Why Emmy Voters didn’t like the Wire
The Emmy’s were on a couple of nights ago. I made a decision to boycott (yeah, like I watch it anyway) once I found out that in its last year the Wire only received one nomination. One of Ta-Nehisi’s readers thinks that the reason is because white viewers couldn’t sympathize with black characters. I do think this had something to do with it, but in the end I think it’s much simpler than that.
I don’t believe that those responsible for making the nominations felt that the show was well directed or “well acted” for one simple reason–they didn’t think anyone was acting. They felt that actors like Michael K. Williams (Omar) or Jamie Hector were those characters. They didn’t have to do any work to bring them to life because that’s who they are. And David Simon didn’t have to do much work bringing city life to the screen because his stories were pretty much “ripped from the headlines.”
