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Where is the 'Wire' Backlash?
March 14, 2008

It's been nearly a full workweek since The Wire wrapped, and I still haven't seen any hint of a backlash against the HBO drama. When was the last time some critical darling in the creative world--The Wire routinely won the B&C critics' poll, and that guy from Slate famously called it the best show ever broadcast on television--escaped a backlash? Where is the sneer of some hipster, realizing a show, a band, a film had achieved critical mass, so to speak, who decides it'd be far cooler to be in the smaller group that doesn't like said show, band or film--an individual so sophisticated in his tastes that he can actually find fault in something the critics adore? 

We all knew people who said Seinfeld or The Sopranos had lost its edge those last few seasons, but I don't seem to have encountered them this time around. 

In fact, Googling "The Wire sucks" elicits a mere 377 links--a number of them from fans of the show saying how it "sucks you in." That's a far cry from the 878 links from "The Wire rules", and not much more than the 311 links from "The Wire rocks." 

Was it that The Wire, like Hendrix and Koufax, wasn't around long enough--a mere 60 episodes across five seasons--to lose favor with the masses? Was it that, unlike Seinfeld and The Sopranos, it never hit the mainstream (if I can use my parents as a barometer of the mainstream)? 

Or was the David Simon creation, in fact, just that good?

Posted by Mike Malone on March 14, 2008 | Comments (3)