Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Wire




As many of you know, I become easily obsessed. With what you may ask? EVERYTHING. I am the girl who saw Titanic 16 times in the theater, obsessively read everything that even mentioned the 2008 election, watched Olympic coverage 18 hours a day, skipped school to get tickets to Dave Matthews....twice. And it may be physically impossible for me to run a marathon, but if you've ever shared living quarters with me you know my endurance comes in front of a television screen. Sex and the City? done in a week. LOST? ha! two days. The Office? child's play. Have I changed post-college? NOPE

The latest thing to provide me hours of entertainment is HBO's "The Wire." With incredible ease, complex story lines, and amazing characters, the show takes a detailed look into things about our cities that go ignored; the business of drugs, political corruption, the failing public school system, a biased media. Violence breeds violence, greed breeds greed, and the so the game goes.

I don't think this show would have been as appealing to me if it did not mirror the lives of the children I spent last year with, and the neighborhood I currently work in. Do I think that everyone should quit their job and work in the inner-city? Well yea, kind of. But more importantly I think that you should watch this show, even one episode and realize that this exists. In our country. Right now. While you are working behind a desk, there are good people just trying to get by. And their work isn't done in an office, it's done on the corner. And the politicians you trust, feed off the poor. And test scores, not children, are what matter. And the media twists it all.

And if that doesn't hook you, Officer McNulty is really really hot.

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