All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire

by Jonathan Abrams

Mens sana in corpore sano. A healthy mind is a healthy body.

Lester Freamon’s line of “All the pieces matter” became apparent as the show progressed.

Because where do these drug corners come from? They come from deindustrialization. Our economy no longer needs mass employment. The only factory in town that’s still hiring and is always hiring are the corners. You can see the need for it, to show the economy shrugging people off.

I had in my mind the Blue Collar movie with Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto and Richard Pryor.

jumped [the] shark.

VINCENT PERANIO (PRODUCTION DESIGNER): Baltimore, despite what many people think, it’s an extremely friendly place. The people are not jaded. They let you come into their house. Baltimore’s interested that somebody’s interested in them. Having the film about them and their neighborhood that nobody else cares about really picked up the attitude in the neighborhoods. They were excited about it. They didn’t try to disrupt us or play loud music.

the myth of Omar and his beliefs. One opportune moment presents itself in the Season 2 episode “All Prologue.” On the witness stand, Omar identifies Marquis “Bird” Hilton as the killer of a state witness, William Gant. The writing made clear that Bird had likely murdered Gant, and that Omar was not present at the time of the killing. Upon cross-examination, Bird’s lawyer, Maurice Levy, describes Omar as “a parasite who leaches off the culture of drugs.” “Just like you, man,” Omar interrupts. “I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It’s all in the game though, right?”

Dominic West

Dom West and Wendell Pierce.

Huggy Bear?”

Steve Earle’s

Robert Colesberry,

MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS (OMAR LITTLE): It was Season Three that I had to get humbled. I had to go through some things. When I got there, I realized that, “Mike, this ain’t even about you. This is bigger than you and your career and all this shit.” I started looking at the story of the people that The Wire was telling and the people it was affecting and how it was affecting. This little dude from Chicago, Mr. Senator, or Barack Obama, mentioned that it’s his favorite show, and then he’s president of the United States. All of that kind of just came about. I was like, “Okay, whoa. Like, whoa. That just happened.” It put me on my quest. That was the beginning of my enlightenment, when I started realizing that I can be of service through the gift that I’ve been given to express myself through art and the story that I tell through art. It became something other for me than just about my career.

he noticed a quiet man in a running suit jotting down notes. Price took the man as an HBO representative dispatched to monitor the meetings. “Turned out that that was the real Omar,” Price recalled. “His name was Donnie. I’m thinking he’s an executive.” The show often collaborated with its inspirations, which meant that people previously arrested by Ed Burns occasionally served the show as advisers. Donnie Andrews, one of the primary avatars for Omar, had once terrorized Baltimore drug dealers, but he had maintained a code that dictated he never involve women or children in his exploits. He once contracted a double killing to fuel a burgeoning heroin habit. When the murders weighed heavily on his conscience, he turned himself in to Burns and received a life sentence. In prison, he worked to pivot his life by providing insider information to police and counseling inmates on addiction. Andrews met Fran Boyd, the mother featured heavily in The Corner, through Ed Burns and Simon. The pair wed in a union documented with a feature in The New York Times.

CHAD L. COLEMAN (DENNIS “CUTTY” WISE): Donnie said hi and he chuckled, and I got a chill, because I knew he had killed people. He wasn’t trying to be intimidating. He was very quiet, like, “Hi, man. Hey, how you doing?” I said, “Oh shoot. Okay.” Tread lightly until you get to know this man because you don’t want to say the wrong thing around this dude. Then he began to tell me what he was all about. These are some incredible human beings.

Melvin, he got in touch with us, with David and I, when he came home, did sixteen years. He wanted to kill Barry Levinson, the guy who did Rain Man, because he did a movie about Baltimore and he had this guy play Little Melvin in the movie, wearing this green suit. Melvin was extraordinarily offended by that because Melvin had hooked up with the Gambino family and they had taken him to places where you got suits—this is back in the sixties, and you’re paying six hundred and seven hundred dollars for a suit back then.