8/9/2019 The Wire and Ashes to Ashes

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Comparing the representation of the ‘Law’ in ‘The Wire’ and ‘Ashes to Ashes’

I will be comparing the representation of the ‘Law’ in ‘The Wire’ (series 1, episode 1) and ‘Ashes toAshes’ (series 2 episode 1, part 1). ‘Ashes to Ashes’ is a British crime drama, while ‘The Wire’ is anAmerican crime drama. This is expected to have an effect on themes, such as background, classetc.

‘The Wire’ opens with an extreme close up of the ground with what looks like blood as it has the‘trickling’ effect. The camera slowly follows the blood for a while, as the blue lights from the policesirens are reflected in the trails of blood. This shows that they are near the scene of a crime. The

camera then fades to a shot of a victim who we assume to be male; he has been wounded in thechest. He is lying on the floor. At this point, diegetic sound is heard in the form of police sirens andvoices in the background. The siren becomes louder, perhaps suggesting urgency in that this male’sinjury is fatal if they don’t act soon. A close up of a hand is seen, with a white glove perhaps pickingup evidence. Three small children are then seen sitting at a bus shelter as they look on to what isgoing on in their surroundings. The camera slowly pans up a male policeman who is seen writing ina notepad, taking down details. Diegetic sound is then heard in a dialogue between two men, apoliceman and someone who knows the victim well. The audience may think that one of thecharacters is a policeman as he is wearing smart wear, a long black coat as opposed to the victim’ sfriend who is wearing a black beanie hat and a hoodie (often related to gangs). The victim is a blackman, who may be working class, assuming by the way he talks, which is slang. It seems apparentthat the occurrence of his friend’s death may be due to behaviour or feuds within a gang. The

dialogue runs over the actions of the policeman writing in the notepad, before getting a two shot of the two men, looking on at the scene of the crime. The friend of the victim explains that the victim’sname is ‘Snot Bogie’. To this, the policeman reacts in a shocked way, as heard from the expressionin his voice. He then tries to create a humorous reason as to why he may have acquired thatnickname, this can be seen as trying to cheer up his friend. A close up is then seen of thepoliceman, who asks Snot’s friend ‘Who shot Snot?’ His friend reacts defensively and quicklyexplains how he isn’t going to court, perhaps suggesting that he may know who could be behind hisfriend’s attack. The camera shots are mostly two shots, allowing the two men to adopt arelationship or understanding of each other. A final shot of the victim is shown in a three shot,including the two men. This time the victim’s identity is revealed, as he is facing away from the twomen. This then cuts to the credits.

‘Ashes to Ashes’ opens with a long shot of a TV screen high on a wall, with a BBC news headlineshowing that Alex Drake has been missing. The setting may be in a hospital as one woman is seentaking a rubber glove off as the camera slowly zooms out. Another woman is seen adjusting a bedand says ‘She’s dead for sure’, responding to the news headline. One of the women says that theman in the hospital bed will be joining her soon, this tone is unnatural in a hospital environment andindicates that this drama does have humour involved. The atmosphere suddenly turns tense as thesetting changes to a place underground. Non-diegetic sound is heard in the form of eerie music.Parts of the underground location are highlighted with lights moving onto walls, before fading toblack. The clips look like a montage effect. We then see Alex Drake’s shadow as she is walkingdown a staircase. The music then turns to something more upbeat, but still with a sense of mysteryabout it which slowly introduces tribal chanting later on. The camera follows Alex as she exploresher surroundings with a torch. We then see a man’s pair of shoes, which slowly introduces us to the

character of Gene Hunt, who is closely followed by two other detectives. Diegetic sound is heard inthe form of footsteps. Authority may be shown here as Gene is in front of the other two men,showing importance or respect to let him be at the front. They also have torches and the audienceare keen to learn what they are doing there and what they are looking for. Close up shots are seenof Alex to allow us to become familiar with her character as she is the central theme in the drama.Gene is then heard saying ‘this better be kosher’ and says in a menacing way that he doesn’t wantto get anything on his boots. Gene may be hard to please at times as picked up from this comment.Alex then assures him that he won’t. By what Gene says about his boots, it soon becomes clear thatthey may be in the sewers. Again, authority is shown as she further tries to reassure him, signifyingthe importance of Gene. As it soon appears that they are at the wrong location and that Alex readthe tunnel number wrong, Gene is annoyed and says that her time of service has come to a close.Gender issues include Alex being pushed around or feeling intimidated by Gene. The detectives are

dominated by three males, which Alex may find at times unbearable due to their sense of humouror comments. Gene is very smartly dressed, showing he is from a middle class background. Theother characters may be of a slightly lower class status.