'A City upon a Hill': The Wire and Its Distillation of the United States Polity. (October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wheeler, Mark
• Is Part Of: Politics. Volume 34:Number 3(2014)
• Page Start: 237
• Page End: 247
• Publication Date: 2014-10
• Subjects: The Wire -- American politics -- popular culture and politics; Political science -- Periodicals; 320
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9256.12044
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-3957

Abstract

The Home Box Office's series The Wire (2002–2008) provides an informed critique of the decline of the democratic American ideal of the 'city upon a hill'. From its inception as a police procedural, it expanded its interests across the dystopian city of Baltimore to consider the linkage between drug crimes, policing, the collapse of blue-collar life, social deprivation, institutional compromise, the public school system, media compliance and political self-interest. Therefore, this article will situate The Wire into the debates that have defined the US polity and will discuss how it employs the narrative conventions of a contemporary thriller to offer an alternative view of American democracy.