Congrats to Kay and Jesse for getting linked to by Matt Yglesias in writing about The Wire. Yet, since I felt compelled to complain about negligence of  The Wire when it was not on, I think I should throw in my two cents now that it's back. The backlash that's starting to build should come as no surprise to anyone who's listened to music: it's the classic stock market beahvior of hype. The Wire has just peaked in hype terms during its fourth season, and, now, by the law of hype, it has to have a downturn. There's always some factor, and in this case, the reason is simple: now journalists are the target, and they don't want their world to be portrayed this way. More in extended.

Unfortunately the magazine n+1 has not published its excellent dissection of the hype cycle online, so I'll just have to summarize. Basically, any commercial product has a certain reputation attached to it. Good hype is like a "buy" recommendation, driving up the product's value, while bad hype is like a "sell." The goal is to buy low and sell high, the latter being the backlash that eventually develops to any 'acclaimed' product.  The hipster, then, is not so different from the trader. Both scour for bargains, either among unknowns ("I heard them before anyone else") or among those who have peaked and are back down low again (the backlash to the backlash, if you will). It's no longer just about the personal value of the product, but about its value to others.

Thus it has been with The Wire. Unwatched by even HBO viewers, but adored by critics and it small fan base, it puttered along on hype for four seasons, achieving the rare feat of having satisfied its fans in all four (can you name another show that garnered such praises for four straight seasons? Even The West Wing and the Sopranos were worse, though not by much, four seasons after they started.). This year, The Wire was clearly poised for a breakthrough: its swan song, the absolute brilliance of the preceding season, its status the last of the truly great HBO shows (it used to share a schedule with Deadwood, the Sopranos, and Six Feet Under; now, Showtime probably has the better lineup), and, most importantly, the Writers Strike drying up the number of shows people could write about. No TV blogger wants to write about Deal or No Deal, and the list of alternate shows grows thin.

Yet, Rule No. 2 of the stock market of hype (after "buy low, sell high") is that no stock rises forever. Just as all the factors were in place for a breakthrough for the show, so were all the factors in place for a backlash. The new storyline was the press, which meant that now many of the shows most vocal fans would not be seeing something unfamiliar, like inner city schools or the docks. Instead, they'd be seeing a depiction of a world they knew, of a world that each had their own views on.

Now, journalists are starting to get cracked over the head with the overwhelming message of The Wire: bleakness. Not surprisingly, they don't like it as much. This, combined with the convinient storyline of creator David Simon's intense hatred for the Baltimore Sun, leads to conclusion that the journalism part is unrealistic, or ham-handed. When one isn't from the background of Yglesias, one gets a different, much less negative result, such as at TV Squad. It's a testament to the show's quality that the backlash is focusing mostly, though not entirely, on one of the stories rather than the whole show.

The backlash is probably correct - the message is a little ham-handed, the characters are somewhat one-dimensional, and the overall depiction is too pessimitistic. But has that not been true all along? What was Frank Sobotka, but the family man trying to get by? What are McNulty and Freamon, but two talented cops whose penchants for misbehavior sidetrack them? These are but two examples of archetypes that The Wire was not the first to use. And the message has always been bluntly consistent, as well as at least a shade too pessimistic (we rarely see the good that many service organizations do in Baltimore). Simon has said "whether you're a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge [or] lawyer, you are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution you've committed to." This is true of the journalists whose praise has been compromised by their love of their profession, but we should remember that it is also true of television writers: they write characters and shows, not people and life. What should be appreciated about The Wire is not that it perfectly depicts real life, but that it comes so close in doing so, most specifically by showing sides of both society and the individuals in it that are too often ignored.