HBO’s 6-Part True-Crime Adaptation With Perfect RT Score Is Basically A Prequel To The Wire

There’s no debate that few TV dramas have had as big an impact as HBO’s The Wire, and its unofficial prequel was a stepping stone to ensuring that the series came to light. The Wire, which was created by author and journalist David Simon, explored the public systems of Baltimore with an industry-shifting framework that changed the way crime TV was shaped. Simon’s work on The Wire, which ran from 2002 through 2008, was directly informed by the experiences of his writing partner, Ed Burns, a former homicide detective. Prior to the HBO hit, Simon’s work was already making waves.

In 2000, Simon’s six-part miniseries, The Corner, aired on HBO. Based on Simon’s non-fiction book, The Corner: A Year In The Life Of An Inner-City Neighborhood, the series explored a family living in poverty in West Baltimore, dealing with the impacts of drugs and addiction on their lives. Starring T. K. Carter as Gary McCullough, Khandi Alexander as his ex-wife Fran Boyd, and Sean Nelson as their son DeAndre McCullough, the series was an intense and revolutionary look at a side of addiction that hadn’t been captured on screen before. The Corner provided an intimate portrait of a tough environment.

Using a similar style and the same location as The Wire, Simon’s Emmy-winning miniseries has largely faded from the mainstream conversation, despite being an entry point for the successful series. A hidden piece of TV history, without The Corner, one of HBO’s most acclaimed drama series might never have existed.

HBO’s Forgotten Crime Drama The Corner Is Top-Rated on Rotten Tomatoes

Although The Corner is lesser-known than The Wire, the series not only shaped its successor, but stands on its own in terms of quality. Regardless of the fact that the series has often been overshadowed by The Wire, The Corner remains one of the most highly-acclaimed crime dramas that HBO produced during the 2000s. An early showing of Simon’s abilities as a creator, the series was adapted from his first-hand reporting, which followed a specific part of Baltimore in a time when addiction, poverty, and the drug trade were less understood than they are today. Simon’s work distinguished The Corner.

The series sits at an average of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviews and awards recognition making it clear that the series is something that still holds up, even a quarter-century after it initially aired.

The Wire’s Creator David Simon Adapted The Corner From His Own Non-Fiction Book

As a journalist who grew up in the DC Metro area, Simon’s reporting was what started his career and put him on the path to becoming a major part of the way we see crime drama today. The Corner being based off Simon’s own reporting, which began during his time at The Baltimore Sun where he spent years covering crime and urban issues, gives the series an air of credibility that other dramas don’t typically have. Simon’s book was published in 1997 after years of reporting and investigating a West Baltimore community that was impacted by the era’s drug trade.

While the HBO adaptation needed to build in somewhat of a different story, Simon’s adaptation of his own work in conjunction with Burns is closely aligned with their reporting, which allowed The Corner to feel real and raw in a whole new way.

Without The Corner, The Wire Wouldn’t Exist

The young boys of The Wire season 4 squatting down.

Although The Corner isn’t a direct prequel to The Wire, the shows are so closely aligned that it’s hard not to see them as a packaged deal. The Corner’s ability to get into its story and root itself in order to watch the characters is a lens that modern TV hadn’t seen before, and The Wire uses the same sense of observation to move through its own plots. Not only are the shows thematically and visually linked, but The Corner and The Wire share share cast members. Actors like Clarke Peters, Lance Reddick, and Michael B. Jordan appear in both.

Watching The Corner makes it clear that Simon’s work was already following a certain trajectory, which eventually led him to The Wire. Without a tremendous series like The Corner, which has held up for decades, HBO’s biggest hit wouldn’t have found its home.