anything 'the sopranos' has done, and while 'sopranos' has wandered off into some pretty self-indulgent territory over the past few years, 'the wire' is quietly turning into a five-volume masterpiece.
you don't have to be a lit major to 'get' 'the wire,' but the style and sensibility of its production is reminiscent of the culture of the victorian novel, when books were often published in monthly serial pamphlets, chapter by chapter. and, interestingly, 'the wire' is probably HBO's most democratic series, as it is one of the first cable dramas whose audience is not primarily educated, affluent, and white. spend a little time on the message boards for 'the wire' on HBO's website, and you'll quickly see that the most enthusiastic fans of the show are urban african-americans, who recognize in 'the wire' a story that is true to the heart of many of the predicaments they've grown up with and around, and unflinchingly honest in its representation of the cultural decay of inner cities overwhelmed by the drug trade.
furthermore, 'the wire' not only strives for accuracy in writing, but also brings actors into its cast who are actual veterans of some of the events described. the actor who played the 'deacon' character from last season, for instance, was the real-life model for avon barksdale, while lt. mello (bunny colvin's and now daniels' second) is played by the real-life baltimore detective who ran the investigation that inspired the series. most explosive is the young actress who plays snoop, marlo's assassin--discovered in a baltimore bar by michael k. williams ('omar'), she's done real time and is a thoroughly real representation of the kinds of young people whose lives this series tries to document.
one note of dissent: i disagree with your characterization of marlo. he seems more ruthless and clever than avon, but more judicious. for instance: when his crew wants to retaliate for fruit's death by wiping out all of the clockers on bodie's corner, marlo allows them to take out only the shooter. he's certainly a different kind of kingpin, but no more evil than avon, who was much more bloodthirsty.
in any case, god bless 'the wire.' i can't wait to see where it takes us.
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Baltimore and Jericho
I'm sure there are other Salon readers who live in or near Baltimore and some may even be teachers as I was. The description of the Administrators and teachers as being demoralized idealists just trying to keep order is very true. I came in as an experienced teacher from the suburbs of Pennsylvania and met with a rude awakening. I tried calling parents for support those whom I could find were often not of a mind to help, believing that it was our job to "raise" their kids as well. The sad fact is that there are many children who do behave with parents who support both them and the school. But in the extreme effort to maintain some semblance of order, the quiet ones often get lost in the shuffle. Bush's "No Child Left Behind," has hurt rather than helped the schools primarily because he instructed the Dept. of Education to decrease their budget considerably. So rather than "some"children being left behind as in the pre-Bush days, it's not uncommon to see "most" children being left behind today. Those tax-cuts to the rich...just helped them send their children to the best private schools. Nevermind the poor, just as Bush doesn't think or care about bin Laden, so it is with the rich thinking about the poor - they don't.
As for "Jericho" my first reaction was "there goes the Nov. election." This is just another attempt to feed the fear of the Security moms, the fear that as Cheney put it, that will come with voting for the wrong people. You vote for them, this is what you'll get. You vote for us, we'll protect you from this. I'm beginning to the think the protection will come in the form of hiding the news of these sorts of occurrances from the public. The mindset of if you ignore it, it will just go away as if it never happened.
The polls seem to support my (and doubless many others of the same mind)theory. I'm almost ready to say that many of us don't deserve this, but those who vote the GOP into power yet again, deserve any and everything that may befall them as a result.
Mimi