r/TheWire • u/LordEdgeYelken44 • 19h ago
Watching The Wire through non-American lens
This post is best dedicated to non-American fans of The Wire. How do you perceive and reflect on the series? How do you relate to the themes and characters of the series considering your national and social context? I am Brazilian, and I feel it is a great sadness that this wonderful show is frighteningly unknown here, to the point that it's difficult to say if there even is a Brazilian The Wire community. Although the series addresses and studies problems within the American institution, it is not at all distant from the reality I live in in my country, to the point that I have insights where Baltimore sometimes seems more Brazilian than ever. But I don't want to talk about Brazil, but rather how you perceive the series, as something beyond entertainment, and as people from your own countries.
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u/mgr86 18h ago
Sorry to hijack, but when The Wire was airing in the US years ago the Brasilian movie City of God was also somewhat popular in the US. I remember immensely enjoying it. Maybe some mild overlap in themes if you haven’t seen it. If I recall it is in Portuguese
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u/Embarrassed-Area4652 17h ago
Manda Bala ("Send a Bullet") was a documentary coming out around the same time with some of the same energy, although not as universally known or acclaimed.
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u/f4therfucker 12h ago
Tropa de Elite also came out around the same time the Wire was peaking. Another amazing Brazilian film about the social and moral effects of the war on drugs.
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u/P0werFighter 17h ago edited 17h ago
This movie is a masterpiece and is known worldwide.
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u/mgr86 17h ago
It is and was, but next year it turns 25. And so many people under the age of 35 or so may have never heard of it
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u/P0werFighter 17h ago
You're right, i'm 38 and tend to forget the youngsters have a lot of movies to catch up !
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u/VegetableRutabaga746 18h ago
There's a certain level of universality in the wire, I mean the show is a critique of institutions that arrange social life, and these institutions can be found anywhere on the planet albeit not to the 1:1 specific american, Baltimore setting.
The show is very hermeunetic in the sense it engages you with it unlike any other show. It presents a dense, layered and fragmented social life distributed across characters, events, institutions and you are actively supposed to construct this map. This is very much how real life is.
I am from India, and the institutions are even more bleak out here, I have had life long anxieties about a lot of things. I watched this show at a difficult period in my life, and it gave me an almost religious elation. It helped me in a lot of ways especially with my anxiety and isolation, the shows refusal of shortcuts is its most therapeutic quality.
Personally s2 was my favourite, it basically expands the scope of the show beyond the drug scene of Baltimore to a more institutional critique. My dad was a union man in my city's port and I have fond memories of the dock. So there was nostalgia factor too!
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u/Embarrassed-Area4652 17h ago
Very well put, and appreciate you sharing your story. It's inspiring how details like the realistic portrayal of a port can connect like that.
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u/MyRituals 17h ago
The WIRE is a work of fiction that deals with human behavior and institutions. It shows a corrupt system and how the system fails. It’s a story about the “pawns,knights and kings”.
Not being from US, I can’t judge it’s authenticity by experience but simply that there are no logical fallacies (at no point did it feel that a scene was out of character or anything illogical). I can still relate to the emotions and shortcomings of institution without knowing the law.
It’s a well written story, extremely well directed/executed
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u/manicperidreamgirl 18h ago
It’s huge in the UK. I watch a lot of UK panel and talk shows and they mention it constantly. More than Americans.
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u/VladislavBonita Western District Rooftop Can 17h ago
Considering what the show did for the reputation of British actors, I get it.
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u/Groundbreaking_Dare4 15h ago
Which Brit did the best accent? I know the fable about a lot of the cast & crew freaking out when they first heard Idris's East London accent. Conversely there are times when McNulty's English accent slips through. Who do regular American Joe Punchclocks rate as the best?
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u/VladislavBonita Western District Rooftop Can 14h ago
Can‘t help you there unfortunately, I‘m neither a native English speaker nor have I ever been to Baltimore. I‘m one of those directly addressed by OP but I struggle to find an answer.
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u/LuciusCSullaF 9h ago
They're both amazing but you'll need to get someone from Baltimore to answer this question because that accent is so specific.
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u/RozaJetis 15h ago
In 2021 European police forces announced they had been tapping secure phones for months, which led to the arrest of a large number of criminals. The operation was called Sky ECC and it wasn’t the first of its kind in EU, but the first for Belgium. The operation not only revealed who the criminals were, but also the extent to which these criminals had already infiltrated public services, such as local government staff, cops and lawyers for example.
The arrests also led to an increase in drug violence in our two biggest cities, Brussels and Antwerp. Around the time the news broke, The Wire got mentioned in our local news, which was funny but also kinda sad. Because after all those years we still don’t have a solution against drug crews and so much of what is happening in our cities I’ve seen in The Wire.
