Koettke Kottke writes about The Wire (the best thing ever on TV) and quotes the show’s writer David Simon:
The Wire is a Greek tragedy in which the postmodern institutions are the Olympian forces. It’s the police department, or the drug economy, or the political structures, or the school administration, or the macroeconomic forces that are throwing the lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no decent reason… Because so much of television is about providing catharsis and redemption and the triumph of character, a drama in which postmodern institutions trump individuality and morality and justice seems different.
KoettkeKottke writes about his view of Omar (in the video) as a postmodern Achilles.
Kottke not Koettke. And the guest host on Kottke.org who wrote this was Tim Carmody. Finally, I just re-watched the first season and it is still the best show ever on TV.