Monday nights meet in AXN 232; T/Th screen in AXN 232, discuss in AXN 103
All readings should be completed by Monday each week
Feb 9: Course Intro
WATCH: #1 “The Target” & #2 “The Detail”
Feb 11:
WATCH: #3 “The Buys” & #4 “Old Cases”
READ: David Simon, “Letter to HBO”
Jason Mittell, “The Television Context for The Wire”
Feb 12: special screening at 1:30, AXN 232
WATCH: #5 “The Pager” & #6 “The Wire”
Feb 15:
WATCH: #7 “One Arrest” & #8 “Lessons”
READ: Richard Price, Clockers, parts 1 & 2 (through p. 292)
Feb 16:
WATCH: #9 “Game Day” & #10 “The Cost”
Feb 18: The Wire as Crime Fiction
WATCH: #11 “The Hunt”
Feb 22:
WATCH: #12 “Cleaning Up” & #13 “Sentencing” (end season 1)
READ: Richard Price, Clockers, finish book
Feb 23:
WATCH: #14 “Ebb Tide” & #15 “Collateral Damage”
Feb 25:
WATCH: #16 “Hot Shots”
Mar 1:
WATCH: #17 “Hard Cases” & #18 “Undertow”
READ: Peter Moskos, Cop in the Hood, first half (Chapters 1-5)
Mar 2:
WATCH: #19 “All Prologue” & #20 “Backwash”
Mar 4:
WATCH: #21 “Duck & Cover” & #22 “Stray Rounds”
Mar 8:
WATCH: #23 “Storm Warnings” & #24 “Bad Dreams”
READ: Peter Moskos, Cop in the Hood, finish book
Laura Lippman, “The Women of The Wire”
Mar 9:
WATCH: #25 “Port in a Storm” (end season 2)
Mar 11:
WATCH: #26 “Time After Time” & #27 “All Due Respect”
Mar 15:
WATCH: #28 “Dead Soldiers” & #29 “Hamsterdam”
READ: David Simon & Edward Burns, The Corner, “Winter” (through p. 182)
Simon & Burns interview with Little Melvin Williams
Mar 16: Essay #1 due via email before class
WATCH: #30 “Straight and True” & #31 “Homecoming”
Mar 18:
WATCH: #32 “Back Burners” & #33 “Moral Midgetry”
Mar 20-28: Spring Break
Mar 29:
WATCH: #34 “Slapstick” & #35 “Reformation”
READ: David Simon & Ed Burns, The Corner, finish book
Mar 30:
WATCH: #36 “Middle Ground” & #37 “Mission Accomplished” (end of season 3)
Apr 1:
WATCH: #38 “Boys of Summer”
Apr 5:
WATCH: #39 “Soft Eyes” & #40 “Home Rooms
READ: Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect, Intro – Ch. 4 (to p. 173)
Apr 6:
WATCH: #41 “Refugees” & #42 “Alliances”
Apr 8:
WATCH: #43 “Margin of Error”
Apr 12:
WATCH: #44 “Unto Others” & #45 “Corner Boys”
READ: Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect, finish book
Apr 13:
WATCH: #46 “Know Your Place” & #47 “Misgivings”
Apr 15: Proposal for final project due via email before class
WATCH: #48 “A New Day”
Apr 19:
WATCH: #49 “That’s Got His Own” & #50 “Final Grades” (end season 4)
READ: Shaun Huston, “Balancing on The Wire”
Jason Mittell, “All in the Game: The Wire, Serial Storytelling and Procedural Logic”
Nelson George, “Across Racial Lines”
Janny Scott, “Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?”
Apr 20:
WATCH: #51 “More with Less”
Apr 22: Essay #2 due via email before class
WATCH: #52 “Unconfirmed Reports” & #53 “Not For Attribution”
Apr 26:
WATCH: #54 “Transitions” & #55 “React Quotes”
READ: John Atlas and Peter Dreier, “Is The Wire Too Cynical?”
Anmol Chaddha, William Julius Wilson, and Sudhir Venkatesh, “In Defense of The Wire”
Atlas & Dreier respond
Lawrence Lanahan, “CJR: Secrets of the City”
Apr 27:
WATCH: #56 “The Dickensian Aspect” & #57 “Took”
Apr 29:
WATCH: #58 “Clarifications” & #59 “Late Editions”
May 3:
WATCH: #60 “-30-” (end of series)
May 4: Wrap-up discussion
READ: David Simon, “Down To The Wire”
David Simon, “A Newspaper Can’t Love You Back”
Alan Sepinwall, “David Simon Q&A”
Mark Bowden, “The Angriest Man In Television”
David Simon on Bill Moyers Journal (read transcript or watch video)
David Simon, “Deleted Scene from The Wire”
May 6: Wrap-up discussion
PRESENT: brief overviews of final projects in-class
May 14:
Final project must be submitted via email by noon
Out of my own curiosity, I was wondering if it would be possible for you to post, or email me the essay #1 assignment.