How the little moments made The Wire even more amazing.

The Wire is a masterpiece. If you've watched it you know it. It's a sprawling, labyrinthine story of the city of Baltimore and the people in it. The cast is as big as you'll probably ever see in a TV show but every character brings something to the table. Everyone plays a real part and each role no matter how big or small adds to it's beautiful tapestry created by David Simon and Ed Burns.

To quote Detective Lester Freamon "All the pieces matter."

They do indeed. It wasn't until my third watch of The Wire that I noticed a small piece that mattered a lot. The character of Dee Dee. (Played by Genevieve Hudson-Price, daughter of Richard Price, who writes for the show.)

Apologies for the quality of these pics

She first appears in S3 in Hamsterdam. Her and her friends roll into the free zone to buy an eight-ball of coke. She's fidgety, wary and clearly new to this world. The dealer takes a shine to her but she shuts him down straight away. She may be nervous but she can handle herself.

The next time we see her is in S4. Old Face Andre owns a corner shop that hides a stash house and Dee Dee goes there to buy cigarettes. She's now a prostitute and it's implied her addictions have brought her to this place in her life. She gets on well with Andre and it's obvious she cares for the people in her life even if they don't deserve that care. People like her pimp. She's holding on to her humanity.

The final time we see her is when she's speaking at a narcotics anonymous meeting chaired by Walon, Bubble's sponsor. Here she makes it clear her time working the streets was down to drugs. Life on the streets crushed her but somehow she made it out. Her demons are still there but every day she's fighting them back. She's tough. She'll succeed. She can handle herself. Her first fleeting appearance made that clear. Her final scene is a rare optimistic moment in a mostly pessimistic show.

In 3 simple scenes she's introduced on her way down and we last see her on her way up. She gets just over two minutes of screen time out of over 60 hrs of TV and still manages to get not only a character arc but a redemptive one at that. Dee Dee is a living, breathing character created, endangered and saved in 120 seconds. 

That's the magic of this show. Everyone matters. Everyone adds to the story. Every detail makes a difference. It's constantly rewarding. Similar to the way every season peeled back a new layer of Baltimore, every rewatch reveals a new layer of story and character..

It's just fucking brilliant TV.