WATCH THE WIRE! GODDAMMIT!

During the past few weeks, while anxiously awaiting for Armageddon to break out between the Hearst and Swearengen/Bullock factions on HBO's excellent show, Deadwood, I've been re-watching the third season of a show that's even better, in my opinion, the Wire. I already knew that this was the best season of one of my favorite shows, but watching it again, I'm able to savor some of the show's endless details all over.

The third season of the show overcame the somewhat defensive, transitional nature of season two to hit us with the gripping story of Hamsterdam, Baltimore's ill-fated, police-sanctioned, open-air drug zone, the parting of ways between arch-villains Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell, and the dogged pursuit of both by the dedicated, flawed cops of the Major Crime Unit.

When I was a teenager, some network ad people coined the phrase "a Novel for Television." What this mostly meant was a conventional TV movie expanded to six-hour-plus length. Sometimes these movies resonated (ABC's Roots, NBC's Holocaust), sometimes they didn't (ABC's endless the Winds of War), but the tropes of novelistic storytelling were rarely attempted.

The Wire, created by Baltimore authors Ed Burns and David Simon, and bolstered by crime writers like George Pelecanos and Richard Price, truly takes the novel for TV approach seriously. The characters come from a wide ranging social spectrum, from good-natured, enterprising drug addict, Bubbles, to vindictive, closeted homosexual Baltimore Police Major Rawls, to gleefully, untouchably corrupt State Senator Clay Davis. Seemingly insignificant events gather importance as the story progresses. Stories are paced to have a beginning, middle and end (take that, Sopranos!). And the repercussions of past events are carefully considered.

So, anyway... START WATCHING THE WIRE. Season four, starting on HBO on September 10, is pivotal. HBO, with its ill treatment of Deadwood and its initiation of crap shows like Lucky Louie, seems to be in a rush to shed its reputation as the Home of Quality TV. So Burns and Simon's proposed fifth and final season has yet to be green-lighted. The Wire needs you. And better still, you need it.

Much has been made of the assumption, and David Simon's admission, that more White people don't watch the Wire because the cast is predominently Black. Sigh. White People, I seldom address you directly, but these matters call for it: GET OVER YOURSELVES. Jesus, it's not like we're asking you to watch Eddie Griffin movies or something. Watch just a couple episodes of this show and I can guarantee you, race aside, will find any number of characters to identify with or appreciate. Maybe Lester Freamon, the brilliant detective who is brought back to life after being placed on the shelf for years for crossing the aforementioned Rawls. Or Cutty Wise, the drug gang muscle who has lost his taste for the game. Or Marlo Stanfield, the smooth-faced, dead-eyed drug kingpin-in-the-making. Or Kima Greggs, the uncloseted lesbian detective who thinks it's necessary to reject domesticity to be a good cop.

And furthermore... I, as a member of a minority group, have watched countless movies and television shows that have featured little or no people that look like me. And yet I still live. You owe me, White folks. For four seasons of Frasier alone. You guys can watch the Wire, then recover by watching Gilmore Girls reruns and eating mayonaise out of the jar.

So, anyway, like I said, watch the Wire, starting September 10, 9:00 pm EST. HBO'S not paying me. I give you this advice 'cause I care about YOU.