A film critic looks on enviously

Friday, 18th July 2008

I think I may be the only person in the UK who's never, ever, seen an episode of "The Wire". After reading Ryan Gilbey's article in the Statesman, I'm considering stocking up on the DVDs:

I devoured the available box sets quickly, and soon the pictures that I was seeing in my capacity as film critic began to look compromised and conventional. The show had spoiled me. For a while, it all felt a bit touch-and-go. Perhaps I would be forced to vacate my day job, citing my addiction to "The Wire" just as those in public office routinely blame alcohol, drugs or rent boys...
...Sociological and political points are made with a level of forcefulness and insight unavailable to more self-consciously political, banner-waving film-makers. My dream is that Stephen Poliakoff or Neil LaBute, or even the Ken Loach of recent years, would be prescribed a course of "The Wire", just to prove to them that arguments mounted patiently with the pen and the movie camera are infinitely more persuasive than those tied to a brick and lobbed through the viewer's living-room window.

I just hope the show is more interesting than the mightily over-hyped "Mad Men". I gave up on that after about three episodes.