Co-Creator Ed Burns Has Pretty Ugly Words for the Way HBO Has Fallen after The Wire

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HBO never promised something it couldn’t deliver. The premium cable network has held itself to a higher esteem as compared to the rest of its contemporaries since the day of its launch. In this postmodern generation of genre television, HBO may be the last remaining pillar of true entertainment dedicated to the artistic medium of original storytelling.

However, if the 21st century can make the network seem so genre-defining with its body of work, it is because of streamers that treat projects like focus group experiments whose survival is contingent on popularity and rate of viewership. Due to streamers lowering the bar of expectation, HBO comes off unscathed in the eyes of the public when it sanctions shows likeEuphoriato take a deeper look into the merits and demerits of the human condition.

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The reign of HBO has been pretty definite since the dawn of the premium cable network. After getting its start with children’s program and documentary series in the 70s, the company expanded its reach to more cutting-edge, original storytelling in the next 20 years.The Sopranosbecame a marker of thatnew-age television revolution, helping to usher in an era unrestrained by the limitations assigned to TV as compared to the varied genre sandbox that movies are allowed to play in.

AfterThe Sopranos, HBO became an unstoppable force of genre storytelling… the likes of which were never seen or even considered possible on television before. The downtrodden opinion that movie stars held toward the television culture – as a kind of community college to their Yale standards – began to change at an exponential rate. Television became the new playground for the next best career-defining role of a lifetime and Ed Burns helped prove the new theory right.

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The Wire, created by Ed Burns and David Simon for HBO, peeled off the mask from the American underbelly and exposed the systemic decay, deconstruction, and death of urban society. Ironically, the series never won any Emmys during its 6-year run from 2002 to 2008 but later garnered the reputation of being one of the best television shows of the 21st century. Now, the series has attained a form of cult status and is famous for launching the careers of at least 3 Hollywood A-list movie stars.

Aftermath ofThe Wireat HBO

HBO, at its core, no longer holds the kind of reputed and passionate approach to telling stories that could alter the very vein of society. The threat to modern society’s understanding of morality and ethics that is backed by the vigilante term “Cancel Culture” has uprooted the overwhelming urge to tell risky and often ground-breaking narratives directed to intimidate, question, or expose certain misguided aspects of modern society.

The Wiredid exactly that with its Baltimore-based account of the city’s criminal dealings with a microscopic profiling of the Baltimore Police and its adversaries in the drug game. The series went on to paint an accurate portrait of the city’s urban society and its daily life that earned the Ed Burns series extra points for its ground-breaking (and almost journalistic) approach to show business.

In its aftermath, HBO suffered a setback as superficial and derivative projects that claimed record viewership numbers and snagged choice primetime awards were still better than any radically genre-defining show that held no certificate of merit to its name. Burns dejectedly noted thatThe Wirewould never be made on HBO today [viaThe New York Times].

Now, it’s got to be ‘Game of Thrones.’ It’s got to be big. It’s got to be disconnected from stepping on anybody’s toes. I’ve watched a couple of the limited series on HBO, and they’re good shows, but they’re not cutting new paths. They are whodunits or these rich women bickering among themselves in a town. I don’t see anybody saying, ‘Hey, that’s a really great show.’

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Clearly hurt by HBO’s newfound love for shows likeSex and the City,The White Lotus, andBig Little Lies, Ed Burns merely points out one faulty part in the whole system of corporate machinery. The network has been responding to the nature of supply-and-demand of the era andThe Wireis simply not enough to cut it anymore despite devaluing the reputation and integrity of HBO since its early Aught days.

The Wireis available to buy/rent on Apple TV.

Diya Majumdar

Senior Writer

Articles Published :2408

Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.

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