Not the most positive boost for the city of Baltimore, the legends of Jimmy McNulte, Omar, Stringer, Cedric Daniels, Kima, Bubbles, Herc and a host of other characters are widely considered part of one of the greatest television dramas of all time. But what if the landmark show didn’t just build a legacy, what if it’s also built GPAs? What if I told you that HBO’s The Wire, Now Taught in Colleges is not only true, it’s BEEN the case?
Coming off the heels of promo for the huge HD marathon of the entire series, the news of HBO’s The Wire, Now Taught in Colleges may at first seem like a stretch but then…yea you might still need more info. While we usually hear about the “brilliant and realistic portrayal of urban life” and other stale language of America’s compulsion (yet rejection) of the hood and all its colorful crime elements, the admiration’s been taken up several notches since the show went off the air.
“Some sociologists and social anthropologists, it turns out, believe The Wire has something to teach their students about poverty, class, bureaucracy, and the social ramifications of economic change.”
HBO’s The Wire, Now Taught in Colleges is the case at a number of universities across the country, who use it as a platform to “deeply explore” political and social themes. Harvard, Duke, and the University of California–Berkeley are just a few highlighting the show in various disciplines. Watching the show for homework and during classes range from topics in inequality, the justice system, industrialization, jobs, and the effects of inner-city life.
“The Wire puts faces and stories to those forces—Stringer Bell, the gang leader with the heart of a CFO; Bubbles, the wry, entrepreneurial junkie; “Bunny” Colvin, the police major who grows so disenchanted by the war on drugs that he tries legalizing them in his district.”
Not only is this a subject that (depending on what school you go to, may be on your finals) is now far removed from housing projects in Baltimore, it’s also a fixture in essays, books, journals and conferences. Scholars note the show’s ability to immediately bring people who have no idea ‘about that life,’ in. To understand issues that social scientists (and the entire Hip Hop community?) have been writing and talking about for years.
Is all the power and critical acclaim a good thing, or nah? Guess it depends on what city you’re from, or where you went to school.
