The Wire as Social Science-fiction?

This article examines the HBO television series The Wire as an example of a popular cultural form that stimulates the sociological imagination. It provides some examples of how it functions to do this. A brief case study of one character - 'Snoop' - is examined to illustrate a set of more general observations. It is suggested that The Wire, although still containing strong narrative elements, provides an intriguing popular cultural example of what Andrew Abbott has recently called a 'lyrical sociology'.