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I'm glad you found the above useful, even though most of it is really peripheral to the international influence of The Wire. You may need to look into European TV critics' evaluation of the show, if only to get a sense of whether it was even on their radar at the time. The show had a devoted fanbase here in The US, but it was never a particularly large one. Overseas, I can imagine other American shows—even serialized, prestige dramas—would have gotten a lot more attention. You may have to hunt for references there to the show.

There are some other TV shows and movies worth reviewing; though they predated The Wire, they echo many of the same arguments. The 1989 miniseries Traffik immediately comes to mind, as well as its adaptation into Stephen Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar-winning movie Traffic. Oh, and there's also The Corner, HBO's miniseries adaptation of the book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns. Of these, Traffik almost certainly had the highest profile in Europe. And again, all of these projects predated The Wire.

Oh, and this is a bit indirect, but I think that the way a show like The Wire demands long-term attention to something people either thought they understood or never cared about in the first place informs some of the "deep-dive" segments of something like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Most of those 10–20+ minute segments are available (with minor edits for language) on the show's YouTube page. Some of the topics also seem right at home in the context of ethos of The Wire: consider in particular segments on the wealth gap, prison, police militarization, civil asset forfeiture, municipal violations, standardized testing, bail, mandatory minimums, public defenders, prisoner re-entry, journalism, police accountability, and school segregation, among others.

On a related note, I think The Wire was effective at making you identify with criminals who aren't simply antiheroes like Tony Soprano or Walter White. I see echoes of this empathy for people who've done terrible things in shows like, say, Rectify. Maybe I'm just more attuned to notice that after having seen The Wire, but it still strikes me as one of the best examples of humanizing criminals without glamorizing crime itself. You see a bit more of this in some journalism, like that by VICE. Their TV channel VICELAND recently showed the news/real-life series Black Market with Michael K. Williams, the host of which you'll recognize from playing Omar. I'm sure it would be easy to overstate how much The Wire in particular is relevant to this, but I do think it showed that there's an audience for stories about the lives of people often ignored in or underserved by news or entertainment. And for The Wire itself, it's worth noting that the show cast Baltimore natives who'd never acted before. Among many examples are Felicia "Snoop" Pearson and Melvin Williams, a real-life drug dealer targeted by Ed Burns when he was a cop, who played the deacon.

If you're looking for international reaction elsewhere, I don't know what might be the most natural examples of influence might be. Netflix's Narcos, shot and set mostly in Colombia, is certainly "international", but that show's goals are very different from those of The Wire.

Oh, one other thing comes to mind, though it's not really influenced by The Wire so much as something whose rationale can be better appreciated after having seen the show. Namely, in 2001, Portugal widely decriminalized drug use, and there've been a lot of very positive effects attributed to this policy change. Imagine something like Hamsterdam done on a nationwide scale, but without the need for implementing the policy surreptitiously.

This sounds like quite an ambitious project. Best of luck!

Granted, I haven't seen Kevin Spacey's House of Cards, but I've watched all of the original BBC House of Cards Trilogy (House of Cards / To Play the King / The Final Cut) on PBS over the last year. At least twice. It's a compelling drama throughout. Do watch it from the beginning and in sequence, of course; it's a great early example of serialized television.

Neat! Here's a link to the book she mentions. Seems like it'll be an interesting read. Reviews look pretty good!

Your post inspired me to go track this down.

http://www.amazon.com/Down-Hole-unWired-World-Ogden/dp/1576876020

I haven't read much up on it, just clicking around on links like a true internet man. I'll try to post more info when I read up on what this book is suppose to be. All I know is looks awesome!

There was an interview with one of the sound mixers who worked on the show in this book.

They worked extensively not just on making sure dialogue was crisp and clear but the background sounds told a story as well. The example she used was McNulty going on his drunken late night excursions to Rhonda Perlman's house for booty calls and would set the neighborhood dogs barking. When he's acting like a dog, the dogs respond. They had a bit of fun with it.

>Melvin Williams died.

NOO--

>Realizing he was responsible for a good deal of murder.

Hmm...

>"You're talking 'bout drugs. That's a force of nature. That's sweeping leaves on a windy day, whoever you are."

Rest in peace, Mr. Williams.

