All the Pieces Matter

The Inside Story of The Wire

Jonathan Abrams

• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780857302755
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Televisión

The definitive oral history of the iconic and beloved TV show The Wire, as told by the actors, writers, directors, and others involved in its creation

Since its final episode aired in 2008, the acclaimed crime drama The Wire has only become more popular and influential. The issues it tackled, from the failures of the drug war and criminal justice system to systemic bias in law enforcement and other social institutions, have become more urgent and central to the national conversation. The show's actors, such as Idris Elba and Dominic West, have gone on to become major stars. Its creators and writers, including David Simon and Richard Price, have developed dedicated cult followings of their own. Universities use the show to teach everything from film theory, to criminal justice and sociology. Politicians and activists reference it when discussing policy. When critics compile lists of the Greatest TV Shows of All Time, The Wire routinely takes the top spot. It is arguably one of the great works of art America has produced in the 21st century.

But while there has been a great deal of critical analysis of the show and its themes, until now there has never been a definitive, behind-the-scenes take on how it came to be made. With unparalleled access to all the key actors and writers involved in its creation, Jonathan Abrams tells the astonishing, compelling, and complete account of The Wire, from its inception and creation through its end and powerful legacy.

'From the moment The Wire ended, all I have wished for is one more season. Jonathan Abrams has given us something just as valuable — the complete story of how something this wonderful, rich, and intricate came to be' - Mike Schur, creator of Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 99 and The Good Place

'The definitive dissection of television's most politically meaningful invention' - Chuck Klosterman, New York Times bestselling author of But What if We're Wrong? and I Wear The Black Hat

'Abrams indisputably has created a thorough examination of The Wire 's conception, production, and lingering cultural afterlife' - Publishers Weekly

1

AN ARGUMENT OF DISSENT

Who the fuck is this guy? Ed Burns thought after David Simon introduced himself in the winter of 1984. The moment would mark the beginning of a collaboration neither could have foreseen, one that would mature into a groundbreaking book and culminate in a revolutionary television show. But first impressions? Burns joked – well, partly anyway – that he hoped to arrest Simon. Somehow, Simon had finagled his way beyond security and into the Drug Enforcement Administration offices as Burns readied material for a grand jury preparing to bring an indictment against Melvin ‘Little’ Williams, a disciplined drug trafficker who had successfully flummoxed Baltimore law enforcement for years. Simon told Burns that he was a reporter for The Baltimore Sun and had permission to follow the case. Burns and his partner, Harry Edgerton, both Baltimore police detectives, had finally pinned the elusive Williams through the use of a wiretap. Simon expressed interest in being able to listen in on the wire. ‘I’d love to take you in there, but if I do, that’s a ten-year offense and I’d love to lock you up,’ Burns said. He stiff-armed Simon’s request, but agreed to meet with him later to discuss the case.

Who the fuck is this guy? David Simon thought after meeting Burns a second time. Not much time had passed when they greeted one another at the Baltimore County Public Library branch in Towson. Simon had already surmised that Burns did not behave like any typical detective he had come across. He now eyeballed the book titles Burns prepared to check out, Bob Woodward’s Veil: Secret Wars of the CIA and The Magus, by John Fowles, among them. ‘I read all the time, and it impressed him,’ Burns recalled. ‘I don’t think David reads anywhere near as much as I do, but a cop reads? My God. I know a lot of cops who read. It was no big deal, but David was a good guy and he had a passion.’

That passion unfurled into the canvassing five-part series that Simon wrote on the making and inner workings of Williams as a Baltimore drug trafficker kingpin. For Simon, his life’s purpose had been achieved by working at a newspaper. His father, Bernard, had once been a journalist who devoted the bulk of his working days as a public relations director for B’nai B’rith, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world. His mother, Dorothy, spent time working for an organization that aided students from underachieving public schools to find better education. Simon attended the University of Maryland, where he wrote for the student newspaper, The Diamondback. He joined the Sun after graduating, reporting on crime. To him, being a newspaperman and bringing accountability to influencers meant something. ‘I grew up in a house where we argued politics,’ Simon recounted. ‘We argued sociology. We argued culture. We argued. It was not personal. Arguing was how you got attention in my family.’ One of Simon’s enduring memories is debating politics with his two uncles as a boy, the moment climaxing with him flatly telling his uncle Hank that he was in the wrong. ‘Who knew he had a brain?’ Uncle Hank retorted.

Reading Simon’s 1987 Sun series, entitled ‘“Easy Money”: Anatomy of a Drug Empire,’ is akin to viewing the organs of The Wire’s first-season wiretap investigation. Williams was a self-made entrepreneur who imported the bulk of Baltimore’s heroin influx as the city’s honest economic opportunities shifted and dwindled. ‘An imperious, intelligent man who chooses words with care,’ Simon wrote. ‘Melvin Williams refuses to be stereotyped. Street sales of narcotics were routinely punctuated by murderous violence, but Williams was a family man, devoted to an eleven-year marriage and two young daughters.’

Williams conducted most of his business through his number two, a consigliere named Lamont ‘Chin’ Farmer. Farmer orchestrated both a simple and intricate communication system involving the use of beepers. He also headed a print shop and took business courses at a community college, à la Idris Elba’s Stringer Bell.

Simon’s series meticulously captured Williams’s life and downfall – not only as a drug kingpin, but also as a respected figure in the community, where, as Simon wrote, ‘he was hailed as Little Melvin, the Citizen, speaking at the request of National Guard officials during the 1968 riots, urging a restless crowd to go home.’ Burns appreciated that Simon showed all facets of the case and offered a depiction of Williams that was beyond a caricature. ‘When the case came down, he wrote a very good article because he went out and saw some of the gangsters and it was a most balanced article,’ Burns said. ‘I liked that.’

Simon spent Christmas Eve 1986 on an overnight shift with the Baltimore Police Department ...

Table of contents

• ALL THE PIECES MATTER
• About the author
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• Picture Section
• Copyright