Posts from — July 2009

This is true liberty, when free-born men,

Having to advise the public, may speak free,

Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise;

Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace:

What can be juster in a state than this?

Euripides, Hicetid. [Read more →]

“America can hardly understand that show—and it’s about us.” — David Simon

The American television drama is undergoing something of a Renaissance these days, and HBO’s under-watched but much-lauded show The Wire is its crowning achievement. Though at first it seems only a cop show, it soon unfolds to become a sprawling epic and a lament on the decline of a city. Could any contemporary British drama be praised with such a description? [Read more →]