The show is undoubtedly an indictment of the war on drugs and calls it a wholesale failure, no question there. It condemns the violence on the streets and is honest about how violent the police are. And it is completely consistent on the theme that people turn to crime because the socio-economic system left them no other option. As the show spirals out into other fields, it shows how thorough the corruption of the whole government and how impossible it is to change anything. Anyone who actually tries reform either gets boxed out of the process (Bunny Coleman, Daniels) or conforms to the corrupt system (Littlefinger).
But while it condemns the war on drugs, there is still an element of "the police could be saved through reform." Especially season 5 which is the worst season for a lot of reasons. The case against copaganda is much stronger without McNulty's bullshit fake serial killer plot, in universe it confirms that with better allocated resources police can solve stuff like murders. Season 5 was saved by Marlo's crew and the Newspaper storyline.
I think the biggest argument against it being copaganda is that you always follow the people they're investigating. They are main characters as much as the cops (and are usually much more compelling characters). In every season at least one of the criminal characters chooses to reject the violence of the drug trade in some way. I don't know of any other "cop show" that actually gives a shit about the people on the other end of the table, especially not to the extent we see in season 4. Season 4 is the highmark for showing the school to prison pipeline and actually trying to offer an alternative.
And as for the police, we see at least two characters who go through the journey of "don't be a fucking cop anymore, it's awful." Prezbo is actually pretty based for killing a cop and then becoming a public school teacher.
I'm not making an argument either way I just wanna hear your thoughts.
True, but I think that might be beyond the scope of the show. David Simon has been pretty clear the Wire's main character is the city of Baltimore. I don't know how you tie in international drug cartels and the DEA and keep it still focused on Baltimore. The show's politicians are all local, that kind of stuff is far above their pay grade. When they do show the Feds, the FBI are just ancillary to the main story.
Maybe if there was a 6th season that dealt with immigration. Each season added an institution to focus on and if we had some Hispanic characters to follow then the DEA/CIA/Drug cartel alliance could have been hinted at.
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Well Obama is a fucking grifter whose entire ethos is pretending to be progressive. The whole "here's my summer playlist totally not curated by my interns" bit stuck with me. Maybe Obama just liked that it was the first critically acclaimed TV show to feature a cast with a black majority. Or maybe he knew it was popular and would earn clout by giving lip service to it. My point is disregard whatever that clown says, he has no incentive to be honest about anything. If he truly watched the show, took in it's meanings, and didn't see himself in the face of Mayor Carcetti then he's a fucking moron. Even the most libbiest, reformist reading of the Wire is a condemnation of the neoliberalism that Obama lives by. And I don't think Obama is an idiot. To quote an actual moron, “Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing."
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I love that read. Bodie says as much himself, they want him to stand for Marlo but Marlo won't stand for them.