So, this was the original intro from today’s Heat-T’Wolves piece, which was originally titled: The Heat And The Hopless, Celebrating The Dickensian Aspects Of The NBA. I cut the intro because, you know, it was completely unrelated to the column. But I figured I’d share it here. My original, Wire-themed intro.
Deleted Scene: The Dickensian Aspect!
If you’ve never seen The Wire, then ***spoiler alert!*** you’re missing out on the best show of all time. It’s cliche to say that at this point, but it’s so true that I don’t care.
Anyway, there’s a moment in Season 5 where Scott Templeton, a sniveling little gnome of a reporter, explains to his bosses that he’d like to expand his (largely fictionalized) coverage of Baltimore’s homeless population, tracing the problem from the slums to City Hall.
Templeton’s similarly smarm-tastic editor hears this, and exclaims, “The Dickensian aspect!”
It’s a bit self-parody from the writers at The Wire, who spent years hearing their show’s scope described as “Dickensian.” As the writers explained time and again (and David Simon explained in the show’s original pitch) it placed a lens at every level of society to expose much broader truths about the problems with contemporary urban America, in general. Or as Simon put it, “an America, at every level, at war with itself.”
Like how Scott Templeton’s plagiarizing was indicative of problems not just at the Baltimore Sun, but also the city-at-large. Templeton’s laziness and self-interest meant he ignored real problems, and much deeper corruption in the Baltimore bureaucracy. And to prove this point in this scene, the show effortlessly satirizes the smarmy editors at the Baltimore Sun, showing how easily we dupe ourselves into missing the real story. It does also this while also poking fun at itself, an inside joke with the show’s writers and hardcore fans. It’s a small scene, but it’s meaningful, dramatic, and funny.
That’s why the The Wire is the best show ever.
Note: I have no idea why I thought that could ever work as intro to an article about the Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves, but screw it. Sometimes you just gotta write about The Wire.
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