TV near its finest, HBO's The Wire has played out on my TV screen twice today (HBO East and Pacific feeds). It's become one of my favorite shows, alongside other famed Baltimore police drama, Homicide, Life on the Street. And now I know why - David Simon was responsible for the book that spawned Homicide (and wrote and produced many of its episodes). He's also responsible for the Baltimore based miniseries The Corner, which I have not seen, but did win an emmy (while The Wire received no nominations this year, even though its a critics favorite - a running theme with these Baltimore dramas).
Cable series, particularly pay cable series, seem to have an advantage over network television in that many of them can play out more like a novel or miniseries. The first season of The Wire was 13 episodes. All of the seasons of The Sopranos are approximately the same length. While Homicide was very character driven, it was also largely episodic. The Wire spans its story lines across an entire season. And, in fact, we continue to see the lives of the characters (dealers and addicts) that were the target of last season in this one.
Pay cable series also have the advantage of being able to fill up as much of their time as they want with no commercial interruption. The Wire fills up its entire hour. Meaning that, in theory, you get as much or more in two episodes as in most theatrical movies. But shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, etc, use television to its fullest as a medium. Being presented commercial free is a benefit - you get to sit back and watch. Being presented back to back until completion is a benefit - you're allowed to get drawn into a story, and not a chunk of new episodes followed by a month and a half of reruns followed by new episodes. HBO and their original programming are an established entity. As part of being commercial free, the shows are free of "ratings sweep stunts." And HBO's budget, awareness, and advertising is strong enough to be able to avoid other stunts. I understand that Showtime has an equally excellent crime drama, Street Time, that has had absolutely no promotion and, not surprisingly, few viewers (but again - critical praise). I've read that they are resorting to casting stunts for the new season. This may work out for them - it helped Homicide from time to time.
In any case, the current story of The Wire is nearing its end. I recommend catching it if you haven't. On Saturday, August 23, they'll be running the most recent three episodes prior to the finale.
This weeks episode, by the way, gave some a nice moment to Harper's and The Nation (as well as The New Republic and The Atlantic).