David Simon apologizes for 'amused contempt' of 'Wire' fans

Fans of "The Wire" were taken aback to read that creator David Simon is sort of tired of their rah-rah, late-to-the-game enthusiasm.

Simon on Thursday told the New York Times:

I do have a certain amused contempt for the number of people who walk sideways into the thing and act like they were there all along. It's selling more DVDs now than when it was on the air. But I'm indifferent to who thinks Omar is really cool now, or that this is the best scene or this is the best season. It was conceived of as a whole, and we did it as a whole. For people to be picking it apart now like it's a deck of cards or like they were there the whole time or they understood it the whole time—it's wearying. Because no one was there in the beginning, or the middle, or even at the end. Our numbers continued to decline from Season 2 on.

Amused contempt? Wearying? The show's many fans were NOT happy.

AVClub.com's headline was: David Simon is tired of your love for The Wire.

Vulture put it like this: "Reading the cranky, pretention, fan-dismissing interview with The Wire's David Simon on the New York Times' ArtsBeat blog today, we were reminded of every gasbag indie-rock-obsessed hipster who ever snorted at the mainstreaming of one of their most beloved underground bands."

The Atlantic Wire saw it like this: "he goes and says something along the lines of 'Don't talk about this like you get it, only I get it, and you're annoying even if you're an adoring fan.' "

In an interview today with Hitfix.com Simon wanted to clarify his remarks:

Let me say this: my apologies to anyone for saying, or trying to say, "You're not cool if you didn't get to 'The Wire' early, and I only want you to watch the show on my terms." What I was saying is "The Wire" has been off the air for 4 years now. That it would be celebrated with things like who's cooler, Omar or Stringer, at this late date, and that the ideas of the show would be given short shrift, those were the target of my comments. And through a miscommunication — probably my fault, I have no way of knowing — I have apparently told everybody that I don't want the show watched except on Sunday night at 10 o'clock, which apparently is the exact opposite of things I've been saying in interviews for years. It is contradictory of everything I've said before. I'm reading it in the paper and I'm not making sense to myself. Sorry. My bad.

Vulture summed up Simon's clarification with this headline: David Simon Semi-Apologizes for Obnoxious Times Interview

So, um, if you were thinking of doing a who's cooler bracket, go ahead and assume Simon won't be playing. And that includes you, President Obama, though we know you'd vote for Omar.

jill.rosen@baltsun.com

@BaltInsider