On the Wire
In this sophisticated examination of the HBO serial drama that aired from 2002 until 2008, Linda Williams, a leading film scholar and authority on the interplay between film, melodrama, and issues of race, suggests what exactly it is that makes The Wire so good. She argues that while the series is a powerful exploration of urban dysfunction and institutional failure, its narrative power derives from its genre. Entertaining, addictive, funny, and despairing all at once, it is a serial melodrama …
Read More ↓Title Statements
- Full title :On the Wire / Linda Williams.
Summary
In this sophisticated examination of the HBO serial drama that aired from 2002 until 2008, Linda Williams, a leading film scholar and authority on the interplay between film, melodrama, and issues of race, suggests what exactly it is that makes The Wire so good. She argues that while the series is a powerful exploration of urban dysfunction and institutional failure, its narrative power derives from its genre. Entertaining, addictive, funny, and despairing all at once, it is a serial melodrama grounded in observation of Baltimore's people and institutions: of cops and criminals, schools and blue-collar labor, local government and local journalism.
Read More ↓Edition Statements
- Publication Date:2014.
Publication Statements
- Publisher(s):Duke University Press
- Place of Publication:Durham
- Language:eng
- Publication Date:2014.
The Physical Object
- Description:267 pages : : illustrations (some color) ; : 21 cm.
Edition Identifiers
- ISBN:9780822357063, 0822357062, 9780822357179, 0822357178
- oclc:ocn869367490
- LC Classification:PN1992.77.W53
- Dewey Decimal:791.45/72
Table of Contents
Part I. World enough and time : the genesis and genius of the Wire. Ethnographic imagination : from journalism to television serial ; Serial television's world and time : the importance of the "part" -- Part II. Justice in the Wire : tragedy, realism, and melodrama. "Classical" tragedy, or ... ; Realistic, modern serial melodrama -- Part III. Surveillance, schoolin' and race. Hard eyes / soft eyes : surveillance and schoolin' ; Feeling race : the Wire and the American melodrama of black and white -- Conclusion: Home sweet Baltimore.
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