The Wire's new take on an old TV genre: it's not just cops and criminals in this drama of race in the city.(CULTURE)(Television program review)

THE WIRE, newly acquired by BET, is a realistic, complex drama set in present-day Baltimore. It's a story about cops, criminals and politicians, and combinations of the three. It's a story about bystanders. A story about the underclass. A story about the underneath. It's a story about race and racism in black and white. A story about the powers that be. A tale of two cities. A quintessentially American narrative.

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Story--not plot--drives The Wire. Its finely wrought script allows the viewer intimacy with figures that feel like people rather than characters. And by allowing us into their lives, this program makes its politics known, mounting piercing critiques of the status quo. Of the war on drugs. Of No Child Left Behind. A critique of how the market regulates our society and, in David Simon's words, makes us all "worth less." The show is angry in its indictments, but it is often leavened by humor and, on occasion, by hope. Through its commitment to creating a complex moral universe, the show provides crucial moments when individuals experience insights, when they resist status quo, and, sometimes, they grow.

To be certain, The Wire is an unparalleled venue for Black actors, who play characters from all walks of life and from all sides of the law. Although the show's creative team is staffed by African-American directors and writers (including Kia Corthron and Ernest Dickerson), the majority of its production staff (including novelists George Pelecanos, Richard Price and Dennis Lehane) is white. David Simon and Ed Burns, both white men, come from long careers in Baltimore--careers in which, quite obviously, they were attentive to the nuances of their city. Simon worked as a journalist for 13 years, rising to prominence with Homicide: A Year on the Killing Street, an Edgar Award-winning book that emerged from his year-long immersion within three homicide squads. Ed Burns is a 20-year veteran police detective and former public school teacher (he worked in middle and high schools for seven years after he retired from the force). In an interview with "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross, Burns's reflections shed light on his vision as a storyteller. "What I learned from being a cop was that you have to know the people. You're just there as a visitor. You have to start seeing the world through their eyes. And you see the struggle that takes place daily, it's just heart-wrenching ... it helps ...