Actor Wendell Pierce added his voice after reading a dialogue between The Hollywood Reporter’s television critics Daniel Fienberg and Inkoo Kang.
Fienberg and Kang discussed how a recent rewatch of The Wire, in which Pierce played Baltimore detective Bunk Moreland, had taken on an added dimension since the death of George Floyd and the subsequent worldwide demonstrations. The two critics also referenced a recent column about the ubiquitous presence of police heroes on television by Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk called “Cops Are Always The Main Characters.”
Pierce defended The Wire in a multi-tweet thread. He wondered how anyone could feel that the characters he and others played were “heroic” and said that the HBO drama “demonstrated moral ambiguities and the pathology that leads to the abuses.”
His thread continued, touching on the “deliberate policy of mass incarceration to sustain a wealth disparity in America” and how the show forecasted “the institutional moral morass of politics and policing [leading] to the protests of today.”
He also admitted that his tweets may seem defensive, but that The Wire is very personal for him.
Fans of the show responded, including one who asked if he wished the series had done anything differently.
Pierce concluded by embedding a 12-minute discussion of The Wire between creator David Simon and President Barack Obama.
Television critics are not the only ones reevaluating fictional police. Last week the cast of Brooklyn 99 donated $100,000 to bail funds. Monk producer Tom Scharpling, wrote that his show portrayed police “as lovable goofballs” which has “contributed to the larger acceptance that cops are the implicitly the good guys.” He implored others in Hollywood to “PAY UP.”
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