All in the game.

So, The Wire is back.

Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about this show. In fact, I’ve written about it on this very blog before. It’s far and away the best damn thing on television. There isn’t even a close second. Whenever I’m at a party or making conversation at a wedding and someone starts going on and on about Lost or 24 I just chuckle quietly and wait for them to finish. Then, I launch into my twenty minute dissertation.

I know that most people don’t expect that much from television. The average viewer just wants a brief diversion between the time they get home from work and the time they have to go to bed. People just want to turn on the television and turn off their brains. But The Wire is proof that television can be much more than a diversion. Television can be art. Is Desperate Housewives telling stories as detailed and nuanced as The Godfather? The Wire does. Is Nip/Tuck laying bare the factors that cause the decaying of an American city? The Wire does. Does Weeds employ award winning novelists on its writing staff? The Wire does.

And still American ignores it. And so does the Emmy’s. And the Golden Globes. What a damn shame. We’ve just past the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; the natural disaster that brought so many issues of poverty and race to the forefront of our consciousness. You’d think that people in this country would be more receptive to a television show that addresses many of the same racial and socio-economic issues that were exposed last year. To the contrary. Despite rave reviews in newspapers and major magazines, The Wire still labors in relative obscurity. People who have never missed one single episode of The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, Carnival, Deadwood and Rome say things like, “I tried to watch it, but I couldn’t get into it.” That’s because it’s not an easy show to watch. It’s not easy. It doesn’t pander. Things don’t wrap up at the end of an episode like most network dramas. They don’t explain the meaning of the police jargon or the street slang. It unfolds slowly and deliberately like a great novel. And much like a great novel, you can’t truly appreciate the story until it’s done.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s the best fucking show on television. For my money, it’s the best television show ever.