I was too young to watch “The Wire” in middle school. When I saw him in college, I thought the acting was really wonderful. Wendell Pierce, who played Bunk Moreland, is one of my favorite actors, and as a queer person, I thought Michael K. Williams’ Omar was really handsome – how sweet he was to his partner in contrast to how fierce he was. in the world. This stuff was stellar.
But there was very little about inner Baltimore life and little celebration of any aspect of the city. It only showed this flattened idea of Baltimore: drugs, poverty, crime, corruption, violence. When you watch television, as a black person, you want to see darkness rendered humanely, rendered as you know it in the world. I don’t think the show managed to show that.
But I was curious to know how the community felt. Who liked it and why? How did it go for you 20 years after filming the series in your neighborhood? What did “The Wire” do – or not do – for Baltimore?
I know what I think, but I wanted to know what other people thought.