The Wire (9-10 p.m., HBO)

R-Two gangs wage war on a chessboard set in the streets of a post-apocalyptic city where it constantly snows, and the kings sit unharmed in their thrones atop mountains.

This writing assignment was to “Take an existing movie or television show and change the writing of the synopsis in a way where it’s still factual correct, yet the storyline feels drastically different.” I decided to relate it to the Wire and come up with a witty and almost poetic alternative description of the show that implies more than it says. I wanted to keep it short and keep it simple on the outside, while implying much more within the wording.

The two gangs represent the cops and drug dealing sides, while the chessboard is both a nod to the game so often discussed in the show and the drug war itself. Baltimore is the city, but I wrote “post-apocalyptic” in reference to McNulty saying “West Baltimore is dying” and the run-down picture we get from Simon of the town. I wanted to somehow reference the drugs themselves and decided on snow as a representation of the drugs that are constantly distributed all over the city.

The most important part to depict of the Wire in my mind is the hierarchy of the war. In my old-age sort of description of the Wire, I tried to show the workers down on the ground, while the people who run the cops and drug dealers sit “atop mountains” of money and ignorant of the harm they cause. I wanted to show the distinction of the people we hardly see in the show, but seem to hold most of the power in the cop world, as well as Stringer and Avon in the drug world.