NY Observer > David Simon

Did Generation Kill Producers Give Credit Where Credit's Due?

Matt Haber — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:59:50 -0400

Last week, former New York Times Hollywood reporter Sharon Waxman ran an item on her WaxWord blog about HBO's new mini-series, Generation Kill and if Evan Wright, the writer of the Rolling Stone articles and subsequent book upon which the series is based, might be losing some credit for the adaptation of his work. As Waxman wrote:

The series, debuting next Sunday, is a hard-driving, non-fiction tale of Marines on the front lines in Iraq, and it is drawn directly–in some scenes word for word–from the award-winning book of the same name by Evan Wright. Wright is credited as a consulting producer on the seven-part series, and has credit on two of the scripts. read more »

Generation Kill: Required, But Punishing Viewing

Hillary Frey — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:40:20 -0400

Critics who got an early look at Generation Kill, the new HBO miniseries about the first 40 days of the Iraq war created by Wire masterminds David Simon and Ed Burns, were treated to more than the first five (of seven) episodes on DVD. As part of a multipacket press kit, they also received a glossy, four-color guide explaining where each soldier ranks in the unit of elite Marines that is the show’s focus.

It’s unfortunate that such a guide doesn’t seem to be available on HBO’s Web site (though Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune has posted it on her blog), because unless you come in to Generation Kill with a strong grasp on Marine hierarchy, it won’t be until the third or fourth episode that most of the characters will differentiate themselves, or that any kind of chain of command seems clear at all. read more »

More From The Wire's David Simon On 'Pulitzer Sniffing'

Joe Pompeo — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:16:07 -0400

At the Columbia Journalism School on Wednesday night, David Simon, the former crime reporter and creator of HBO’s massively popular urban drama series The Wire, didn’t waste any time before he started blasting his ex-bosses at The Baltimore Sun, the overall quality of American newspapers and, harshest of all, newsrooms that are more concerned with winning prizes than with maintaining sophisticated and nuanced coverage.

“To explain the who, the what, the when, the where, the how—that’s easy shit. It’s even easy shit if you caught someone with their hand in the till, if someone’s doing something overtly wrong,” said Mr. Simon, who was soft-spoken, but seemed to enjoy dropping a few choice expletives. “The why is epic. The why is where journalism becomes an adult game.”

But, he continued a few minutes later, “The why will not get you a prize. Where was their dick caught? That shit will win you a prize.” read more »

Whose Bastard Sun: If The Wire Is Wrong, Why Is Baltimore's Paper So Bad?

Tom Scocca — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:56:18 -0500

If David Simon is Captain Ahab, then call me Ishmael. Mr. Simon, the newspaper-reporter-turned-television-producer, stands accused of unhealthy obsession because he is using the current season of The Wire to revisit his old workplace, The Baltimore Sun. read more »

David Simon on The Wire

Zachary Roth — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:01:28 -0500

This is a bit off the beaten track, but we couldn't help noticing that an ongoing inter-blog discussion about the socio-political implications of the official "Greatest TV Show Ever", The Wire (whose upcoming season, by the way, takes viewers inside the newsroom of The Baltimore Sun), has been joined by none other than Wire-creator (and former Sun reporter) David Simon himself.

The conversation was sparked by this rare Wire critique by Mark Bowden in The Atlantic.

And, of course, The Observer also weighed in on the show this week.