For those who don't know, the case Ed Burns worked to bring down Melvin Williams was the one which the first season was based on. I've seen the tale of the case retold in scattered stories on the internet, but I think the best account is in this book.

Like in the first season:

• Pretty much nobody off the street knows who Melvin Williams is except for Ed Burns and a handful of other real police.
  
• The department reluctantly gives him a wiretap unit, desperately wanting to close it ASAP.
  
• They break a pager code (same one as in the show, obv).
  
• A young black male officer is shot and killed in an undercover bust.
  
• To compensate, the bosses blow all their PC on raids and seizures.
  
• Because of this, they get Williams on a relatively light sentence, and Williams' arguably more dangerous lieutenant (whose name escapes me) walks free.
  
  I'm sure there's more shot-for-shot similarities, but that's all I have in memory. The first season was pretty autobiographical.

It's made by Sky Italia I think. This is it anyway. I downloaded it with pretty shitty subtitles but still enjoyed it! I know its been on here (UK) so subtitles should be better now.

Here's a link for it...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gomorrah-The-Series-Season-DVD/dp/B00KILJXIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415649529&sr=8-1&keywords=gomorrah

If you look up David Simon's/Ed Burns' book 'The Corner' here it has a map of the part of Baltimore that inspired quite a lot of The Wire and its characters. You may be able to use this as a jumping off point for further research.


Good luck!

Try Snitch or Wised Up, both pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Snitch-Informants-Cooperators-Corruption-Justice/dp/B001G7RCXE

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0786016221

OK... I'm reading "The Wire - Truth Be Told" which is the official HBO guide to the entire series. I've skipped to the end (page 490) and it says:

>"Though he loses the job he both loves and hates, McNulty ends the series with his relationships and friendships intact, alive at his own wake, saluted by his fellow cops, even his longstanding nemesis Jay Landsman."

relevant ;-)

I've been having a lot of fun playing the card game "Exploding Kittens". I can't stand how "internet-y" the design and humor is, so I decided to re-skin it for my personal use. There's 40 unique characters in the deck! Since I don't have any kind of copyright to the game or the art, I'm not going to distribute the files I designed, but still thought you all would find it cool.

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Respect-Structural-Analysis-Sciences/dp/0521017114/ref=la_B001IGHNIW_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368699663&sr=1-1 this is a VERY intresting book about an anthropologist who studied crack dealers, its pretty cool.

Have you read Snoop's Grace After Midnight?. Pretty cool memoir too, although I don't know how it stacks up with Simon's books. I'll have to check out those two and report back.

[Link to book] (http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Paid-Anthropology-Contemporary-Issues/dp/0801495989/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369931821&sr=8-1&keywords=getting+paid) for others but also because it sounds very interesting and I don't want to forget about it.

David Simon's "Homicide" is a great read too http://www.amazon.com/Homicide-A-Year-Killing-Streets/dp/0805080759

http://www.amazon.com/The-Wire-Complete-Series/dp/B005NFJAWG/ says "Bonus features from all five seasons, including audio commentaries by cast and crew".

I'd also like to know if this release of it on Amazon is widescreen…can't really tell from the product notes, which say: "Multiple Formats, AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled; Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1"

This one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wire-Truth-be-Told/dp/1847675999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370460110&sr=8-1&keywords=the+wire+truth+be+told
That's all Simon wrote about Marlo, but I'd def recommend the book for all fans of The Wire.

Edit: And if you're not convinced, there's a 13 page interview (or rather a discussion) between David Simon, Ed Burns and Melvin Williams where they talk about Melvin's years as a drug kingpin, how we got caught by Ed Burns using a wiretap and how the game has changed. Essential stuff, really.

And then The Corner. Prepare to have your heart broken though.

How about the book The Wire is based on?

The Corner

http://www.amazon.com/Wire-Complete-Michael-Williams/dp/B005NFJAWG/ref=sr_tr_sr_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1354663347&sr=1-1&keywords=the+wire

This is the one I got but it was only 80 when I got it.

Grace After Midnight, apparently.

Requisite, The book is amazing.

Book: "Truth To Be Told"

Book: "The Wire: Urban Decay and American Television"

Video: "Style in the Wire"

As I say most times I hear a question about the background to The Wire and it's various characters: Homicide: A Year on The Killing Streets by David Simon holds all the answers, and is an absolutely fantastic read.