Writer Sarah Hepola admits that, while
much-admired, The Wire is not sexy in
a conventional way. Then again, if you’ve ever had the good fortune to meet Ms.
Hepola, you know she’s not a conventional girl. So she asked herself, if “The Wire is bleak,
devastating and difficult...why does it get me so hot?” She
builds a pretty good
(and conveniently numbered!) case:
Theory #2: The Wire as the Anti-Sex and the
City
Consider that The Wire is the inverse of HBO's romantic girlie
fantasia: One is a valentine to New York while the other is a eulogy for
Baltimore; one is light and fizzy while the other despairing; one has a
voiceover that wraps up every episode like a Tiffany's box while the other is
messy and sprawling, with a stubborn refusal to eliminate loose ends. In a
nutshell: light vs. dark, hope vs. cynicism, chicks vs. dicks. And whether you
think it's sexier to wave around a fruity Cosmo or a glinting Glock — well,
that's up to you.
Chicks, dicks, Glocks and all five theories: right here.
