Why I watched 'The Wire' but will not be watching 'Valentine's Day Movie'

So, life here in Lincoln continues to go well. Had a lovely evening doing a bit of student assessment and then eating out at a Polish restaurant with my lovely new Polish colleague. Fabulous borsht!

Received a very welcome card from my dear friend Emily today (cheers Em!) along with a book I had leant to her (Corrie Ten Boom's Prison Letters - I'd recommend it heartily. It is an amazing story of faith under serious persecution). Anyways, the card mentioned that she had read my recent post about The Wire and she was interested to see my thought processes as I came to the decision to watch it. So I thought I'd expand on an earlier post by going through my reasons. It is a brutal ol' thing, often incredibly painful to watch...so why spend my time on it? I'm hoping to address the issues not because I am fond of the sound of my own voice (although I have my moments) but because I hope it will help my friends as we all consider our best use of our leisure time and what we should watch. As a Christian this is an important question for me, but I hope it is a important question for all my friends regardless of faith or creed.

So here we go with the pithy (can you tell I'm an academic? :-) ) question: Why I watched 'The Wire' but will not be watching 'Valentine's Day Movie' . First a brief caveat; my intention is not to compel anyone to watch The Wire nor is it to condemn those who enjoy a good rom com. Rather it is to get us thinking a bit. Please ignore at will if it isn't helpful.

I watched series two of The Wire partly due to the effect it had on D. At first I made the decision that it 'was not my kind of thing'. As I've said before, I am a Gaskell girl at heart and like my novels thick and wordy, my plays political and engaged, my music with good vocals and a folky guitar, and my art with intricate brush strokes. What I do not like is ugliness, pretension (I know, ironic isn't it?), unnecessary violence, dullness, explicit sex scenes (just no need!) and shock for the sake of shock. I must admit I placed The Wire firmly in this category and rejected it out of hand. That was until I saw its effect on D. Now, D is pretty unflappable but he was obviously pretty moved by the whole thing. This is unusual and made me look again at this American series.

I spent some time thinking about the whole issue and I started considering the slightly larger question of why we watch certain things and not others. I am convinced of the maxim 'once it's in your head, you can't get it out' and am careful about what I shove in my brain. So, I thought, what about the films we call 'harmless fun'? These generally follow a similar pattern: an impossibly beautiful woman falls in love with an impossibly good looking man, they quickly reach first base (ahem!), they fall out because a) there is some infidelity or b) because they cannot actually communicate with one another, not having the ability to formulate basic sentences. They both have best friends who are either impossibly good looking like themselves or else unnaturally ugly...but funny. They work through the blip with copious amounts of champagne (substitute alcoholic beverage of your choice), having a quick fling or looking with tear-stained eyes at their reflection in a mirror. Then (cue a song by an X-Factor winner) they bump into each other in the street/meet at a party/lock eyes in a busy restaurant, realise they are deeply in love and kiss in a snowy street. There will be too much (and completely inauthentic) swearing and at least one sex scene that pushes it just up to the 15 certificate level. And it will make the audience either cry, laugh or sigh. Forgive me if I sound like a prude or a cynic!

And yet we watch rom coms without thinking. They bombard us with unnaturally beautiful people. They present the notion that you are not a 'real person' unless promiscuous and/or adulterous. They suggest that these hopelessly single-faceted people can have completely happy endings with no pain or suffering or duty. Basically, they give us lies. There are some wonderful exceptions to this rule, of course, but they are few and far between. These are films that are amoral, that is without any morals at all - other, of course, than personal feelings. If it feels good, then it must be good.

And so on to The Wire. Certainly more swearing, most definitely more conflict, generally more drunkenness. But (and here is the reason I would so heartily recommend it) it is engaged, thought-provoking, educational, challenging and, at its heart, a purveyor of truth. Now, don't get me wrong; The Wire is a TV show and therefore inevitably fictional. But it is infused with truth at every turn and allows the audience to sit right on the edge of the seat, make a bit of an effort to engage and have a shocking insight into fractured C21 society. Surely that is something to grab and grapple with. So, why not try something that will provoke and inform you with truth this weekend, whether it is finding a good political blog, reading a report about people who are persecuted for their faith overseas or, indeed, watching series two of The Wire. Not only will you be more informed about the state of the world but, hopefully, it will lead us to care for others more and get practically involved in changing society. Ah, call me utopian if you wish.

Phew, if you have made it this far then you deserve some sort of a medal! Hope that answers your question Em and hope it has been useful for everyone else. Feel free to leave a comment.

You'll be pleased (!?) to know that I'll probably come back to this theme at some stage. Mum and Dad are arriving this weekend. Can't wait to see them.

CSW