#tragedies

Crew members of the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51 who tragically lost their lives when the shuttle exploded 73 seconds after launch on January 28, 1986

Front Row (left to right):: Pilot Michael J. Smith:, CommanderFrancis R. "Dick" Scobee, Mission SpecialistRonald E. McNair:

But instead of the old gods, 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. In much of television, and in a good deal of our stage drama, individuals are often portrayed as rising above institutions to achieve catharsis. In this drama, the institutions always prove larger, and those characters with hubris enough to challenge the postmodern construct of American empire are invariably mocked, marginalized, or crushed. Greek tragedy for the new millennium, so to speak. 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 in some ways, I think.

Final

Characters discuss running from what they refuse to admit is inevitable, and then don’t run, and then one of them dies to fate

Character dies right before help finds them

Character driven to a mad rage was right all along about everything, but has no one left to share in the bitter irony with

Character is the only one with the truth, and can’t reach a phone in time

Character pushes a would-be friend/lover/confidant away out of fear, and as they’re about to take it all back, they’re too late

Character with Good Intentions paves their way straight to Hell

Character is the last loyal minion tossed aside by a desperate villain at the 11th hour