Wire 106: S01E05 “The Pager”

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Reverend

In our discussion of episode 5, “The Pager,” Paul Bond once again provides a great post that demonstrates how the themes of surveillance and paranoia are reinforced in the set design, shot composition, lighting, and audio elements. He also explores the filmic foreshadowing that you may have missed the first time through. Paul’s posts provide a really useful model for close reading these episodes, and an excellent incentive for slowing down each episode and looking and listening closely beyond the dialogue. It’s a good exercise to push yourself to think about what is happening in a particular scene, or even shot, beyond the script. The anatomy of scene, so to speak.

The title of this episode, “The Pager,” highlights a throwback technology—even in 2002—that underscores a broader cultural critiques happening in The Wire. We already discussed the surveillance society everywhere apparent in this series, and this episode starts to evidence the concomitant paranoia that necessarily accompanies this enw reality. In fact, being watched is not a conspiracy because everyone in this show is already being watched, and we have regular evidence of that. Technology, surveillance and paranoia is a theme that I’ll be returning to again and again this semester, and in our current post-NSA climate, it’s almost a given we’re being watched not only by ubiquitous cameras in the built environment, but everywhere we go in virtual space as well.

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One Response to Wire 106: S01E05 “The Pager”

  1. Lauren Brumfield says:
    August 28, 2014 at 10:39 am

    I don’t know why, but I find the use of the pagers to be so refreshing. I think they add a great element to the show. It helps create this wonderful relationship between the so-called “good guys” and the so-called “bad-guys” (another line that is wonderfully blurred at points).
    The cops have commented on many occasions how smart Avon and these other guys are… but from their perspective, it seems like all of their strategies are put in place out of this paranoia you’re talking about. Its quite interesting to watch initial strategies, and then reactionary strategies.

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