Nine crucial lessons from The Wire's pilot
Look at any list where the greatest TV series ever are ranked, and you’ll commonly see the same few among the top: The Sopranos, Seinfeld, Mad Men, Twilight Zone, Breaking Bad, I Love Lucy. And I agree with these choices. But there’s one that seems to hang slightly above the rest, and most often wins the title of THE best.
I’ll save a dramatic drum role because I’m sure by the title of the article, you already guessed what it is.
ALF.
Ok, not really ALF, but what a finale! What I’m talking about, of course, is The Wire. Written and created by David Simon, a former journalist, knows a lot about the subject, and who also happens to be a fantastic writer. There’s a reason it stands above the rest. Layered with incredible themes, great stories, memorable characters, it does everything a great show should.
And importantly, the pilot sets it up for the great run it has. So this week I’m looking at all the things you can incorporate into your own pilot that will set yourself up for similar success. At least it will help you beat out ALF. Sorry ALF!
I’ve done this for Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and the elements that make a great pilot aren’t too different here; however, I had gotten some questions about elements I’ve left out. They are ones that I don’t think are CRUCIAL to a pilot (there are examples of strong pilots that don’t do those things), but they can help, so I will include them as honorable mentions at the end of the article.
But for now, let’s go way down in the hole and look at the nine crucial lessons from the Wire’s pilot that you can start putting in your own pilot.
1. Theme running through veins
I’m starting with this one because it is the first one that you should be thinking about when you come up with your story. You need to be clear about what your series is about before you write it. Otherwise, it’s not going to be about anything.
Note, I’m not talking about the plot of the story or specific character arcs (although they’re related). I’m talking about the main message behind the story. What are you conveying to the audience?
David Simon says about the Wire, “The Wire will be far more than a cop show, and to the extent that it breaks new ground, it will do so because of larger, universal themes that have more to do with the human condition, the nature of the American city and, indeed, the national culture.”
This is what makes the entire series feel like such a cohesive unit, even though different seasons will concentrate on different cases and often focus on different people. There’s an overall theme through the series that each season explores a different aspect of, and that theme is “America is Broken.”
Having Baltimore be a stand-in for the country, no matter what aspect of America the show is exploring--the justice system, the class system, politics, education or media--the show explores the flaws that causes each thing to be broken, while also offering at least some hope for how individuals can make a difference within them, all adding up to the unifying message.
An ambitious task to say the least.
And all of this has to begin within the pilot. Not that yours needs to be as ambitious as exploring corruption within the entire country. It could be something as simple as “The work world is made so much more interesting by the people there” (The Office) or “Caveman probably had similar relationship dynamics to us” (The Flintstones), but whatever it is, you should be clear on it.
The first season of The Wire, is exploring how the criminal justice system is broken (reflected in both the justice system within our government and the justice system within the Barksdale crew), which backs up the series theme of America being broken.
And the theme within the first episode is “we have roles in the system we’re expected to conform to,” which backs up the season 1 theme. We see this episode theme throughout, mainly by seeing the chaos reigning from characters stepping outside of their roles. McNulty is expected to play by the rules of the system and not get involved in any cases that aren’t his own. When he does get involved with the Barksdale case, it unleashes a shitstorm that causes the Major and everyone else above him to be furious with him, and consequently they punish him.
D’Angelo experiences the same thing when he breaks his uncle’s rules by killing his attacker. He winds up getting similarly punished by being demoted to the low-rises.
We see this idea of being expected to conform to the system’s rules again and again from the witness getting killed because he didn’t comply with Stringer’s orders to the Deputy expecting dots to appear on the police report because “the deputy likes dots.”
Once you start getting clear on your story’s theme and your pilot’s theme, everything will start to come together and make your pilot easier to write. If this is done, your pilot will feel like a cohesive piece that will go on to support the whole cohesive piece that will be your series.
2. An opening to captivate
You only get one first scene for your series, and it will forever stay as your first scene..
When people watch your show, it will be the first thing that they see, and it will be what many will use to gauge if they’re going to keep watching.
So it needs to be good, showcasing the strengths of what you’re creating. And it also needs to be representative of your entire series If you’re going to worry tirelessly about any scene, this is the one.
