Charlie Brooker on The Wire

Charlie Brooker explains why The Wire is the best TV show of the last 20 years.

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[RobBuckley]

The David Attenborough documentary series Planet Earth is first in the IMDB 250. The Wire is 2nd

[Joshuadrooney]

I got a great idea for you. Try this: fuck off.

[manchesterblue2007]

maybe they think that the specifics would be lost on idiots like you

[Hendrix104]

Does anyone know the name of the dark, moody, ambient track playing in the background during this entire clip?

[EnviousWorm1532]

Not to mention there are so many other damn good characters on the show to take your pick from, adding Officer Walker's story line to the overall arc was: a) unnecessary work, b) not part of the original plan, which was perfectly fine to begin with.

[EnviousWorm1532]

We'll never know, sadly. I would've liked him to have had a back story as well, cause he's just kinda a dick in the fourth season, but that's his purpose. He is the embodiment of everything wrong with modern police officers (to an extreme extent though), and shows how cops like him make impressionable young children growing up with police like Officer Walker can cause them to shun the system and take to the streets at younger ages. And for that purpose, Officer Walker fares greatly, I think.

[LaPlumeDeMaTante1]

It would be good to see this character have a back story, but that doesn't necessarily have to 'explain' why he's being such a jerk. Some people are born jerks, as simple as that.

[EnviousWorm1532]

I'll say no and yes. cause people really do go through the shit. It's cliche'd for a reason, yes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it on screen. As long as cliches are done correctly (they're there but not obviously overdone to force sympathy or story down your throat) I don't mind them. It's nice to imagine that one can find a unique, interesting back story for every person on the show, but when there are so many like the Wire, it can be hard to keep fresh, which the show does very well.

[LaPlumeDeMaTante1]

Wouldn't that be the cheesiest, most daytime-drama like outcome in the world if it turned out Walker acts the way he does because of a tragic event in his past?

[EnviousWorm1532]

I will admit Officer Walker is an asshole and an asshole only on the show, the way the show portrays assholes and how they can be formed into assholes, I can only assume something terrible and influential happened in Walker's life set into motion (or even mistakenly so) by drug lords/dealers/corner kids that made him despise their way of life and categorize them only as worthless individuals who he has to keep in line through force and fear.