Techniques of Drama in "The Wire"

I watched "The Immaculate Election" from ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and "Backwash" from THE WIRE. But, given the assignment, I will discuss THE WIRE more at length.

I must admit from the get-go here that though The Wire is a truly incredible television show, I find it incredibly hard to analyze simply because there is so much going on – so many characters and story lines that last several episodes – that one often can’t fully appreciate it until many episodes later. With that said, here goes.

In the “Backwash” episode of The Wire, the main characters were Stringer Bell and Frank Sobatka. Most of the episode was told through their relative points-of-view (with the exception of a few scenes). Lt. Daniels was another main character in this episode, but the plot didn’t seem to deal as much with him as with the other two.

In one scene, much of the exposition about what the characters were thinking and feeling came out through glances. The scene was D’Angelo’s funeral. There is a lot more going on here plot-wise, but I’ll save the words. While one man sang at the funeral, the camera watched the looks exchanged between Horse Face and Stringer Bell and his people. This highlighted who knew what was really going on in regards to D’s death.

The mood and tone of the episode are bleak, but with a sort of cynicism. Some very dark things happen involving some very troubled and conflicted characters, but the episode maintains a very gallows sense of humour.

There were many ticking bombs in the episode, but one got a sense that they are still ticking on into future episodes.

The “big moment” occurred when one of Frank Sobotka’s men got severely injured on the docks. Frank spent much of the episode enraged that new technology was going to change the business his family grew up in and take jobs away from his sons, and this all climaxed when one of his men had his leg shattered by a box.