The first scene of The Wire, features McNulty talking to a witness about Snot Boogie’s murder. Those who’ve seen procedural shows probably assume that this conversation would be important to the plot and that the rest of the episode will be solving the Snot Boogie case, but it doesn’t. Instead it serves to focus on the main goals of this first scene and show that The Wire is something different.
It shows off the show's strengths: a thoughtful discussion with great dialogue. It’s funny, it’s profound, and it presents characters who seem real.
And as we discussed in the last part, it demonstrates the themes--not just of the episode or of the season, but of the entire series, the “America is broken” one. McNulty is reflecting on why they keep letting Snot Boogie play, when he always steals the money and they have to beat his ass, why someone would solve the problem by killing him instead of just not letting him play (after also questioning how unfair it is that he landed with the nickname “Snot Boogie’ in the first place).
This all tells us that the series will be thoughtful, and funny, and interesting, and profound, and different. Even if we aren’t actively thinking about what all this means, by the time the “Because this is America, man” line is delivered we all can feel that we’re in good hands.
3. Setup an immersive world
When we watch a series, we usually are going to be spending dozens of hours within the show’s world, so if it’s not one we want to be in, we’re going to check out fast.
Sometimes the world is a fantasy one like Westeros, sometimes it’s a classy but problematic one like the ad industry in 1960, and sometimes it’s a bar with a lot of funny people. The audience not only needs to be immersed enough in it to continue through the episode, but they need to be immersed enough in it that they’ll want to return week after week.
No matter what it is, you have to be decisive with what this world is or the audience will not be immersed in it, and if not, they’re not sticking around.
The first season of The Wire is showing us TWO worlds within Baltimore: the police world and the crime world. And as the Greek Tragedy that the show is, it’s showing us that despite the differences, there’s a lot of similarities and parallels between the two.
The first scene lets us see both, by showing us a conversation between two people, one from each world.
We then enter a courtroom, where again, we see a meeting of these two different worlds. After that we get to see how each of them functions. And although many of us are probably not involved in either of those two, we are given something we can all relate to: messing up at our jobs and the consequences that come along with that.
These are worlds with stakes, consequences, rules, and edgy characters, and we get an in-depth look at how they work. Later on in the episode, when we follow Bubbles and Johnny, we also get a peek into the junkie world.
Giving the audience an understanding of where they’re going to be is important, but in order to make the world(s) a place the audience looks forward to returning to, it needs to be filled with people they want to see.
4. Create nuanced characters
With a cop drama, one might expect all the cops to be heroes and all of the drug dealers to be villains. Many cop shows do exactly this.
But, of course, the Wire doesn’t. It’s showing us multiple sides of the War on Drugs and with it, both sides have good guys and bad guys. This not only paints a more even canvas for the Wire to exist upon, but it makes all the characters on every side compelling to watch, as it gives us people to root for and against in both narratives.
As I mention in my article, Going Gray, the easiest way to make a protagonist no one is interested in is to make that person flawless. And the best way to create a villain that no one really buys into is to create one with no redeeming qualities.
The Wire creates these nuanced characters by having all of the characters on both sides exist on a spectrum from good to bad. But no one is all the way on one extreme or the other.
Many of the cops are good, but even they have flaws. McNulty can be a pain in the ass, plus he’s an alcoholic and his life is a mess. We don’t see too many of Kima’s flaws within the pilot, but later we see her participating in a police beating. The worst cops aren’t without redeeming characteristics, as although Rawls is an adversary, he’s at least amusing.
On the Barksdale side, we see that Avon Barksdale might be leading a criminal gang, but he cares about his nephew, and Stringer Bell might be ordering deaths, but he’s smart and thoughtful. D’Angelo might be the most sympathetic character in the episode, and the first thing we learn about him is that he murdered someone.
These interesting, nuanced characterizations contribute to the interesting world and make us want to see more.
5. Accomplish multiple things at once
There’s an exhaustive checklist of things you need to do in the pilot. You need to introduce the characters, make us like them, give a ton of exposition, run a cohesive plot, set the arc for the season and even the series, show us this world, get us to feel...stuff, resolve the action while also assuring us that there’s going to be more.
