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Another Random Chilly Wednesday
Mid-week, midwinter, fair to middlin’. That’s where it stands today.
Vision
You’re in pretty good shape for the shape you are in. ~Dr. Seuss
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Saw the doctor for follow-up. She seems pleased with the progress.
I’m still amazingly blurry from my right eye, so I’m looking forward to that sorting itself out.
All things considered, I’m still blessed to be able to work from home and take my time recovering.
Fair And Balanced
Why The Wire is one of the Most Brilliant TV Shows Ever
Here’s another show I’ve been binging lately.
What I like about The Wire is that it has all the elements I’d like to see in The Sentinels.
The great thing is that none of the characters that I’ve seen so far are caricatures.
They all seem to be people with their own perspectives, needs, desires and circumstances.
Some of them recognized that they’re trapped in a situation they may or may not want to be a part of while others seem to simply react to whatever stimulus presents itself without giving much thought to whether it ought to be different or not.
In either case, they all have strengths and weaknesses that help make the story more nuanced than the typical police drama.
NYPD Blue had a similar type of nuance, but it focused more on the members of the fictional 15th Precinct.
The Wire presents the whole sordid mess from both sides of the issue. You see the police with interdepartmental jockeying, boss spats, politics and general human flaws at work and you see the world through the lens of the people they’re investigating.
This is largely in keeping with how comic books present things. From the Bronze Age forward, you started seeing stories that show what the antagonists are up to in almost as much detail as the protagonists are.
You get to see the baddies either gloating about how they’ve outsmarted the superheroes or reacting in rage and panic at how their evil plans are going awry.
The Wire handles this with less bombast than the comics would. The characters in this show are regular people doing regular things. No capes. No super powers. No cackling megalomaniacs. You’ve got cops, drug dealers, politicians, dock hands, smugglers, strippers, junkies, aggrieved spouses and other assorted “normal” people.
This is the kind of feel I’d like to achieve in my superhero series. I want it to be an exploration of what would happen in the “normal” world if there were superheroes and supervillains. What does the “new normal” look like?
Honey
Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail. ~Theodore Dreiser
This is the thing that’s making it difficult to write this series.
I don’t necessarily know what the “old normal” looks like, either.
There are things that make perfect sense to me from a storytelling point of view, but put it to any given subject matter expert and they can punch a hole in it instantaneously.
So, I’ve got to start by writing what comes naturally and then do the research to figure out where gut instinct and intuitive pantsing intersect with the real world experience of whoever’s in the story. Cops, gangsters, lawyers, politicians and all other strata of urban citizens need to be given the kind of “real world” treatment I’m seeing in The Wire.
Of course, The Wire had something I currently do not: a panel of experts.
But, that’s what research is for…
Tons to do, no time to do it. Same thing, different week. At least it’s still cold and dreary. That’s my silver lining. I hope you’re enjoying your week, too.