FOR THE FANS: THE WIRE, AS A VICTORIAN NOVEL

So right.

Stringer and Avon. This, from The Atlantic: ” Most people know The Wire as the HBO police drama set in Baltimore—an intricate five-season exploration of the brokenness of the inner-city’s war on drugs, education system, politics, and policing, and one of the most lauded television shows of all time. Fewer people know that it was originally a Victorian serial by the almost forgotten writer H.B. Ogden. Such, at least, was the claim of Sean Michael Robinson and Joy DeLyria, who created a virtuoso analysis of Ogden’s work and an airtight argument as to why The Wire, with its serial format, moral message, and sympathy for the downtrodden, was quintessentially Victorian, and could never be reproduced in our own time.”

” The book resets numerous scenes from The Wire in a 19th-century London setting—whether it’s D’Angelo, Bodie, and Wallace discussing processed chicken parts, or McNulty and Bunk investigating a crime scene while spewing colorful Victorian slang.” Or here, as Mr Moreland and Mr McNulty check out a crime scene.