4th Exclusive David Simon Q&A (page 2)
Q: Last year we complained that the show seemed slow. This year it seemed rushed. Could HBO really not afford more than 10 1/2 episodes and did you do "more with less"? What got left out? [Chris, Glen]A: We had what we needed. When we needed more, we asked for, and received it.
HBO was looking to approve not only the last season of The Wire, but seven hours of an expensive miniseries about Iraq. So by that standard, HBO was not being tight with me. Now, a typical Wire season since season two has been 12 hours. In season four, we got an extra hour because our planned eight-hour standalone piece on the election was not greenlit and so we had to incorporate both the election and the school story into a single season. For season five, the election was over and therefore the political world required less room and the school story had ended. What we had was the resolution of the Marlo case and the media arc. So on paper we had less road to travel.
Chris Albrecht, looking at a zero-sum game in terms of production dollars at HBO, asked if we could do it in eight. No way, I told him. How many then? I told him I could try to do it in ten, but I would see if that worked when Ed and I started to beat the story out with the other writers. Okay, try, he said. I tried. In the end, it required ten and a half. I went back for a 90-minute finale and was granted such. If I went back for 11, I believe I would have gotten 11 to finish The Wire. HBO was committed to finishing the show on proper terms.
If we'd gone 11 or 12, there would have been modest Cutty and Prez arcs over several episodes, as well as a small Randy-Cheese arc based on Cheese's status as Randy's absent father. But the writers looked at all of that and realized, early on, that Cutty and Prez were already redeemed to the extent they would be and that they had already achieved the standing we would have left them with. Similarly, the Randy-Cheese arc would have said little more than was said in the solitary scene in which Bunk encounters Randy and the boy's transformation. It would have added little thematically to have Cheese piling on to the abandonment of Randy Wagstaff. So we made the decision to keep it to 10 1/2 and not seek an additional half hour. Would you have gotten more character and maybe a little more story if we stretched? Of course. Would it have said anything more than we already said? Doubtful. And that, of course, decided it.
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