Fresh Air, Ed Burns, November 30, 2007

Hear TV writer and producer Ed Burns, and film critic David Edelstein, on this edition of Fresh Air.

Ed Burns drew on his experience as a former Baltimore detective and teacher to create the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, now in its fifth and final season. It's a crime drama with a central theme of surveillance technology used to capture drug dealers. In 2003 the show won a Peabody Award. However, viewership is not commensurate with acclaim, and The Wire's ratings have never been very high. Seasons one through three are available on DVD. Season four will be available December 4th. Burns is also the coauthor (with The Wire's executive producer and co-writer David Simon) of the book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood. An HBO miniseries of the same name was adapted from the book.

Then, David Edelstein reviews The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the new film by artist and director Julian Schnabel. [Broadcast Date: November 30, 2007]