Sounds near impossible for one episode. That’s why every scene needs to accomplish multiple things.
Let’s take a look at the courtroom scene. McNulty goes into the courtroom of D’Angelo’s trial. He sees Stringer Bell there in a suit. The first witness identifies D’Angelo. Stringer shows McNulty a funny but insulting cartoon drawing. The second witness sees Stringer and won’t testify. D’Angelo is overjoyed. McNulty says nice work to Stringer and leaves.
A simple scene, but it accomplishes so many things:
-It lets us see more of McNulty and how he really cares
-It lets us know the Barksdale organization is a force to be reckoned with
-It shows us that Stringer is an important character on the criminal side, and that he’s smart
-It tells us a lot about D’Angelo’s character, including that he’s Avon Barksdale’s nephew
-It tells us all about the plot: D’Angelo killed someone, but because of his uncle, he’ll go free
-We see from the first witness’ testimony that Deangelo probably did do it
-We learn of the adversarial relationship between the cops and the Barksdale and that they know each other
-We can see how powerful the criminal side is
-It informs us that the police side is the losing side
-It gives us hints of everyone’s personalities.
Take any scene from the pilot, and you can see they’re all accomplishing multiple things. This is uber important as you write yours.
6. Resolve
With narratives that have storylines spanning whole seasons and even whole shows, it’s common to assume that nothing will be wrapped up in the first episode. Frodo doesn’t toss the ring into the fires of Mordor in the first movie.
But even though you’re not going to resolve the storylines in the episode, you still want the episode itself to feel resolved. The episode is a tiny complete project that makes up part of the giant complete project. That means the character or plot needs to make some sort of advancement or there needs to be payoffs.
On the police side, the case isn’t solved--it isn’t even close to being solved. However, there is progress made. Because of McNulty sticking his nose into it, the team headed by Daniels (and other characters that we get to know) is established. It’s the ending of the story of the police doing absolutely nothing about Barksdale, andit graduates to them doing the bare minimum about Barksdale.
On the Barksdale side, D’Angelo sees the consequence of going free. When he sees the witness killed at the end, he realizes that his actions caused this. Judging by how he reacts, it’s clear that he has gone from thinking that he completely belongs in this world to at least having some doubt about that.
Even the Bubbles/Johnny subplot has a resolution, as Bubbles goes from wanting nothing more than drugs to wanting to avenge his friend, thus becoming an informant to the police.
We’re still at the very beginning of the journey with a long long way to go, but having these resolutions allow the audience to have some satisfaction and closure. It also allows them to trust the writer’s ability to give them these things in the future.
7. Cross the continuum
Imagine there’s a line running through all of writing. One one side of the line is the real and the literal: that’s drama. On the other side of the line there’s symbolism and bright colors and the abstract: that’s art. Where these two meet in the middle is comedy.
Great! So what?
So you want to tap dance all over that line.
Good shows and movies never stay in just one part of the continuum. Like all good shows, this show does a great job at hitting all areas of it. It bounces around, masterfully changing how we’re feeling at all times. I’ll pull some examples from each.
Drama: The whole episode is precipitad on murder, the justice system, and facing punishment for stepping outside of preconceived roles. An innocent man is killed at the end to send a message. It’s safe to say that there’s a lot of drama all the way through
Comedy: The opening conversation with Snot Boogie, Rawls’ “you have my attention,” pretty much every dialogue exchange with Herc and Carver. For a police procedural dealing with a lot of heavy themes, there is a lot of comedy in it.
Art: The Wire doesn’t do many fancy camera tricks, showy shots, or even non-diegetic music. Where it does stand on the art side (besides its incredibly deep themes) is the dialogue. David Simon has all the characters speak naturally for their environments but also poetically.
The fact that the show goes so seamlessly from one environment to another is a reason we feel like we’re getting such a full experience when we watch it.
8. Venture into darkness
One thing that I really advocate is looking at the darker parts of life. All the greatest works do this to some degree or another. Even Pixar movies deal with dark themes like embracing death and loss of innocence. Pinocchio has kids turned into donkeys to be sold into slave labor. Dealing with this kind of darkness brings out a full truth in whatever story we’re telling and connects us more to it.
