For twenty years, David Simon has produced, through his series, an implacable radiography of America and the evils that plague it. A former journalist, he willingly gives voice to the underprivileged and marginalized populations, African-Americans in New Orleans, destitute after Hurricane Katrina (Treme), to the figures of the underworld New York of the 1970s (The Deuce). But it is undoubtedly the inhabitants of the poor districts of Baltimore, the city where he grew up, of which David Simon speaks best.
The five seasons of The Wire (Bugged), co-scripted by writers George Pelecanos, Richard Price and Dennis Lehane between 2002 and 2008, brilliantly testify to his ambition. Ultra-realistic and romantic, this long-term immersion alongside drug traffickers, police officers, judges, dockers, politicians and even journalists has left its mark on the history of series, inspiring a generation of creators.
Charge against systemic racism
Twenty years later, David Simon and George Pelecanos return to Baltimore for a new uncompromising dive into the mysteries of the city. They are inspired this time by the investigation carried out by Justin Fenton, reporter for the Baltimore Sun, around the embezzlement of an elite police unit (1). Corruption, racketeering, blunders… The Gun Trace Task Force exercised a brutal hold on the streets in the name of the “war on drugs”, the spectacular results of the brigade giving it a certain impunity.
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A charge against the politics of numbers and systemic racism, the six episodes with muscular production follow in parallel the drift of the police and the efforts of those who helped to arrest them, in particular a pugnacious lawyer interpreted by Wunmi Mosaku. The distribution multiplies the nods to The Wirelike Jamie Hector, who passes from the role of a trafficker (the charismatic and ruthless Marlo Stanfield), to that of an inspector helpless witness of the crimes of his colleagues.