I am not an emotional person, and I rarely take the time to write reviews for a movie or TV show. However, this drama (FireWire) is the only thing I feel I need to write about after watching it. In addition to being beautiful, it is also a personal psychological record and sentiment to share with others. At the same time, it is also a tribute to a masterpiece with heart. So I watched it again during the period of pneumonia and finished writing this drama review recommendation.
I watched this TV series for the first time because it was highly recommended by a senior colleague who I respect very much. He said that this is the best work that has deeply described American society in decades. As a person who came from ordinary people but became a famous scholar through his talent and hard work, he is one of the rare Americans who is proud of the United States and is willing to critically think about its history and reality. What is even more difficult is that, perhaps because of a similar background and academic experience, he is willing to share his ideas with a foreigner like me. Unlike most Americans, despite their familiar personality, they are very outgoing and friendly on the surface, but they generally don’t talk about serious topics like politics and society with people. When I watched it for the first time, I didn’t feel amazing. On the contrary, I felt that there were many characters, complicated relationships and a slow pace. It was only because of other people’s recommendations that I did not abandon the drama halfway through, but I started to be attracted by the story halfway through the first season. , And after watching the whole season, I feel deeply impressed.
The Wire translates to "wire of fire" and is mainly a story about a fight of wits between police and drug gangs around wiretap. Throughout the five seasons of the TV series is the history of a city, so the real protagonist is Baltimore, Maryland (alias Bodymore Murderland), the police, drug dealers, politicians, reporters, etc., each character in the play, has formed the distinctive appearance of the city. I have lived in the city of Baltimore for 5 years, spent a very happy and fulfilling time and have my own home here for the first time, so I often joked that this is my second hometown. Not far from our medical school is a neighborhood where the drug trade is rampant, so I am very familiar with the street names mentioned in the drama and I know the reputations of different streets. And this drama is actually about a life history of a city around the millennium, like a dynamic picture of the river on the Qingming Festival.
Next, I will try to talk about this drama without spoiling the specific plot, except for a careful interpretation of some small fragments (a bit long).
The TV series has two parallel clues in the vertical direction. They tell the story of the two groups of the police who started wiretapping and the criminal gangster who was wiretapped. In terms of time, it tells the old gang, headed by Avon and Xiange, from victory to decline (season 1-3), and was replaced by a more vicious and bottomless new gang headed by Marlow. History (3-5 seasons). Unlike typical American dramas, each season of FireWire is closely arranged around the same drug theme from different sides to form an organic whole. The first season brought up the whole theme. It talked about how the war on drug was launched in Baltimore. It talked about the police department’s senior management’s tactics of accepting what they see, which led to the fact that the police officers who dealt with the case were very smart and hardworking. It can be the inevitable result of winning the battle but inevitably losing the war. As one of them said through the mouth of a small drug dealer, this so-called war on drug cannot be said to be a war (in fact, it is worse than a war), because a normal war will end no matter how long it takes. What’s interesting is that the organization and behavior of drug gangs are similar to police stations in many places. In particular, everyone plays different roles according to similar unspoken rules. Different systems have the same righteousness, deception, scheming, and whistleblowing. People have a similar sense of fate in the arena. At the end of the first season, the criminals are caught but they have to bargain to convict them, which makes people question who wins and who loses. In the next 2-5 seasons, the deep-seated social causes of the drug trade were described for the economic, political, educational, and media levels, making people understand that this drug-related issue is far deeper than what is seen on the surface, and even involves Every aspect of society solves one problem and at the same time leads to new problems. Therefore, the anti-drug war cannot be ended, but can only continue to create a new generation of drug dealers, gunners, robbers, addicts to survive, fight, die, decay, and return to souls in the great age, as well as the constant sacrifices or sacrifices of police, politicians, media, and businessmen. Prosperity or degeneration or promotion or retreat.
