TV It’s very easy when considering The Wire to reach for hyperbole but unlike many so called classic television series, the hyperbole is warranted. There’s precious little modern drama that rich; as well as the social and thematic content, for those of us interested in the nuts and bolts of storytelling, its creeping narrative and balanced approach to characterisation is breathtaking. Like the best art, to watch all of those sixty episodes in quick succession as I did in January is to have a profound and meaningful experience.
But little did I realise that the experience would, five months later, extend to me sitting this evening just metres away from Sonja Sohn, the actress who played cop Kima in the series. I’ve not been to any conventions yet for television programmes but I expect that they’re something like this, with the star offering anecdotes about her time on the show to an appreciative audience of fans (as well as lots of drinking and dress up). These are real fans of The Wire. I'm an amateur.
She’s been the guest of The Reader Organisation (for which this was a charity event) and has spent the past couple of days meeting people in the local community, aiding an acting workshop for Merseyside Community Theatre who are about to put on a production of Romeo and Juliet. Their website has embedded to a comprehensive Channel 4 News report about the visit, including shots of her giving us her Juliet. The Daily Post also has a report.
In person she’s an electric, mesmerising figure. When she fixes you in the eye, time stops. Sonja began as a Slam poet and so is entirely confident with public speaking. The first half was supposed to be an interview but only a few questions were asked and in truth only a few questions needed to be asked as she spun the story of her life, from growing up in areas very similar to those depicted in The Wire, through to how her success as a poet led to her breakout film role in the Sundance winning film Slam, to her auditioning for the show.
Her philosophy and what she says has led to her eventual success is to try anything once and to listen to the little voice in your head if it’s telling you to do something. She almost cancelled her appearance in the poetry show that led to her first big acting role due to jetlag, she says, but ploughed on anyway (which is a lesson I know I should be heeding). Similarly she almost left the The Wire at the close of the first series, because her earlier life experiences were impeding her ability, she thought, to give a good performance.
Ringed by open glass windows, some of which open out onto the balcony, the venue for the talk wasn’t the most intimate of venues and yet her warm personality seemed to bring us closer. She was also brutally honest about her time on the show. The things I could type right now. Except she asked for our confidence and that’s what I’m offering. So I won't. Plus, I wouldn’t want to spoil anything in case you get the chance to attend a similar event. But, honestly, wow.
Sonja talked quite a bit about, ReWired for Change, the organisation that she and some of the cast have set up in Baltimore to try and help improve the lives of the kinds of young people who appeared in the show, in the same areas where The Wire was shot. They have experienced resistance in the city. The officials aren’t pleased with the image of Baltimore portrayed in the programme and that’s had a knock-on effect in how receptive they’ve been to ReWired’s aims -- which seems odd since those aims designed to make The Wire increasingly anachronistic.
My ignorance about the show came to the fore in the question and answer section. I asked an unsurprisingly boring question about the writing on the show and about how it trusts the viewer at the beginning of each season to have the patience to concentrate on where the story is going and how unlike other programmes, there really isn’t a core group of main characters pointing to McNulty becoming less important in one of the seasons.
To which everyone in the room and Sonja said, “season four”.
I finally knew how it must feel for someone who’s a relatively new Doctor Who fan to be corrected on which order the various actors played the timelord or who wrote City of Death.
Apparently when she and Andre Royo who plays Bubbles (they’re old friends) watched the pilot episode, they weren’t convinced either, jumping about the conference room were they’d been sitting wondering what they’d gotten themselves into. It was only, like us, until they’d seen the next few episodes that they realised what writer/creator David Simon was doing. Which is quite comforting really.
Other questions covered the moral centre of the show (Omar and Kima), how it was received in the lesbian community (well, but she was surprised the question didn’t come up more often), the fact that Baltimore hasn’t spun a tourism industry out for the show (no tour of the low rises or mugs) and the accent accuracy of Dominic West and Idris Elba (no and yes). And is so often the case with these things, there wasn't enough time and we could have listened all night.
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