Masterpieces of television have come and gone since HBO said goodbye to Baltimore all those years ago, but even amidst the ‘Breaking Bads’ and the ‘Mad Men’ of the world, nothing quite compares to The Wire. Running for five seasons, The Wire was critically acclaimed, but never had the casual or mainstream audience. All the same, The Wire doesn’t have casual or mainstream appeal.
Written and structured more like a novel than traditional television, The Wire is a show that demands all your attention. If you’re one who pulls out their phone while watching TV, don’t even bother watching The Wire– it’s not for you. Those who meet it head on, giving all their attention to each episode, will find themselves picking up on some of the best written quotes in television history.
“This America, Man.”
At its core, The Wire is a story about Baltimore and the systemic issues which plague it. In the context of the scene, “This America, man” calls not just to Baltimore’s culture, but America’s. Even if Snot Boogie was a cheat who didn’t play fair, he had the right to play. Because this is America. This is something McNulty, the detective, doesn’t immediately understand; but the man he’s interrogating does.
It’s an interesting, powerful note to open the series on, one that underscores the main theme at the center of the story. The Wire is more than the adventures of Jimmy McNulty and the changing landscape of Baltimore. This America, man.
“You can’t even call this s*** a war.” “Why not?” “Wars end.”
Herc and Carver are knucklehead bruisers whose sole enjoyment in being polices comes from abusing people they encounter on the street.
After Kima describes them of “fighting the war on drugs, one brutality case at a time.” This exchange between Herc and Carver is perhaps the most succinct description of America’s War on Drugs ever made, and appropriately appears at the start of the show. The Drug War existed decades before the series aired and is alive long after its end.
“We’re Building Something, Here, Detective, We’re Building It From Scratch. All The Pieces Matter.”
While “This America, man” sums up the core of the show rather well, Lester Freeman’s quote here early in season 1 is arguably The Wire’s whole thesis: “We’re building something, here, detective, we’re building it from scratch. All the pieces matter.” Time and time again, this rings true, as The Wire features no wasted space.
As a story, The Wire is structured in a way where even the smallest players, the smallest bits of dialogue, contribute to the overall narrative meaningfully– whether by actively moving the plot along, or just by enlightening the audience on Baltimore’s varied culture. Not just that, it’s simply an assertion that Lester is a far more competent detective than he lets on.
The Chicken McNugget Monologue
The chicken nugget monologue has become legendary among fans of the series. As Wallace is sitting in the Pit with his buddies enjoying his lunch, he appreciably proclaims the inventor of the McNugget is a genius who must be rich.
D’Angelo responds, “Why? You think he get a percentage?…The man who invented these things, just some sad ass down at the basement of McDonalds, thinking up some s*** to make some money for the real player…It’s about money. Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down to that basement and say, ‘hey, Mr. Nugget, you the bomb! We selling chicken faster than you can tear the bone out, so I’m gonna write my clowny-ass name on this fat-ass check?’ S***. Man, the [guy] who invented them things still working in the basement for regular wage thinking up ways to make the fries taste better.”
“You Come At The King, You Best Not Miss.”
For as grounded in reality as The Wire is, it also recognizes that real life is violent. The action in The Wire is never particularly glamorous or romanticized, but it’s also not unengaging either. It can’t be when characters like Omar Little steal every scene they’re in, as masterfully acted as he is masterfully written.
“You come at the king, you best not miss.” is just a genuinely badass boast and one of the coolest things anyone says across all five season of The Wire. The point of Omar as a character ultimately becomes that his legendary status doesn’t stop him from just being any other man, but lines like this ensure that he’s immortalized long after he’s gone.
“Man, money ain’t got no owners. Only spenders.”
When Omar robs a high stakes poker game where Marlowe Stanfield is playing, Marlowe actually has the audacity to say the money is his while Omar has a shotgun trained on him.
Omar responds with this brilliant line about the nature of money. Almost everyone in the series, as in life, is interested in either status or wealth, and while Omar is no different, he understands that all wealth is fleeting.
“Well, You Know What They Say: ‘Stupid Criminal Make Stupid Cops.’ I’m Proud To Be Chasing This Guy.”
The Wire doesn’t have a defined main character, but if it did, it would be Jimmy McNulty. Ostensibly the closest things to a protagonist in seasons 1 & 5 (less so in 2 & 3,) McNulty has the most comprehensive character arc in the series, changing the most of the main cast. This early line describes one constant of his character, though: ego.
For McNulty, it really is kind of a game to him. He revels in the thrill of chasing String, and finds himself impressed at their back and forth. McNulty is proud to be chasing after some smart criminals, but that in itself is a sentiment rooted in McNulty’s own arrogance– the belief that he will catch the Barksdale organization in the act no matter what.
