Khandi Alexander by Jean-Paul Aussenard/ WireImage.com
David Simon, the mastermind behind The Wire — which some critics and a small-but-loyal band of fans consider among the best TV shows ever — has recruited a few familiar faces to his new HBO pilot, Treme.Khandi Alexander (medical examiner Alexx Woods on CSI: Miami) is in "final negotiations" to play a mother of two on the drama about life in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Alexander may return to CSI:Miami as a guest star in the future.Treme — whose title comes from the name of a Big Easy neighborhood famous for its music and musicians — will also star Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters, both of whom played detectives on The Wire. Pierce's Treme character, Antoine Batiste, is a jazz trombonist struggling to find work — while still pining after Alexander's Ladonna, his former wife. — Nina Hämmerling Smith
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Generation Kill by Paul Schiraldi/HBO
I’ve already officially raved about HBO’s rivetingly realistic Iraq War miniseries Generation Kill, which begins its seven-week run tonight (9 pm/ET). Most every other critic I know is on board as well. But for David Simon, the revered creator of The Wire who helped shape journalist Evan Wright’s book into a you-are-there road trip with a unit of Marines that’s alternately hilarious and harrowing, the audience he was most interested in impressing were those in uniform.Last Wednesday night, on the eve of HBO’s presentation to TV critics at the ongoing TCA press tour, the producers and cast screened part of the miniseries for several hundred Marines at the Southern California base of Camp Pendleton. “The screening at Pendleton last night was probably the one that we cared about,” Simon said. “That was one, I think, we were all a little bit terrified of.” To which Wright, who was embedded with the troops on assignment for Rolling Stone, adde...
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Dominic West by Nicole Rivelli/HBO
Its final season may have been built around a number of Big Lies, but here's the honest truth: HBO's The Wire is TV for the ages. Though it spent much of its acclaimed existence under the pop-culture radar, despite annual appearances on critics' best-of-year lists, this heartbreaking and searing masterpiece of urban decay and corruption will live on as all great literature does. Any self-respecting DVD library would want to include the five seasons of The Wire. It's that good, and that rich.Sunday’s expanded finale wraps up much of the complex story, but as usual, not in a tidy fashion. Ambiguities, moral compromises, deals struck with a variety of devils, all par for the course in David Simon’s bleak version of Baltimore. No cheap sentiment here, although there is a memorable scene involving a surprise wake at the Irish cop bar.The ironies are deep and dark as McNulty (Dominic West) sweats out the consequences of his scheme being exposed, of having created a fictional ser...
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Question: Like most television fans, I was disappointed that Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica, The Shield, Lost and The Wire — not to mention the many fine actors and actresses that populate these shows — didn't garner a sniff of recognition from voters come Emmy time. But I wasn't as disappointed or surprised as many other people I've talked with, simply because I have come to expect little from the voters. What does it say about the Emmys when everyone, from casual fans to professional television critics, knew that the best program on television, HBO's The Wire, stood absolutely zero chance of scoring an Emmy nod? None. David Simon could have held the ceremony at his house and still be shut out. Ditto for Battlestar, and, to a large extent, Friday Night Lights. We've come to expect mediocrity from these awards, settling to honor formulaic shows such as Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal, or ones that require little thought to digest, like Heroes and a stunningly poor season of 24. ...
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Question: I, too, am a huge fan of The Wire. Past interviews with David Simon had him saying the fifth season would focus on the media and have a more prominent role for the McNulty character. I don't know if this is still the plan, but whatever the show does, it'll be worth watching.
Answer: Thanks to all who wrote in to point out that the social/urban institution next to be dissected by this excellent series is the embattled, imperfect media. Given David Simon's history as a first-rate reporter, this is an arena he knows all too well. I can't wait ...
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