The ingenious structure of the play lies in the fact that the 1-2 minute storytelling background segment at the beginning of the first episode of each season all hints at the theme very meaningfully. For example, at the beginning of the first season, chatting about a common homicide on the street implies a sense of fate: slugs always come to the streets to play dice and bet, but they always run away when they grab the bet. He gave a bitter beating, but he didn't prohibit him from playing next time, because this is the kind of freedom that must be given to people in the United States. Behind this black humor implies the cruelty and inevitable of the game, and the killing of slugs also implies that the rules of the game will be broken and rebuilt from time to time. The next whole season's story is about the gameplay of this street game. For example, D and other small drug dealers use chess to discuss the division of labor in the drug gang. Omar always talks about "All in the game, Yo". At the end, the big boss Bucksday was arrested, but the police didn't think they won, to show that the game will continue to play.
The second season is actually about the economic reasons behind drug abuse. The policemen who did meritorious service last season were all put on small shoes, among which McNulty was assigned to the marine policeman he was least willing to do. In the background at the beginning, two police officers patrolled the Baltimore seaport and saw the factory chatting from a distance. Both police officers said that their parents were laid off in the 1970s, and then the factory was closed and waiting to be re-developed into commercial real estate. . Then they were called to help on a yacht hosting a party. The yacht lost power but the owner wanted the police to drag it away from the main channel to let the party continue. The police in these high crime cities were just escorting the parties for the rich. The most interesting thing is that the name of the yacht is "Capital Gain", which implies a very obvious meaning. The second season is also my favorite season, although some people feel that the story is too far away from the first season and the style has changed. This season extends the story to the background of the world outside Baltimore. It also takes the first season’s story about poor blacks and police to a new level, showing that the crime problem is in essence an economic and class problem, not a racial problem. . Regarding the last point, the popular views of Chinese at home and even overseas are actually very limited. For example, when you think about crimes in the United States, you always think that it is because of blacks and Mexicans. Ha ha).
The hollowing out of the economy talked about in the second season made it difficult for the dock workers who used to rely on their energy to make ends meet even though they worked hard, so they could only go into crime (helping people to transport all kinds of illegal goods from the dock). The continuation of the first season's story is placed in the background, Avon is locked up and the gang's second-line brothers are trying to find new sources of drugs to maintain the'business'. The main criminals who came out this season are actually not bad guys, especially Frank Sobotca, the leader of the dock union. The main reason for his crime is a struggle against life. At the same time, their loyalty and willingness to help people can’t help but sympathize with them. . In the first episode, its practical and warm mood tells about the life of these rough dockers, and the use of several background music is very careful. For example, in the first shot of a bar where the workers had a happy party after work, the band sang a few lines from the rock version of " Sixteen Tons ". This old song is not familiar to many young Americans until later in "South "The Park" used it again before it became popular again. If you haven't heard it before, you can listen to and understand the meaning of the lyrics behind it. If the Internationale is the angry roar of workers resisting, then this song is the helpless lamentation of social animals. The complex emotions behind this tragic story are very similar to "The Piano of Steel", so the port of Baltimore this season talks about is also about the old factories in Manchester and Tiexi District. So that in Frank’s feelings, when talking about the problems of the United States, he said, "You know what the trouble is? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket ." --This country used to be able to build things, but now people just want to put their hands in the pockets of people next to them to pay (familiar financial innovations). This line was written before the 2008 financial crisis, but it revealed a fateful fate, and it was also the reason behind Trump's coming to power.
