Best show you’re not watching. Emmy voters…Ahem!
Wake up, slackers! The Golden Globes nominations are in and all I have to say is…Weeds? Out of everything…and with only five slots available…that’s what you’re going with? You could put House in the comedy category and get more laughs. And I don’t care how many times Terry Hatcher falls down, spills food, or gets caught hiding in a closet…Desperate Housewives is a drama! Can we get a hollah for Veronica Mars? That show is smart, funny, and dark, too. And I am SO over Lost. Can we all agree that the show itself has no idea what its mythology is about or where it’s heading? My frustration meter boiled over months ago, when they told Sawyer the pacemaker they had “implanted” in his chest was really just “fear.” Seriously? Is Woody Allen on their writing staff now?
Who is actually watching television these days?! Besides me, that is. You can always count on me. Academy members, we know you’re busy. We’re all busy. Get a DVR and discover that we have entered another Golden Age of television. It began when the “desperate network” ABC pulled some long shots out of its butt and took a stab at the little show that could…the one that every other network had already had a crack at—and passed on (Desperate Housewives). ABC did similarly with Lost. As infuriating as its convolutions are to me (and many others), it’s a ratings black hole—and by that I mean that it sucks into its gravitational field all viewers present during its airtime. And they’ve yet to escape its pull. That was the beginning of the beginning.
After that, and after realizing that inventive, quality cable programming was also “black holing” a lot of the network eyeballs, broadcasters started to swing wide. As a result, we have the most intriguing menu of entertainment we’ve seen in a decade or so. For the first time in…well, since I can remember, there are so many shows that I want to see during a given time slot that I have to make sacrifices. And that’s saying something, because I have a DVR that can record two shows airing at the same time, while also allowing me to watch a prerecorded one simultaneously. And I’ll still miss something I’d like to see! It’s a beautiful thing, because during those Death Valley days of re-runs—and they are long and languorous—I no longer have to comb the shelves of my neighborhood Blockbuster for something to distract me as I slog on my elliptical cross-training machine.
But here’s my beef: there are only a few offerings on television that truly transcend their medium on every conceivable level. These shows present poignant, socially relevant subject matter while keeping it real, and make us love and root for characters scripted with great depth, who are astoundingly portrayed. The go-to place for shows like this is usually—not always, but it is usually—HBO. And the show I’m about to discuss is no exception.
If you’ve watched any of this season’s The Wire, then (a) you were well rewarded for your time, and (b) you also completely understand how it can take two years to bring that show back on the air. The development of stories each week that are so powerful and intricate—yet still accessible—does not happen by accident or overnight. And with the exception of the conspicuous absence of Simon West’s McNulty for most of this season, it was the best culmination to date of its own ever-increasing levels of art and craft. There has never been a better show on American television. As good, maybe, but none better. Yet how many of you are willing to sit in your living rooms and actually pay attention? Because that’s what this show (and all good entertainment, frankly) demands of you. Like a feature film, this show requires that you sit still and undistracted—that you watch, listen…and think.
This season’s episodes ambitiously and effectively gave voice to my number one peeve—and the primary shortcoming in American politics—the lack of concern about the abandonment of the public school systems. The Wire adroitly brings into bold relief the fraud our Presidork’s marketing campaign of “No Child Left Behind” has perpetrated on our kids—since the nuts and bolts of that program are designed to leave all of the underprivileged behind…bars. Eventually. And The Wire is currently the only show that has taken notice of this issue and said “In your face!” to the American government with it. After Katrina, if we’re not going to get out of our armchairs, we should at least be sitting up in them—sitting up, ordering “On Demand,” and watching the recently concluded season of The Wire.
Kisskiss.
