It once seemed like The Wire — a TV show that many regard as one of the greatest, if not the greatest — would never be released in high definition (HD) because of David Simon’s preference for its original broadcast 4:3 aspect ratio.
Other HBO shows that originally aired in standard definition (SD), such as The Sopranos, have longed been available in HD on demand, at HBO Go, and subsequently released on Blu-ray.
But then last year HBO moved ahead with converting the show to HD, initially without Simon’s involvement, and now the entire series is available in 1080p awesomeness.
Does this new high definition transfer really make a difference to a show that’s already so highly lauded?
Does it enhance the stories being told?
The simple answer is: yes, most definitely.
Much as been discussed about The Wire’s new widescreen framing — and I’ll talk about that later — but the real difference is the upgrade from SD to HD.
The Wire was shot on 35mm film, which is a high definition medium — the same thing as Hollywood movies — but broadcast at 480i SD and released on DVD the same way. Like anything else at this resolution, when viewed on a large screen TV the image quality was fuzzy and lacked detail. As our TVs keep getting larger and larger, SD content looks worse and worse.
One of the many aspects of The Wire that made the show unique was that it was shot on location in Baltimore, vividly capturing and confronting viewers with the poverty in the city. The mise-en-scène is a crucial component in communicating how drugs have led to the destruction of the city.
In HD this is taken to a whole new level. The deterioration of the city and the poverty is even more intense and stark. You now feel like you’re in the middle of the shit with the characters. The trash, graffiti and dilapidated state of homes and buildings are even more apparent.
The Wire also forced us to look at what drug addiction does to people.
Bubbles was the literal face of it — his makeup not only holds up perfectly under the scrutiny of HD, but it better shows us how drugs have ravaged his body. He can be uncomfortable to look at, which is the point.
The show was always noted for its authentic portrayal of drug addiction (apparently Mark Wahlberg thought the actors who played Bubbles, Andre Royo, was a real addict) and HD reveals just how committed to every possible detail the show makers were.
As I said early, most of the discussion about The Wire in HD has been its conversion from a 4:3 square aspect ration to 16:9 widescreen.
Yes it was “future proofed,” but the intended aspect ratio was 4:3 and it should have stayed that way. I’m not surprised that HBO chose to go the 16:9 route — they obviously didn’t want to deal with people complaining about black bars on the sides of the TV — but I wish they had made the show available in both aspect ratios.
Most of the time the show does reframe well to 16:9. There are scenes when actors are closely blocked together and there’s a lot of empty space on the side of the frame, or there’s just a large object on one side, but these awkwardly shots are only really noticeable if you’re looking for them.
And then some directors seemed to intend their episodes to be seen in 16:9. For example, consider Timothy Van Patten’s use of a wide angle lens during the garage meeting with Levy, String and Avon in the season 1, episode 13. It’s so much more dramatic in 16:9 than 4:3.
Lots of TV shows tend to have one or two directors helm a disproportionate number of episodes (3 people directed more than half of The Sopranos’ episodes), but The Wire had 27 directors for its 60 episodes, with no one directing more than 6. So it didn’t have quite as consistent directorial style as other TV shows, and you can spot this if you really pay attention to how things are framed.
One thing that was a huge mistake with the reframing was that the shots from surveillance cameras were reframed to 16:9 rather than kept in 4:3. Season 1 featured a lot of these shots to show how we are all constantly under surveillance — go into any public building and there are cameras capturing our every movement. Often there are shots of 4:3 TVs showing this surveillance footage, so it’s jarring when they cut to a full frame image of the surveillance footage that suddenly goes from 4:3 to 16:9.
The show itself remains just as relevant and powerful as when it originally aired. We’re still dealing with how to best fight the war on drugs, issues of police tactics, failing public schools, newspapers going out of business, etc. I continue to see things in the news that remind me of an episode of The Wire.
Even if you’ve seen the show before it will feel brand new in more ways than one. And if you’ve never seen an episode of The Wire, for the love of god now is the time to finally do it.
