Jonathan Abrams - All the Pieces Matter

Wendell Pierce addressed an expectant audience at Columbia University. The eager crowd had filed inside Cowin Auditorium in April 2016, ignoring a bitter New York City day that stubbornly refused to recognize winters end. Pierce sat inside, surrounded by some of his contemporaries from The Wire, including Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield), Sonja Sohn (Det. Kima Greggs), and Felicia Snoop Pearson. The background of the actors reflected the sizable range of those who appeared in the trailblazing HBO show. Pierce is New Orleans through and through. Yet he was no stranger to New York, having attended the Juilliard Schools Drama Division. In The Wire, he depicted William Bunk Moreland, a dedicated, competent detective who struggled to balance his work and his personal life. Pierce discussed his experience of sharing scenes with Pearson, who played an androgynous killer and had never acted prior to The Wire. The first night Snoop came onto the set, Snoop sat in the directors chair with David [Simon] on one side, Ed [Burns] on the other, Pierce recalled. Shes trying to be cool. Ill never forget, there was a shootout scene and she said, Motherfuckers dont shoot like that. I thought it was great, and it shows you how you take your personal experience and bring it to the show. If youre gonna be authentic, youve gotta be authentic.

Pearson laughed with a husky rasp, relaying another story from one of her nascent days on set, when an assistant director cautioned that she shot the prop guns with too much accuracy. Snoop is an amazing woman, Pierce continued. You hear that profile and then you engage with this charming, talented, incredible person, and its this cautionary tale that shes allowed herself to be onstage. Understand that you may never look at any kid who may be going down that wrong path as anything other than a full, loving human being and if you want to change that course, embrace that before you embrace any idea of ignorance or negativity. Understand that theres that humanity there, and shes a living example of why the show tapped into peoples psyches and why the show has created an examination of policy, an examination of the influence of art changing peoples lives in a practical way at universities across the nation. You didnt see no damn show about Gilligan. These are peoples lives and the examination of the dysfunction in our American culture that was on display in The Wire has changed peoples lives.

From its deliberate pacing to its desolate portrayal of Baltimores blight and all points in between, The Wire strove for realism. Those earnest efforts confused many during the shows sixty-episode life span from 2002 to 2008. HBO had produced groundbreaking, original television prior to The Wire, with shows such as Oz and The Sopranos.The Wire was something different, though. Its creator, David Simon, originally frowned upon the entertainment business. He envisioned the television show as a novel, with the postmodern institutions of Baltimore representative of Greek gods. The show plopped the viewer into the middle of a vast universe without an explanatory guide. The plot was complicated, and the dialogue may as well have been in another language. The series shifted focus each season. Too many characters lived in its space, and Simon brought forth no obvious heroes. Few watched the show when it aired. Award voters mostly ignored it. The Wire faced cancellation almost annually. First, we thought it was a silo, because people werent watching the show when it was on, Pierce told the crowd. We thought we were doing a good show. But it was really in a silo and it wasnt until maybe the third year when we were coming back and noticed, Hey, people are starting to check on the show.

No show has aged as gracefully. The Wire stood the test of time after only intermittently being acknowledged while on air. How many shows are being taught? said Darrell Britt-Gibson, who played Darius O-Dog Hill. Thats its impact. Its left a lasting impression on the culture, and hopefully it continues to do so with the next generation and the generation after that. Its a timeless piece of art. The panel at Columbia University took place as part of a weekend conference on The Wire. Academics and professors convened, hosting panels that discussed the fictional shows various real-life intersections of subjects such as mass incarceration, narrative journalism, and religion and politics in the inner city. Columbia University is not the only college to host discussions on the showor even the lone Ivy League school, for that matter. Yale and Harvard are among the many universities that have featured conferences or classes that examine the shows enduring impact. I actually went to a university to speak about