Created by Matt Zoller Seitz
Directed by Judith Carter
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Haruki Murakami

All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire® (Hardcover, NEW)

$25.00

Sold out

"The best book ever written about the art and business of television." —Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times bestselling author

Save this product for later

Product Details

The definitive oral history of the iconic and beloved TV show The Wire, as told by the actors, writers, directors, and others involved in its creation.

Since its final episode aired in 2008, HBO's acclaimed crime drama The Wire has only become more popular and influential. The issues it tackled, from the failures of the drug war and criminal justice system to systemic bias in law enforcement and other social institutions, have become more urgent and central to the national conversation. The show's actors, such as Idris Elba, Dominic West, and Michael B. Jordan, have gone on to become major stars. Its creators and writers, including David Simon and Richard Price, have developed dedicated cult followings of their own. Universities use the show to teach everything from film theory to criminal justice to sociology. Politicians and activists reference it when discussing policy. When critics compile lists of the Greatest TV Shows of All Time, The Wire routinely takes the top spot. It is arguably one of the great works of art America has produced in the 20th century.

But while there has been a great deal of critical analysis of the show and its themes, until now there has never been a definitive, behind-the-scenes take on how it came to be made. With unparalleled access to all the key actors and writers involved in its creation, Jonathan Abrams tells the astonishing, compelling, and complete account of The Wire, from its inception and creation through its end and powerful legacy.

Review

“A book that is sure to delight… Fans of The Wire can spend hours debating the merits of their favorite characters. The book features incisive recollections by all of them.” —Associated Press

“From the moment The Wire ended, all I have wished for is one more season. Jonathan Abrams has given us something just as valuable—the complete story of how something this wonderful, rich, and intricate came to be. I treasured every episode of the show, and I loved every word of this book. All The Pieces Matter is a must-read for any fan of The Wire, or anyone who wants to know how great art is made.” —Mike Schur, creator of Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 99, and The Good Place

“Amazing…the stories Abrams tells deliver the same mix of humor and despair that made The Wire worth writing so much about.” —The AV Club

“All the Pieces Matter makes for compulsive reading, whether you're just getting up on The Wire or you know every episode by heart. The Wire is like a book you pick up and reread every few years. Now that book has the perfect companion.” —Dallas Morning News

“Excellent….All the Pieces Matter renders the making of The Wire in enough rich detail to please even its most ardent fans….But it’s the time capsule aspect Abrams captures, of The Wire as a product of its particular moment, that may be the book’s most illuminating feature. It is, among its other merits, that vanishingly rare thing: an honest treatment of the fraught relationship between TV as business and TV as art.” —Paste Magazine

"The definitive dissection of television's most politically meaningful invention." —Chuck Klosterman, New York Times bestselling author of But What if We’re Wrong? and I Wear The Black Hat

“Lovers of HBO’s The Wire rejoice: journalist Abrams delivers a comprehensive study of what goes into creating an acclaimed TV show. Abrams indisputably has created a thorough examination of The Wire’s conception, production, and lingering cultural afterlife.” —Publisher's Weekly

“The Wire is, in all likelihood, the greatest television show in history. It was perfectly written, perfectly casted, perfectly acted. And I didn’t think it could any better than it is. And yet, somehow, All The Pieces Matter, which allows an unprecedented peek behind the show’s curtain, does exactly that. Imagine getting to talk to Da Vinci before a brush stroke, or getting to talk to LeBron James mid-flight before dunk. That's what this book is. Jonathan Abrams is a marvel.” —Shea Serrano, New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Yearbook

"The best book ever written about the art and business of television." —Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times bestselling author of TV (The Book) and The Wes Anderson Collection

"Delves deep into the show's creation and enduring legacy through interviews with the actors, writers, and producers who brought the show to life. Whether it's Dominic West reflecting on the allure of his character Detective James McNulty or actor Michael B. Jordan discussing the lasting impression of being in an ensemble cast of primarily black actors, Abrams underscores the indelible mark the show has left on actors and audience alike. Weaving all the interviews together is the enduring connection between the city of Baltimore and the creators of the show." —Library Journal

“Meticulous. Relentless. Occasionally hilarious. The same adjectives you'd use to describe The Wire can also be applied to Jonathan Abrams' essential oral history of the series. As it turns out, the most humanistic drama in television history was itself rife with compelling characters, complex politics and an excess of whiskey. Abrams tracks down the stories behind every beloved episode with the tenacity of Omar shopping for breakfast cereal.” —Andy Greenwald, host of The Watch and Talk the Thrones

