The Wire | The New York Observer

Should Literary Novels Be More Like The Wire?

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:47:32 -0400

Walter Benn Michaels, the punchy professor of American literature and theory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, came to New York last week and delivered an emphatic message to novelists: Please start writing more about class issues and the social order of contemporary life! It was a rainy evening, and Mr. Michaels spoke as part of a panel at the New York Public Library. At the center of the evening’s discussion was a...

From The Simon Archives: In The New Yorker, Wire Creator Remembers The Late William Zantzinger

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:52:41 -0500

What do you do after co-creating a television series so critically praised, Slate's then-editor Jacob Weisberg called it "the best show on television and which prompted The New York Times editorial page's Nicholas Kulish to write, "If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would watch 'The Wire,' unless, that is, he was already writing for it"?

Well, you can write a Talk of the Town for The New Yorker, which is what David...

David Simon Gets Familiar Wire Faces For HBO Pilot

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:00:56 -0400

David Simon is taking some old pals from thedark streets of Baltimore to the desperate landscape of New Orleans for his new HBO pilot, Treme. Wire veterans Wendell Pierce (who played endearingly drunk, yet straight and true detective Bunk) and Clarke Peters (everybody's favorite fatherly figure) will star in the drama following the reconstruction of Katrina-ravaged New Orleans through the eyes of its storied local musicians.

The Hollywood Reporter:

Pierce will play Antoine Batiste, an...

The Wire's Seth Gilliam Slams Emmys

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:09:13 -0400

Seth Gilliam issued some fightin' words to Emmy board members on BBC's Live 5 show this morning. Mr. Gilliam, who played Sgt. Ellis Carver on HBO's The Wire, criticized them for snubbing the show, which had only one nomination this year. He added that his series "deals with inner-city civil servants, and the Emmys would rather fantasize about lawyers and romance."

BBC News has more from the interview:

"It's a show about a blue collar...

Better Luck Next Year, HBO

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:14:23 -0400

The 60th Annual Emmy Awards nominations have been announced, and as Gillian Reagan points out on our sister blog, Culture Czar, quality television purveyor HBO was shut out of the Best Drama category. There wasn't even a spot for The Wire, which finished its final season beneath an avalanche of critical praise.

That may not be such a shame according to Time's James Poniewozik, who writes, "Maybe it's more fitting that The...

Generation Kill: Required, But Punishing Viewing

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...

Wire's Amy Ryan to Appear on The Office

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:05:08 -0400

Amy Ryan, the gal who starred as "Beadie" Russell on The Wire, will reprise her role as human resources representative Holly Flax on The Office next season. Ms. Ryan appeared in last year's season finale as a puppy love interested of Steve Carell's character, Michael Scott. "I don't know what they're going to do with the character," Ms. Ryan told Variety, "but as it was written, there's certainly a lot of potential. It's a...

Lance Reddick is a Warrior! An Overworked Warrior

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:22:06 -0400

On Saturday night at Tribeca Film Festival’s premiere of Tennessee, we caught up with the righteous and stern Lieutenant Daniels from The Wire, also known as Lance Reddick.

“The funny thing for me about life after The Wire is that I’ve worked more since The Wire than I did the whole time I was on the show,” the tall and slender actor, who plays Mariah Carey's abusive husband in the film, told...

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

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...

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

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.

In the HBO program, in profiles and interviews, and in an Esquire essay, Mr. Simon has revived an old feud with the paper's former editor and managing editor, John Carroll and William Marimow. Mr. Simon has described a...

David Simon on The Wire

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...

I Am So Wired

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:23:35 -0500

On Sunday night, Jan. 6, HBO will broadcast the first episode of the fifth, and last, season of The Wire. To assure fans: The show continues to offer perhaps the most loving and damning portrait of Baltimore ever put to film, from the cops to the teachers to the drug dealers to the politicians who make that city the charming disaster that it is. And as a bonus, a parade of favorites from past...

Drug Dealers Talk About The Wire on the Real Wire

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:04:33 -0500

Wendell Pierce, who plays the lovable drunk detective William "Bunk" Moreland on HBO's The Wire, told Reuters that getting props from drug dealers who watch the show was "the highest compliment." According to actual police detectives who listen in on real phone taps for drug cases, "the chatter went dead during the show's hour-long broadcast."

"The highest compliment came when a police officer told me on the set, 'They talk about you guys on...