Rounding Up "The Wire"

When I started writing this blog, I promised myself I would wait at least a month before posting anything about "The Wire." I mean, it's a TV show, and this here is a book blog, right? Anyway, today, I'm breaking that promise. There's simply too much going on out there not to comment on it.

With the 5th and final season debuting two weeks ago, "The Wire," HBO's crime drama cum social novel, has been lauded by critics and written about in nearly every major media publication, electronic or otherwise. Making the most noise are Mark Bowden's critique of the show's creator, David Simon, in The Atlantic and Simon's essay about his time at The Sun, appearing in this month's Esquire . Even the Freakonomics blog gets into the act, with a piece by Sudhir Venkatesh (appearing at Vroman's on January 23), one whose prescience might become more and more evident as we move through this season.

What interests me most about the media storm surrounding "The Wire" is the way it has captivated the literary and book blog scene. Novelist James Hynes (Kings of Infinite Space) is officially obsessed, penning three straight blog posts about the show, including an excellent plea to return to the series inspiration and read a novel. Languagehat had some fun with the technicalities of the show's language. There was even lit-blog representation at the Season 5 premiere, as Maud Newton made the trip down to Baltimore. I can't remember a TV show, even something like The Sopranos, getting this kind of ink from folks like this. Maybe this is a book blog post after all.