The history of the fight against drug trafficking and consumption in the United States resembles a descent into hell. Since the presidency of Richard Nixon (1969-1974), resources dedicated to the fight against traffickers have continued to grow, without being able to prevent the amount of drugs in circulation from continuing to grow at the same time. The series could only make America’s failure in its fight against drugs its blessing. From cocaine to crack, from heroin to designer drugs, and from the almost gleeful trivialization of marijuana to the tragic opioid crisis, Hollywood-produced series detail what drugs are doing to citizens and society. Americans.
In this matter, deep links of meaning and aesthetics connect the two great masterpieces that span the last twenty years: The wire (Listening) AND Euphoria. Starting with a first season that focuses on the careful observation of the traffic on the small streets of Baltimore (Maryland), The wire (2002-2008) develops a broader story, which explores both the international traffic that passes through the port and the public policies that are put in place to confront it, without ignoring the issues of corruption or electoralism that govern the decisions of police agents. . or elected officials. Overdose, decrepitude of the most addicted users, repeated murders, The wire It thoroughly describes the effect of drugs on people and the extreme violence inherent to illegal trafficking.
This article is taken from “Le Monde special issue – Drug traffickers: their networks, their crimes, the response”November-December 2024, on sale at newsstands or online by visiting our store website.
but if The wire is an important work, it is also important because it confronts the unpleasant realities of American society. In Baltimore, the persistence of real segregation separates inner-city blacks—who are both actors and victims of trafficking—from white police officers and elected officials who face more common problems in their daily lives. Jimmy McNulty, the policeman played by Dominic West, drinks too much, is unfaithful, doesn’t know how to assemble an Ikea piece of furniture and experiences professional conflicts: the banal life of a white man from the middle class.
Even more subtly, the series highlights the values of exclusion shared by police and thugs and, beyond that, the cowardice of male virilism, white or black, pitted against braver female or homosexual characters.
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