#Avon Barkdale

[mannytoodope]

[sarasotav]

The Wire

The wire is a TV series on HBO. The premise of the show is that it follows different aspects of the city of Baltimore, primarily concentrating on law enforcement, and its interaction with the lives of various people that in the drug business as well as some being users. The show does a great job of showing the plight of young African American men stuck in the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum that do what they must do to survive. It also does a good job of showing the police side from a different perspective. Most TV shows that involve police mostly glorify the job and only show the hero side rather than showing reality of the fact that there are bad apples and an ugly side to it as well. The fact that the writers in the show were former journalists that covered the Baltimore police really helped make the show seem real. The thing that I love the most about it is that as a viewer, you really get a good sense of the struggle that a lot of the characters are going through. A lot of times, people that are in the drug business are only cast as the bad guy, but the wire shows the real struggle that is the lives of the characters go through. Two of the characters named Avon Barkdale and Stringer Bell were based and so was the character Omar Little, all of which were part of the drug trade.

I think the show did meet its goals of entertainment due to the large following of the show. I also think it did a good job of critical thought. This is shown the attention to detail in the show, which I think is a big reason why it resonated with so many people. The creator of the show found it so important to have the show be a true reflection of the city, that he brought in real gang members, police and others to act in the show. His experience as a journalist also gave him an advantage. As far as cultural influence I would say that it brought about awareness of the situation happening in Baltimore (and other cities). In all, it is a great show that depicts closely to reality, the struggles of inner-city youth and the unfair disadvantages that they have to deal with. It is a picture that should help be a call to action to affect change in the lives of the less fortunate.