“The Wire has thoroughly saturated popular culture in a way few television dramas ever have. In their own words, the people involved have given Jonathan Abrams a look at how it happenepd. You come at a show like this, you best not miss. Abrams doesn't.” —Charles P. Pierce, author of Idiot America

“All the Pieces Matter will enrich first watches of The Wire, re-watches of The Wire, and even occasional watches of key scenes from The Wire on YouTube. It's an amazing companion to the series, no matter your level of familiarity.” —Todd VanDerWerff, Critic at Large for Vox

“Filled with revealing information from the participants, intriguing tidbits, and show trivia, this compendium will have fans scurrying back to their DVD sets.” —Kirkus

About the Author

Jonathan Abrams is an award-winning journalist who writes for Bleacher Report. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling Boys Among Men. He was previously a staff writer at Grantland, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times and is a graduate of the University of Southern California.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0451498143
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown Archetype; First Edition (February 13, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780451498144
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0451498144
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches

About Our Store

MZS.Press is the online arts bookstore founded by author, critic, and filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz and Directed by Judith Carter. It offers new, used, signed, collectible, and rare books on film, TV, music, photography, and the visual arts. The store was launched in 2019 on a different platform and has expanded to incorporate arts books published by MZSPress's private imprint: titles currently include Seitz's The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon and Dreams of Deadwood, about the HBO Western, and Walter Chaw's A Walter Hill Film.

Our deepest wish is to promote, encourage, and distribute work by small presses, academic presses, and individuals. Extraordinary work tends to get swallowed up on giant platforms like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The titles featured here are personally selected by a group of curators and advisors, including Seitz and an array of critics, artists, journalists, educators, publishers, and arts mavens who are known for their ability to suss out what Seitz's jazz musician dad liked to call "the good sh*t."

About the Partners

Matt Zoller Seitz

Critic, Author, Filmmaker, MZS Press Creator

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large and film critic of RogerEbert.com; Features Writer for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, Contributing Writer for D Magazine and Texas Highways as well as finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. His writing on film and TV has appeared in Sight and Sound, The New York Times, Salon.com, The New Republic and Rolling Stone. Seitz is the founder and original editor of the influential film blog The House Next Door, now a part of Slant Magazine.

Seitz has written, narrated, edited or produced over a hundred hours’ worth of video essays about cinema history and style for The Museum of the Moving Image, Salon.com and Vulture, among other outlets such as Texas Highways and AARP. His five-part 2009 video essay Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style was spun off into the hardcover book The Wes Anderson Collection. This book and its follow-up, The Wes Anderson Collection: Grand Budapest Hotel were New York Times bestsellers.

Other Seitz books include the New York Times bestsellers The Sopranos Sessions and Mad Men Carousel; TV (The Book), The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon, The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch and the new The Wes Anderson Collection: Asteroid City. He is also an interviewer, moderator, and film programmer who has curated and hosted film and TV presentations for the Museum of the Moving Image, IFC Center, San Francisco's Roxie Cinema, and other venues. In October 2024 he brought the legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone back to Dallas for a historic return to the city and the Texas Theatre, considered the biggest film event of Dallas in 2024 by Dallas Observer!

Judith Carter was in the Upscale and Luxury Hospitality Industry for most of her life. In 2004 she had a beautiful baby boy with Special Needs and put the pause on her career until 2017 to dedicate herself to him and then others, assisting and volunteering as a legal advocate ensuring the best medical care, evaluations and educations for Special Needs children and their families.

Matt and Judith were family friends for over 20 years. She was there with her family in support when his wife Jen passed away suddenly in 2006. Then just 6 weeks later while Matt was in Dallas; he and his Father, Dave, and Step-Mother, Genie, were there as support, when Judith was alone and her son received the first of many diagnoses that changed the trajectory of their lives. So it made sense in the turbulent year of 2020, Matt asked Judith to take over running the online store that has become MZS.press. The rest as they say is, "Their"-story.

The Arts Bookstore of the Internet

The Arts Bookstore of the Internet

Created by Matt Zoller Seitz
Directed by Judith Carter
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Haruki Murakami

All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire® (Hardcover, NEW)

Review

About the Author

The Arts Bookstore of the Internet

The Arts Bookstore of the Internet

Created by Matt Zoller Seitz Directed by Judith Carter“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”Haruki Murakami

All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire® (Hardcover, NEW)

Review

About the Author

About Our Store

About the Partners

Created by Matt Zoller Seitz
Directed by Judith Carter
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Haruki Murakami