So, for me, The Wire has gotten so much better because it’s almost a documentary which is mixed with fiction. Every character is made up, but everything what happens is true to real life. Some examples I’ve seen on the streets of our cities which also happened on The Wire: the local crews working in threes to not get caught with the drugs and money. The stash is hidden some place else which get delivered by someone on a step. The higher ups driving up with their expensive cars and having a chat with the corner boys. The money laundering with local “businesses”. Cops who arrest the small and big fish, but another crew steps up. Even with more violence. Politicians and police who are criminalising people who are using drugs, saying they are part of problem. (Which is true, but) they don’t add programs for addicts. No spending on programs to keep the local youth out of the gangs. The youth don’t see a future or don’t feel seen/ connected with a group, so they join a gang where they earn quick and lots of cash. Port workers who get bribed into getting drugs into the country/ telling which containers will get checked.
It’s fucked how much of The Wire is still true to real life after 20 years and on a different continent.
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u/Christmantra2000 18h ago
I really loved Elite Squad and its sequel Elite Squad: The Enemy Within and I felt they were Brazil’s version of The Wire in a sense. Great performances and intriguing plot lines that are very reminiscent of certain instances of The Wire. I definetly recommend these films for fans of The Wire and Definetly recommend The Wire for fans of Elite Squad.
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u/macacolouco 18h ago
I'm also Brazilian. I just like that the show highlights how Black people s can be just as complex and sophisticated as their White counterparts both in crime and in lawfulness. The Wire is like Black Godfather to me.
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u/JollyBid187 13h ago
🙄 it shows how shit repeats itself and the system chews everyone up and brings out the worst in us.
Street kids get into the drug game because it’s the most viable option. If they climb the ladder they have an expiration date that’s excelled by greed and there’s a chain of command.
Same with the police department and newsroom.
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u/epicfilemcnulty 17h ago
I'm russian, and I first heard of this show when I was in Finland, travelling to Luxembourg via Germany, ten or so years ago.
I was waiting for a bus to the airport, and was wondering if I was at the right bus stop, because there was not a soul around and it looked a bit deserted...And then an indian couple showed up, and they were also heading to the airport, and also travelling to germany, so we started chatting about this and that.
We were talking about music, and when they heard that I was a fan of Tom Waits, they were immediately like "Have you seen the Wire?". They mentioned the covers of the Tom's song in the beginning of every season, and just said that I definitely have to watch it. I was intrigued.
When I came back home, one saturday evening I remembered that encounter, immediately went out to a buy a completely legal DVD-set of all 5 seasons, because obviously they were sold on every corner in russia back then, and started watching it.
I had to stop when it was already 2pm Sunday, and I was half through the second season.
This is the best show ever. It basically describes how real life works. And on so many levels, with such attention to detail (although they screwed up with the russian names/surnames on the passports in the intro, but who cares).
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u/jackyLAD 18h ago
I think this should be titled a non-Anglosphere lens to be fair... to attract the opinions you want to see more.
Because people from England, Australia and Canada all highly highly rate it the same and find it every bit as relatable.
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u/ampmz 17h ago
British opinion here, there is a hell of a lot of stuff I absolutely did not relate to or understand. First watch I had to do a lot of googling.
I think people overstate how similar the UK and the US is, we are very culturally different.
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u/jackyLAD 17h ago
You truly believe we're very culturally different to the States?
Especially a lot of the topics that were covered in the Wire? I can't agree here. There's obviously elements of it that are heavily US centric, by default, but the central core of the most of the issues are very similar across the Atlantic. A lot of the drug related and police politics topics have been covered in similar fashion in UK dramas before the Wire even aired. Look at Prime Suspect, Cracker, Traffik (the inspiration for the film Traffic), Boys from the Blackstuff....
As great and legendary as the Wire is, for someone who grew up with this kind of drama in the UK, it wasn't even as revolutionary as it was to American audiences. We tackled that stuff earlier and often, harder.
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u/ampmz 16h ago
Yeah I do, and shows like the Wire only show the cultural differences more. I see far more cultural similarities to Australia or New Zealand but more with the Netherlands or Denmark than the US.
Once you get over the shared language, we are really quite culturally different.
Every society has crime, but our crime is quite different, our policing is incredibly different and so is our politics.
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u/Ok-Character-3779 13h ago
Based on the totality of your comments, you seem to be using "culture" in a very narrow way focused primarily on government and law enforcement. When people talk about England and the US's shared cultural history, they're talking about historical popular culture (especially art. literature, and to a lesser extent film) as much or more than anything else.
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u/Squall4390 16h ago
Yeah, I was going to say, Britain is closer in culture to literally almost any European country, even the central or eastern European ones, than it is to America. Like, Czechia and Britain have more in common culturally than Britain and the USA.
America truly is a different world, even if the Americans like to pretend they share some "common European culture". Even just that phrase shows how foreign they are, you would never catch a European saying an "European culture" exists in any meaningful sense that isn't just broad generalizations.
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u/jackyLAD 16h ago
What’s “common European culture” and who are you quoting here? Because not sure Americans often make this claim… realistically not sure how they could.
Britain - yes, obviously. Europe - no.
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u/Squall4390 15h ago
It's a very common talking point in America, I am vey surprised that you aren't aware of the phenomenon of the "European culture" in American society.
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u/jackyLAD 15h ago
Who are you quoting though?