The real tragedy is that while the dockers represented by Frank are striving for life and want to maintain a way of life for their children, they have turned themselves into a link in the international crime chain, making foreign girls change. The sex slaves of the new era even died unexpectedly. The high-purity drugs from the port gave the children of the black area and the poor white a career in drug trafficking, and eventually sent them to the end. At the same time, Frank did not squander the "stolen" money, but gave it to lawyers to turn it into political donations and finally flow into the pockets of politicians. This is how the capital society uses money to promote operations, just like being repeatedly mentioned in the play. Relevant: "If you come to chase drugs, you will find drug dealers and poisonous bugs, and if you come to chase stolen money, you don't know what you will find." A cruel fact is that the FBI and federal government law enforcers are actually not the most worried about drug smuggling or even murder, but the organization of trade unions. This is also fully demonstrated in the play. I heard that it is possible to find Frank’s criminal evidence to deal with the union. The entire FBI came to the wiretapping team to help with the case, and found that this was just Frank’s own problem and could not come to prosecute the union (even though it was involved in drug murder. Forced prostitution), those people lose interest. The connotation is self-evident and makes people cold, which also explains why the drug war is so complicated.
The third season talked about political solutions to drugs and why these solutions were not successful. In the first two minutes, it was hinted that the city government wanted to demolish the drug-ridden public housing plan, so that Avon’s drug trafficking site would be removed to reduce drug trafficking. However, the dust in the blasting demolition ceremony of the building actually also implied this. Side effects of the solution. Sure enough, Avon and the line brother who lost the building began to expand to other neighborhoods, and had a head-on conflict with the new gang Marlo. The Marlo gang also began to rise from the initial small role, but it is actually a repeat of the history of Avon and their violent fighting on the street. At the same time, the line brother has always wanted to do the drug trade like a serious business to reduce bloodshed, and to whiten the gang business. We have seen this effort and its failure in the "Godfather" series, but this drama is more direct and realistic. What's interesting is that the shrewd big brother in the underworld found that the deceitful betrayal in the government building is no less than that on the street. At the end, Avon and the line brother talked about the history of struggle in a section of the roof of the year. It is the most touching part of the whole season, and it also has the meaning of classical tragedy. The other line began to talk about the Baltimore mayor election and the police’s tried solutions are equally exciting. At this time, the drama has gone out of the street and entered the city and state assembly to let everyone see the political background behind the drugs. .
In the fifth season of the fourth quarter, the line brother has already closed the curtain, and Avon has almost faded out. Marlo has become the new boss in the drug industry, and has become a new generation of Avon. These two seasons talked about the drug-related challenges faced by education and the media, especially the dilemma and dilemma of resources in education and anti-crime. The fourth season is recognized by most people as the best season, and it is also the season that most impresses ordinary people. Through the education of several children, he explained why the drug problem continues to occur from generation to generation. The children who grew up on the streets are junior high school students, innocent and veteran criminals at the same time. One of the children is the son of Weibei, the chief hitman of Avon in the first season. The story of him and his mother actually reflects the values of the street. The experience of several children coexisted with warmth and blood, which made people feel full of emotion but wanted to cry without tears. It also revealed their fate as an ordinary person growing up in the entire society. The beginning of each season also hints at the whole theme, I won't introduce it in detail because of space, but the last two seasons are really worth watching. However, it is difficult for most people to stop after watching the first three seasons.
The white city councillor/mayor who appeared in the third season became a major role in the next two seasons. He has a prototype, that is, our mayor Martin O'Malely, who was still very popular in Baltimore, and later became the governor of Maryland (in the play, he wanted to be governor was not a topic), in 2016 Participated in the primary election of the presidential candidate in 2009, but became the background of Hillary and Sanders. Here are a few photos of him. The first one is not a still, but you can feel the charm of the play, especially the policeman walking with him seems to have come out of the play.
Here you can compare the person in the play with the real person. In fact, he was very handsome and was a member of a local band. I have seen Hopkins play during the fundraising event. And Littlefinger played very well, which directly led to him being favored by HBO to play Game of Thrones. But if you watch Game of Thrones first, there may be some drama, haha.
This is the scene from the 2016 Democratic Party primaries. The other two people don't need to introduce it. So the magical part of this drama is that it has been talking about the deep layers of American political society from the street punks to the deep level of American politics and society, and the inexhaustible connections among them are revealed.