“All In The Game, Yo… All In The Game.”
Another thesis-esque line much in the vein of Lester Freeman’s “All the pieces matter,” Omar’s “All in the game, yo… All in the game.” ends up closing out season 1. It might seem like a reductive take on Omar’s part to allude to some greater “game,” but something The Wire stresses is that it’s all a game for all parties involved– the cops, the dealers, and the people in between.
The game has rules for everyone involved, and it’s important those playing understand that. The line also calls to Omar’s reputation, and the seemingly inherent means in which he gains the upper hand. After being absent for most of the last act, Omar’s reappearance is a nice way to end the first season.
“I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It’s all in the game, though, right?”
When Omar Little is in court giving testimony as a witness to a murder, the lawyer Maurice Levy tries to discredit him by listing his many crimes (most of which involve violence or possessing a weapon).
Levy berates Omar for robbing drug dealers, accusing him of being a “parasite who leeches off the culture of drugs.” Omar calls Levy out, saying, “just like you, man,” explaining that Levy’s briefcase is just as much a part of the narco-economy as Omar’s shotgun. Emphasizing that each has a part to play in the drug trade, Omar ends this quote by noting “it’s all in the game, though, right?”
“We Used To Make S*** In This Country, Build S***. Now We Just Put Our Hand In The Next Guy’s Pocket.”
The Wire becomes a full on Greek tragedy heading into season 2. Although this has alienated more than a few fans, many diehards consider the second season to be one of The Wire’s best written, right up there with season 4. It’s not particularly hard to see why. Frank Sobotka’s plight is easy to sympathize with, and the dock contrast rather interestingly with the Barksdale organization from season 1.
Come the end of season 2, Frank is beaten down by the system with no real hope or help. He laments on how the country has changed– how the culture has changed. There’s no longer a sense of solidarity within communities, with people instead operating for their own self gain.
“You Know The Difference Between Me And You? I Bleed Red And You Bleed Green.”
While season 2 shifts the main focus from the Barksdale organization to the docks, the former doesn’t stop being a storyline. It’s pushed into the background with Avon now in prison, but the focus instead shifts to String starting his little rise to power, slowly wresting control away from Avon’s grasp. Come season 3, Avon is released and tensions are naturally high.
All season, the two butt heads, String no longer able to work with Avon as he once did. Avon points out their ideological difference clearly. Where Avon bleeds red, Stringer bleeds green. Money and business is the bottom line for Stringer, no matter what, and he’s forgotten the roots that once grounded him and Avon.
“We Ain’t Gotta Dream No More, Man.”
Of course, it isn’t as if String has shed this part of himself away without reason. He’s always been the brains of the operation, never taking the hands on approach Avon does, but where Avon wanted to make the most out of the game, String wanted to legitimize the game, to bring his tactics to the real business world.
It’s a dream that ends in his death and ultimate humiliation, but it humanizes Stringer, and it makes his actions a lot more complex. Would he have been able to transition into a legitimate lifestyle? If nothing else, String very briefly believed he had attained his dreams.
“The Thing About The Old Days: They The Old Days.”
Centering itself on the Baltimore school system, season 4’s younger cast places an emphasis on youth, innocence, and the systems around children that intimately affect who they grow up to be. Season 4 also evokes natural feelings of nostalgia, which makes Slim Charles’ line here all the more impactful: “The thing about the old days: they the olds day.”
Once it’s gone, it’s one. This isn’t a theme universal to The Wire necessarily, but it’s a line that’s poignant in the context of a season that breaks away at the innocence surrounding the main kids in the cast. There really is no going back.
“A man must have a code.”
Bunk and Omar have quite a tumultuous relationship, and eventually, Bunk gets so fed up he is willing to let the stickup man be killed in prison without a second thought. Despite this, during their first meeting, they actually hit it off.
It turns out the two went to the same school growing up, giving them a shared history, even if they never knew one another at the time. Upon learning that Omar does not target civilians, Bunk expresses his appreciation that Omar has a code. Their conversations about how a man should behave continue through the series until their very different codes pit them against one another.
“…The Life Of Kings.”
Not a quote and simply the foreword to the series finale, “-30-,” “…The life of kings” is the tail end of a quote by Baltimore Sun journalist, H.L. Mencken, “…as I look back over a misspent life, I find myself more and more convinced that I had more fun doing news reporting than in any other enterprise. It is really the life of kings." It’s a quote very specific to the newspaper arc running through the 5th season, but it’s nonetheless powerful.
It’s an affirmation that what we do, what we love, has value even if our lives are “misspent.” Not just that, this quote is a reminder that The Wire was never about just one thing. It was always about everything that surrounded Baltimore. Mencken’s quote is a fitting, poignant note to open the series finale on.