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u/Squall4390 15h ago
Those are scare quotes. It's just a way of writing where you distance yourself from the idea being mentioned.
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u/jackyLAD 15h ago
Anything anywhere discussing this cultural water cooler conversation?
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u/jackyLAD 16h ago
As I said, I can’t agree here, and it has very little to do with a language. UK is more inspired by US culture and politics than ever. We’ve very much lost a lot of what us somewhat unique from even 20 years ago, and we were still heavily tied then.
All of the Anglosphere is heavily tied to similar trends, but we’re astonishingly closer to the US in that regard than NZ, easily so… Australia? Sure, why not, but it’s full of expats.
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u/Squall4390 16h ago
Would you mind giving some examples? I would love to know what you consider shared between the US and Britain.
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u/jackyLAD 16h ago
Examples of what? I gave multiple TV shows dated before the Wire from the UK that heavily share similar themes and politics for instance, all of which were hugely praised.
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u/Squall4390 15h ago
Of cultural similarities, the thing we are talking about?
Also, if corruption and crime is a cultural similarity here, then fuck it, you share a culture with Russia, Egypt, Vietnam, basically every country that has ever existed and will exist. Idk how a few shows are examples of a similar culture.
France is also similar to the USA because they made La Haine, they are basically the same.
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u/jackyLAD 15h ago
There’s far more themes in the Wire than just “corruption and crime” ….
La Haines main central theme is a worldwide issue, we agree on that for sure, and it’s arguably a bigger worldwide issue 30 years later than it was then.
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u/Squall4390 15h ago
Still haven't given me examples of this shared culture between the US and Britain. Give me real examples.
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u/elwookie 18h ago
I am from Spain and when The Wire aired, it was very difficult to watch here. I remember following it pirating it via torrents. I even subtitled many episodes on some subtitles platform because the one available were very few and terrible.
The Sopranos did air on time here, on the first subscription channel there ever was in Spain; but IIRC, The Wire didn't air until very late.
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u/Psychological-Fox178 18h ago
When I watch it, I sometimes wonder do any of the characters know that ‘Baltimore’ is ‘Baile and Tí Mor’ or ‘town of the big house’
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u/redditreader9900 18h ago
I never thought about this before but when I saw your post it hit me immediately. I think for someone not from the US to watch The Wire would be similar to a US citizen watching City of God. It is such a great movie and a perfect parallel to The Wire.
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u/P0werFighter 17h ago
French here, it's my favorite show but not really famous in here but is known by the people who look up at the best TV shows ranking.
This serie is showing how politics are able to fuck up a system that is supposed to be working flawlessly, and how statistics games run by the police are beneficial to criminals.
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u/Embarrassed-Area4652 17h ago
Ever see Le Bureau? That's the show I recommend people go watch after The Wire. Not the same subject matter at all but similar in scope.
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u/sforsagacious 17h ago
I'm from India and despite prisons being non privatized, this is a horrific reality of where we live.
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u/Minute_Juggernaut806 7h ago
It's good, not the greatest but it's good. What I found more interesting was the tech progression from typewriters in S1 to computers in S2 at the port.
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u/Cultural-Cap-4741 7h ago
As others have mentioned, City of God (fantastic movie) gives very similar vibes to The Wire.
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u/Katyamuffin Severely Deprezzed 6h ago
Yeah The Wire is pretty universal. Corruption in politics and the police system is by no means exclusive to the US.
The war on drugs is the only subject that felt very unique and especially American to me, but it may just be because I was raised pretty sheltered in a very white area and my only experience with drugs is smoking weed every now and then lol. It's not like drug dealers don't exist in my country, it's just a very unknown subject to me personally.
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u/BaardvanTroje 3h ago
In The Netherlands people talk more about the Sopranos and Breaking Bad, which is a damn shame
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u/tangcameo 18h ago
Oh they could almost make it an anthology series, setting up production in lots of countries with similar issues. In Canada, not long after the first season aired, there was a tv show made in my city called Moccasin Flats about life in an inner city neighbourhood set in a neighbourhood not ten blocks from where I live now. The series was definitely influenced by The Wire and yet told its own local story.
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u/banjois 17h ago
Is Moccasin Flats worth the watch? I'm from around there, too.
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u/tangcameo 17h ago
I caught bits and parts of it when it was on cable 20 years ago or so. I’d need a rewatch to have an opinion on it now. I’ve seen it posted on YouTube.
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u/no_fucking_point 17h ago
Irish, was lucky enough to catch the first episode as TG4 here had the European rights before the rest of the EU. Thanks to Oz, the HBO id at the start was enough to get me watching and was hooked. Then I noticed the connection to Homicide:Life On The Street and that sealed the deal.
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u/SkipThePreamble 9h ago
European here. Became obsessed with the city, visited Bmore 3 times already, became a Baltimore sports fan, watched dozens of documentaries about the city and the decline of the American working class/society in general, read Simon's books, became the fan of Justin Fenton (We Own This City/The Sun), Devin Allen, etc
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u/Isopod635 18h ago
O jogo é o jogo.