There was a long delay in the middle of seasons 4-5 of this play to complete. Despite its very good reputation, it did not win any Emmy Awards (it seems that the script has been nominated). The whole play is a complete story, although each season is relatively independent. In the last few minutes of each season, I use a long lens to summarize and explain the continuation of life. After watching each season, because of the compassionate atmosphere in it, I have to wait a few days before watching the next season. What's more commendable is that, although the last season is a bit weaker than other seasons, it is also much stronger than the general TV series of the same era. It is not unfinished but sublimated to the surface of culture. Looking back at Baltimore in the last few minutes of the last season, people will have a complex mood of love, hatred, sadness and joy, and this mood is not only due to the unique stories of American cities, but for a long time in any city you are familiar with. Observe the mood after thinking and feeling. So after the end of the play, it was slowly appreciated and tasted more and more flavorful. Many people say that the reason why this play did not win an Emmy is that it actually deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature. Different paragraphs are often analyzed and interpreted by American universities as courses in sociology, economics, pedagogy, and media. It is like a classical Greek tragedy, which will be constantly revisited and experienced. I think in 100 years, when people look at the history of mass media during this period, this drama will still be studied, and some so-called magic dramas will be forgotten.
Like many HBO dramas, there is no shortage of bloody and sexual scenes in this drama, especially the direct scenes between the same sex, which were shocking at the time. These scenes may be beautiful or violent or ridiculous or ugly or helpless, but none of them are superfluous. In fact, they are necessary to describe the characters to promote the story. Fortunately, the online version is not much abridged. Another feature of this play is that despite the numerous story lines, it has always been flat and straightforward without explaining it for you to experience (this is different from many dramas full of voice-overs). Because the story itself is already exciting and deep enough, redundant interpretation becomes a burden. As a result, different people have different experiences in the play, and some foreshadowings are easily overlooked (I have read it three times in some places, and I can still find important details that I missed before). The advantage is that different people have it. Your favorite character. For example, Obama said that he likes chasing the show the most and likes Omar in it. And the character I like to watch is Stringer Bell (I didn’t know this was a British actor at the time, and I didn’t expect a foreigner to perform the complicated tasks in American cities so well). Of course, the actor Idris Elba became famous later. His news is that he has contracted new coronary pneumonia. Put two photos.
The fate of this Stringer and Avon and later Marlo of the gangster formed a very ironic contrast. Although Stringer commanded and killed many people, he didn't like violence in his bones. He killed people for the sake of business. What he wholeheartedly yearns for is to legalize a bloodless business, and almost succeeds in turning white. And Avon and Marlo belong to the street fighters in their bones. Stringer once persuaded Avon and taught Marlo how to treat drugs as a serious business to control its negative effects. This idea is actually similar to the idea of some politicians trying to legalize drugs. Sadly, he didn't succeed, and Marlo walked back to the street, almost clearly what Stringer was longing for. At this time, the feeling that different people have different lives is ready to come out. In this play, similarly successful character creation abounds, and there is really no character that is unsuccessful. Many characters have prototypes and even retired policemen and released gangs to play.
All these vivid characters, their stories, their desires, sorrows and joys, and struggles constitute a city history around the 2000s. This is American history and the world history of the late industrial society. It feels very much like it. "A Tale of Two Cities". In the last season, through the mouth of reporters, it is also a very obvious hint that we should report on Baltimore from the perspective of the description of the Dickens test.
The playwrights and actors described the blood, stupidity, darkness, responsibility, tenderness, and family of this era from a humanitarian and dialectical perspective. The sense of fate is hard to express. So despite the thousand years of human society, it is always advancing and retreating with little essential changes. Let me quote Dickens to end this drama review.
"This is the best era, this is the worst era; this is the era of wisdom, this is the era of stupidity; this is the era of faith, this is the era of doubt; this is the season of light, this is the season of darkness ; This is the spring of hope, this is the winter of disappointment; people have everything in front of them, and people have nothing in front of them; people are going straight to heaven, people are going straight to hell."
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