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parks-rec-the-wire.jpg

What Is The Best Show of the 21st Century: The Final Round

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 8, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 8, 2018 |


parks-rec-the-wire.jpg

You guys put a helluva scare into me with this:

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The Wire squeaked by with an eight-vote margin, which probably means there are way too many of you who haven’t seen The Wire because people like me keep saying, “YOU HAVE TO SEE THE WIRE” and you’re refusing to do so out of spite.

I get it.

I also love The Good Place. A lot. But it’s only 26 episodes. Twenty-six incredible episodes, mind you, but The Wire is like 5 perfect novels in television form.

At any rate, The Wire eeked by, and now it will face Parks and Recreation, which is perfect. The Best Drama of the 21st Century against The Best Comedy of the 21st Century. This might have been an easier choice for me two weeks ago because, you know, The Wire is The Wire, but I’ve been rewatching Parks and Rec lately, and it’s amazing how good it is and doubly amazing how well it holds up and triply amazing how comforting it is in these trying political times. It’s a warm and hilarious salve.

But The Wire is still The Wire.

As Professor Wilson writes: The Wire and Parks and Rec are perfect. And they are perfect foils for the Trump age to set against each other. One is: this is how everything about our politics has failed and continues to fail. The other says that maybe there’s hope. They are nothing like each other as television shows and yet somehow speak to exactly the same darkness.”

I do not envy your choice.

The Final Round
Parks and Recreation
The Wire