Beyond The Wire

Four years ago or so my friend Ben told me about The Wire, which was airing on HBO. I caught up with the show on DVD and became one of the many dedicated fans of the show, declaring it my favorite TV series ever. You're either all-in with The Wire or you're not. There aren't casual fans of the show, the complexities of it guarantee that. Since watching the end of the final season in early 2008 (I don't have HBO so I caught that season in a weird mix of late-night post-babysitting viewings on demand at my sister's and on some sketchy probably-illegal Asian websites), I have been exploring books and TV shows that have ties to The Wire. Below is what I've been into so far.

Homicide Detectives

In 1988, The Wire co-creator David Simon - then a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, spent a year with a Baltimore homicide unit and wrote the brilliant and insightful book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.

A few years later, Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana created the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street based on Simon's book. While the show was fictional, it was shot on site in Baltimore and early episodes used cases straight from the book. Simon himself would write some episodes and in later seasons would become a producer of the show. Actors from Homicide would later show up The Wire: notably Peter Gerety, Callie Thorne and Clark Johnson. Though many other The Wire veterans showed up in minor roles (Bodie! Prop Joe!), my fave being Clayton LeBouef being stick-in-the-mud Colonel Barnfather in Homicide and overambitious strip club operator Orlando in The Wire.

Many parts of Homicide will be immediately familiar to The Wire lovers: Baltimore as another character, the white board in the homicide squad room, hard-drinking detectives, the concept of legalizing drugs (okay technically, that was in Homicide: The Movie), and questionable polygraph machines. (Here's The Wire's take.)

Oh, and Homicide was the best cop show on TV before The Wire came along. You will not be disappointed watching this show.

The Boys on the Corner

The Wire co-creators Simon and Ed Burns wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, a bleak-but-great book that should be required reading for all of those who think The War on Drugs is winnable. This was the basis for the Emmy-winnng miniseries The Corner, which I haven't seen. It predates The Wire but features some of the same actors. I have been told that casting tends to go against that in The Wire (a google search shows that Clarke Peters - Lester Freamon in The Wire - is a drug addict in The Corner.) Plus it has Khandi Alexander - no complaints here.

Crime Writers Who Wrote For The Show

George Pelecanos: His novels take place in Washington, D.C. They usually involve Greek-Americans, diners, and enough great music references that you have to keep a pen handy to write stuff down to check out later. (I was told in one book two characters discuss the Replacements, but haven't come across that one yet.) Pete Scholtes grades Pelecanos's books (Hard Revolution was probably my fave), plus interviews him about The Wire and other subjects here and here.

Dennis Lehane: His novels take place in Boston. Two - Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone - have been made into award-winning pictures, with Gone, Baby, Gone featuring The Wire alums Michael K. Williams in a small role and Amy Ryan in an Oscar-nominated best supporting actress role. This summer I was so captivated by Darkness, Take My Hand that I read it over a weekend.

Richard Price: Writer of novels and screenplays. I am currently reading Clockers (haven't seen the movie.) Published in 1993 and taking place in Newark, it covers familiar ground for fans of The Wire: A teenage corner dealer and a middle-aged homicide detective are dealt with in alternating chapters. I am blown away by this novel, the craft of it moves beyond the crime novel genre and makes it great fiction period.

On A Lighter Note

You can take a "Which The Wire character are you?" quiz. I'm Bunk, which thrilled me to no end.