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Just thought this might be of interest to some of you.

University of York offers degree course on The Wire

The American police show will be studied at the University of York from this autumn as part of its sociology degree.

The 10-week module, thought to be the first of its kind in the Britain, will be offered to all final year students.

Titled The Wire as Social Science Fiction?, it will use the HBO series to look at topics including class, race, political process and the city.

The lecturer behind the course believes the popular show could challenge traditional methods of teaching and presenting social science.

Professor Roger Burrows, head of sociology at the university, said: ''We look at The Wire as a form of entertainment that does the job some of the social sciences have been failing to do.

''It's a contrast to dry, dull, hugely expensive studies that people carry out on the same issues.

''We spend an enormous amount of our time trying to craft books and articles that are read by so few people and it could challenge how we represent the work that we do in the academe.

''I find it odd that we're still using 19th and 20th century forms as a way of disseminating what we do.''

In a multimedia age, he added, students find it increasingly difficult to concentrate on a lecturer ''standing up and talking in front of a power point presentation.''

He said: ''It's easier to get students to use The Wire as a way of looking at the current political system than it is to get them to read a dull book on it.''

But the 24 students who have already signed up for the course will still have their work cut out for them – they will need to have watched all 60 one-hour episodes beforehand.

And the programme will just be a ''point of departure'', Prof Burrows added.

''I find that students, and people in general, are more willing to work their way through difficult stuff if they've already become interested in the issues by watching The Wire,'' he said.

''After watching the show, people are keen to discuss things they weren't previously interested in discussing.

''The show was doing a better job than we were in interesting people in the profound problems of urbanism.''

Set in Baltimore, The Wire follows the fortunes of the American city's drugs dealers and the police officers trying to battle against them.

It counts US President Barack Obama among its fans and has already become the subject of academic study in the States, where Harvard University has been running a course on it.

In Britain, academics and others gathered at Leeds Town Hall for a conference on the TV show in November.

Prof Burrows denied that teaching it in university seminars amounted to ''dumbing down.''

He said: ''If it was just sitting down and watching TV programmes there wouldn't be much excuse for it.

''But what we're trying to do is use a TV programme alongside other material if it's something that will induce enthusiasm in our students.

''A programme like The Wire makes a fantastic contribution to their understanding of contemporary urbanism.''

He cited American TV shows The Sopranos, The West Wing and Mad Men as others that could be used for academic study.

But one academic who spoke at the Leeds conference on The Wire warned that TV dramas do not necessarily give students a direct insight into social issues.

Professor Griselda Pollock, director of the Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History at the University of Leeds, said: ''It's not raw material. There's a risk of seeing it as giving unmediated access to some of the social issues.

''It's an innovative idea to show sociology students that television can give them an insight, but we must also take into account that it's not transparent, it's constructed.

''We can't just look at the TV programme and think by studying it we know what's happening in Baltimore.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-The-Wire.html



They've already got one at Harvard too.

Harvard class on 'The Wire'

'THE Wire," HBO's gritty se ries about life in the Baltimore ghetto, is about to become a course at Harvard.

The announcement came at a panel discussion at the school featuring several of the show's stars, according to the Harvard student newspaper, The Crimson.

The class will be taught by sociology professor William J. Wilson, one of the best-known African American history professors in the country, who has made no secret of the fact that he is a huge fan of the show.

"I do not hesitate to say that it has done more to enhance our understanding of the challenges of urban life and the problems of urban inequality, more than any other media event or scholarly publication," Wilson told the audience before poking fun at himself, "including studies by social scientitsts."

Sonja Sohn, who played Det. Kima Gregs, Andre Royo (Bubbles) and Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar Little) were on the panel talking about the show's unusual impact.
The series ran for five seasons, starting in 2002. Each year, it took on a different aspect of urban life -- from drugs to schools to the news media.
Harvard will be not the first college course on "The Wire." Other students commented on The Crimson's site that courses on the TV show already exist at Duke University and Middlebury College.

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainmen...#ixzz0oC57K1Bq



Welcome to the human race...
Just finished Season 5 (and the series proper, obviously) the other day. I don't really have any particularly insightful opinions about the show right now, but I think the fact that I watched the whole thing speaks for itself. Excellent stuff.



Thanks for posting, HK and Brodinski. Man, the show really has had a big impact. I mean, a DEGREE on The Wire. One at arguably the most prestigious university in the world, too. Definitely says a lot about the show.