And boy does the Wire get dark.
The show is ultimately a tragedy, exposing the flaws of an American city and showing us all of the casualties of that flaw.
The characters who have it best are the ones who keep the system in place (the Deputy and Avon Barksdale), and we can see the toll that it takes on them whenever someone does something to disrupt their system.
This doesn’t mean you can’t paint something optimistic--you certainly can, but even then you need to show the darker parts of life in order to have a believable and satisfying resolution. There’s a lot of debate of where the Wire lands, but as Herc says, “shit always rolls downhill.”
9. Prepare for future episodes
The flipside to having a solid resolution is that you also have to leave the audience wanting more.
In a series with self-contained episodes (like most other cop shows), all you have to do is make a great pilot, and people might come back to get more of the same.
But in a serial series, we know every episode will be different, and you have to make the audience want to explore that different. The Wire leaves a lot of questions that we want to see answered:
What will D’Angelo do now that he sees he caused someone’s death?
Will Daniel’s team be able to capture Barksdale?
What will Barksdale, with all his meticulous protocols, do to avoid this?
What will McNulty do to create problems next?
How will the group of misfits get along with each other?
How will Bubbles play into all of this?
“That’s what happens when you give a fuck when it’s not your turn to give a fuck,” so ultimately it’s your job to make it the audience’s turn.
Honorable Mentions
So these nine elements, as the word “crucial” would imply are must-haves. Like if you’re missing any of them, your pilot is going to suffer because of it.
I have gotten questions about some other pieces, and I didn’t include them in other pilot analyses because, well, as they can be super helpful, they’re not crucial. There’s plenty of examples of solid pilots that are missing these elements.
However, they can all be super helpful, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention them.
So some things that aren’t crucial to making the pilot work, but will give you a lot of help:
Make it a character’s first day
The audience is obviously new to the show and are being thrown into a world that they’re not familiar with but the characters are. It can be a challenge to hold onto your audience, especially those who are impatient or afraid of swimming in the deep end with no buyos.
So a solution to this is to have at least one character who is new to this world too. Not only can this person be a surrogate for the audience, but they can be an excuse for the other characters to deliver exposition and for them to ask the questions we probably have.
In the Mad Men pilot, this person is Peggy, in The Office Pilot, this person is Ryan, and in The Wire pilot, this person is both McNulty in some ways, being introduced to Daniel’s division, and it’s Deangelo in some ways, being introduced to the low rises. Both aren’t total newbies, as they’re familiar with their organizations, but they are new to the subset of it that is the focus of the first season, and thus, they stand-in for the audience.
Defy expectations
We all go into watching a series with some preconceived notions. For sitcoms, we expect regularly occurring bits and audience laughter (or a laugh track) to accompany it. For reality TV shows, we expect talking heads and lots of scandalous drama.
That’s what the audience expects. Now to be a show that’s going to really stand-out, you have to break those expectations.
In a police show, we usually expect the police to be perceived as heroes, for them to get some sort of tough case, and for them to smartly solve it within the first episode, so we can move onto the next episode. The Wire does not do this. At all.
The Wire instead creates something new with the police show, something much deeper.
As a warning, you might be shooting yourself in the leg, as some of the audience who wants the “same-old, same-old'' is going to possibly be turned off. However you do win the chance of gaining an entirely new audience and maybe even setting another standard that other writers will try to copy.
Establish rituals
Establishing rituals can help give a show an identity. Oz has its omniscient narrator, who’s also a character in the show. The Simpsons has its couch gags. South Park always kills Kenny. They are a signature for the show that the audience often falls in love with.
But you have to introduce it early on, within the first episode if possible. It would be weird if Six Feet Under didn’t have people die in every cold opening until the third season.
The Wire establishes a ritual by including a quote from one of the characters after the cold opening. The quote often fits in with the theme of that particular episode, and they usually vary whose quote they include.
Having this adds a little more specificity to The Wire, and it can be something we look forward to. Since we don’t know the context of the quote, the experience of hearing the character saying it and now fully understanding the meaning, is an extra piece of fun.
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