This book examines The Wire’s authenticity and its establishment of the series realism. Along with tracing creator David Simon’s onscreen critique of numerous failed American institutions, the book focuses on the connection between authenticity and realism in three distinct areas: language, character, and location. While it is shown that The Wire is indeed authentic, the study examines occasions where the language, characters, and even the location are ‘curated’. Yet, while we can witness these moments of curation, it is The Wire’s unflinching focus on authentic dialogue, authentic characterisation, and an authentic location that makes the series the most realistic, and arguably the best, television show of all time.

"An oral history of HBO"s The Wire"--

Story lines from The Wire challenge public perceptions about the deadly, real-world connections between drugs, crime, and poverty. Did Omar Little die of lead poisoning? Would a decriminalization strategy like the one in Hamsterdam end the War on Drugs? What will it take to save neglected kids like Wallace and Dukie? Tapping into 'The Wire' uses the acclaimed television series as a road map for exploring connections between inner-city poverty and drug-related violence. Past Baltimore City health commissioner Peter Beilenson teams up with former Baltimore Sun reporter Patrick A. McGuire to deliver a compelling, highly readable examination of urban policy and public health issues affecting cities across the nation. Each chapter recounts scenes from episodes of the HBO series, placing the characters' challenges into the broader context of public policy. A candid interview with the show’s co-creator David Simon reveals that one of the intentions of the series is to expose gross failures of public institutions, including criminal justice, education, labor, the news media, and city government. Even if readers haven’t seen the series, the book’s detailed summaries of scenes and characters brings them up to speed and engages them in both the story and the issues. With a firm grasp on the hard truths of real-world problems, Tapping into 'The Wire' helps undo misconceptions and encourage a dialogue of understanding.

Many television critics, legions of fans, even the president of the United States, have cited The Wire as the best television series ever. In this sophisticated examination of the HBO serial drama that aired from 2002 until 2008, Linda Williams, a leading film scholar and authority on the interplay between film, melodrama, and issues of race, suggests what exactly it is that makes The Wire so good. She argues that while the series is a powerful exploration of urban dysfunction and institutional failure, its narrative power derives from its genre. The Wire is popular melodrama, not Greek tragedy, as critics and the series creator David Simon have claimed. Entertaining, addictive, funny, and despairing all at once, it is a serial melodrama grounded in observation of Baltimore's people and institutions: of cops and criminals, schools and blue-collar labor, local government and local journalism. The Wire transforms close observation into an unparalleled melodrama by juxtaposing the good and evil of individuals with the good and evil of institutions.

'. . . All in the game.' West Baltimore Traditional THE WIRE has been widely hailed as the greatest television series of all time. It portrays the war of attrition between Baltimore's hardened police force and its drug dealers, and the blurring of good and evil, justice and injustice, right and wrong that happens every day as men and women struggle against the institutions they are bound up in. Over its five series it has built up a detailed, rich and layered portrait of Baltimore: from its corner boys touting dope and its dock workers facing extinction, through the strained education system and tainted halls of power, to the crumbling media establishment. Rafael Alvarez - a reporter, essayist and staff writer for the show - brings the reader inside this world, detailing many of the real-life incidents and personalities that have inspired the show's storylines and characters. Packed with photographs and featuring an introduction by series creator and executive producer David Simon, as well as essays by acclaimed authors George Pelecanos, Ed Burns, Richard Price, Laura Lippman and Denis Lehane, it covers all fives series in glorious detail.

This book uses the HBO series The Wire as a springboard for discussing some of the most pressing criminal law and policy issues of our time. Using landmark cases as well as little known state decisions, the book analyzes the law of wiretapping, drug possession, search and seizure, confessions, and sentencing. It also considers questions beyond basic law, such as whether the police understand or follow the Supreme Court's search and seizure and confession rules. The book examines broader questions, such as crime statistics manipulation, drug legalization, prisoner reentry, police brutality, the use of informants, mass imprisonment of African Americans, the distribution of limited criminal justice resources, and the media's influence on policing and public policy. Although predominantly a casebook, the text also excerpts reports by nonprofits and government agencies, law review articles, and social science literature to provide a fuller context for how court decisions impact the real world in which criminal justice policy is made and executed. "Each chapter contains extracts from statutes and cases, as well as secondary materials. While not novelistic, the chapters are readable and well-constructed. The book provides abundant material to provoke student thought and class discussion.... For the right professor, this casebook might make for one of the most interesting law school classes ever." -- The Champion (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers)