Interessanter Vorschlag - in Aufsatzform - von Jason Mittell: The Wire einmal nicht als Fernseh-Roman, sondern als Fernsehversion eines Videospiels zu betrachten. Hier als pdf. (via) Kurzer Auszug:

One of the central elements of games, especially those centered on simulations, is replayability—for a game to be embraced by its players, it typically must allow enough experiential variation to invite multiple passes through its ludic journey. Instead of viewing each of The Wire’s seasons as a singular book within an epic novel, we could view them as one play-through its simulation game. In the first season, we walkthrough the police’s attempt to take-down Barksdale’s drug operation, concluding seemingly in a “checkmate” scene where Barksdale and Bell yield to the police’s final moves (1.12). But rather than game over, the move results in a stalemate that no players deem victorious—a few criminals get sentenced, but the Barksdale machine remains intact. Season three offers a replay with some changed variables and strategies for all sides—what if drugs are decriminalized? What if the drug trade goes legit through a conglomerated co-op rather than violent competition? What if a former soldier repents and tries to give back to his community? ... Yet the ludic joy of the third season is the ability to replay the first season’s narrative through the imagination of new rules and ways to play the game, a mode of engagement offered with less imaginative vision and more amoral brutality in season four’s replay of the drug game under the leadership of Marlo Stanfield.