Iro, the whole thing is very hard to digest so don't blame you for wanting to think about things a bit more, but you can start with which characters you found the most interesting or which season was your favourite, etc. Very happy you watched it. Now we've just got to get the other members on board



I recommended it to a buddy at work last week. Asked him today what he did over the weekend, he said he watched all of season 1 and a chunk of season 2. I guess he likes it.
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So, I'm not going to read through this thread, but I wanted to let ya'll know that I've "formally" started watching this.

I've mentioned a few times, I think, that I rented the first disc of season 1 years ago and stopped after those three episodes (didn't have time to throw myself into it further). Then, a year or two ago, I saw the entire series on DVD for $99, and bought it basically blind. After mentioning this here I got the expected deluge of "oooo, you have to watch it soon!" comments, along with those "I envy that you get to watch it for the first time" remarks thrown in for good measure.

Anyway, with some time off work, cuz of the whole Christmas thing, I went through the first three episodes again last night, and I plan to watch the nine remaining episodes in season 1 over the next two days. I might take breaks in-between seasons, but I'll probably end up watching the whole thing in the next few months. So, huzzah. I look forward to being able to come back in here and join in.

Actually, since this thread is kind of generalized, I might start a new one. It might make it easier if people want to talk about things as I'm watching, since I'm sure there'd be tons of "I love that episode" comments and the like, and I wouldn't have to worry about spoilers. Good idea?



The People's Republic of Clogher
I got the boxset last Christmas but have only dipped in and out of it in the last 12 months, mainly because I'd seen it all before but was relying back then on rental discs.

I'm up for a complete rewatch, sure.
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Nice! I'll start a thread soon. I imagine we have a few others who would be interested in a group rewatch, or at least interested in reliving some of it or hearing the random thoughts of people going through it for the first time. Should be fun.



I'll certainly participate in the thread, not so sure about rewatching it as I feel more like watching films than series of late. But still, The Wire is The Wire and I suppose I could re-watch it (again) easily.

Enjoy it, Chris. It's possibly the best thing you'll ever see on a screen, big or small.



Chris, at the risk of sounding predictable, I envy you. But that's cool because i'm going to be rewatching it too. I was actually planning on rewatching the whole series prior to seeing your post, which has given me an even bigger kick up the butt. So, yeah, i'm in. Have a blast, man.



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It's possibly the best thing you'll ever see on a screen, big or small.
When is this ever said about anything? Oh man. Oh man.
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Well, ill join. I haven't watched a single episode.
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It's about the only TV rewatch i'd find time to mix in with my back log. Shame don't have the DVDs though last i saw HMV did at £50 for the lot
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Sweet! Love the response. I'm through episode nine in the first season and I'll almost certainly finish it sometime tomorrow. Not sure if I'll charge right ahead into season two or not but I'll try to slow a little in-between seasons. Might be hard, though.



It's easy to say that with Season 1 but as you get more into it, I found subsequent seasons narrative arcs to have more urgency It gets a lot more addictive



By the time you get to season 3, you are not going to be able to stop watching it. I can't think of any series this addictive, this compelling or this broad in scope.

It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I'd say that its status in televised series land is comparable to that of Citizen Kane, bar the awards, but who gives a ***** about those anyway?

Planet: jump on the wagon, baby, you would love The Wire. It's about capitalism among (many, many) other things, I ***** you not.



'The Wire should return,' says Attorney General

US Attorney General Eric Holder has asked for another season of HBO show The Wire to be made.

Speaking with some of The Wire's cast members at the Justice Department, Holder explained that he was impressed by the quality of the programme.

"Having looked at those clips again, I'm reminded how great that series was," the The Washington Examiner quotes him as saying.

"I want to speak directly to [executive producers] Mr [Ed] Burns and Mr [David] Simon, do another season of The Wire."

Holder continued: "I want another season, or a movie... I have a lot of power!"

Government officials, including Holder, are allegedly using episodes of The Wire to educate people about children who are caught up in drug crime.

Last year, it emerged that John Hopkins University in Baltimore was offering a course based on the hit series.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/new...y-general.html



And when I'm all alone I feel I don't wanna hide
My favourite television show of all time. This may sound preachy, but this show literally changed my life. It helped me discover a whole new passion in a field which I now find myself studying in.

I've seen this show 3 times in its entirety, and find it to be the most intelligent, socially relevant, and most important piece of sociopolitical fiction in the 21st century.