Ziggy and Nick Sobotka: Blood thicker than water

Aware of it or not, David Simon brought this phrase to life through the juxtaposition of the docklands 'water' environment, and the 'blood' of the Sobotka family ties. The relationship between Ziggy and Nick which plays out in Season 2 is a heart-warming one. Although frequently irritated by his cousin's antics, Nick never gives up on Ziggy and relentlessly and unconditionally supports him, ultimately ostracizing him from important negotiations but selflessly giving him a significant share of the revenue from the various packages Nick ultimately oversees the sale of.

'The family' is often considered a societal institution. For the purposes of our discussion this week regarding institutions, I don't think that 'family' is one of the moreover physical institutions, like the BPD, that Simon tries to criticize through The Wire, and shouldn't be regarded as such. Rather, familial solidarity and compassion is used as a narrative tool by Simon to give supposedly 'bad' characters, who might conduct illicit activities such as theft and drug-dealing, depth and a 'positive' side. This is all part of Simon's rejection of the classic dichotomous 'good v. bad' nature of the police-criminal relationship. Alasdair McMillan deplores the way that, in classic U.S. cop shows, all police officers seem to be 'driven by their own virtuous nature' (McMillan, 2009: 52) alone, and are almost flawless characters. I argue that this extends further to the classic 'villains', or criminals, and through family ties Simon humanizes these 'villains' into 'rough diamonds.'

A future blog post may look at the role of 'family' in the Barksdale criminal 'institution', and consider the similarities with and differences to the role of 'family' with the Sobotkas in the docklands 'institution.'