The HBO Club and My Dad

It was no surprise that as I flipped through the channels I would think of him.

It was no father-and-daughter tearful family moment on a television drama. Nor was it was a family reunion of the long-lost daughter meeting her Dad for the first time on a made-for-TV movie on Lifetime. It was detectives Lester Freamon and Jimmy McNulty trying to figure out the code Baltimore’s notorious drug dealers used on The Wire.

The police; from left, Roland “Prez” Pryzbylewski, Cedric Daniels, Jimmy McNulty, Rhonda Pearlman, seated: Lester Freamon, and Kima Greggs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This show featured violence, drugs, corruption, and the media. It’s a cop show, but not like the others. It was HBO. Apparently it won the Peabody Award … that David Simon is badass. HBO … My Dad loved that channel. He must’ve seen every original drama that channel produced … and we were there watching every minute of it.

Well … my Dad started The Wire at season 1, I didn’t come along until season 5. He kept talking about this one show and how he couldn’t miss it. He’d be glued to the TV. Then I saw one episode and was hooked. We had HBO power-talk sessions after each show, analyzing characters, examining plots, and throwing out predictions for next week. It was like a book club, but without books. It was the HBO Club. We had snacks. My dad was the organizer, leader, host, remote-control holder, and caterer. I was the moderator.

A week before the series finale I was able to get us into a lecture and Q&A session with creator David Simon. It was hosted at my alma mater. My dad was so excited to have been there. It was a bunch of college students, alumni and my dad. It was awesome. My dad was able to meet the dude that created this series and I was so happy I could do that for him.

So as I was flipping through the channels and saw a re-run of the show, it brought memories of our HBO Club and our little field trip to my old college campus. I missed my dad and our conversations. I wished he hadn’t passed away. So in an effort to be somewhat closer to him, I had a HBO Club Pow-wow myself. I rented the first season of The Wire on Netflix. It was a marathon. I saw six episodes in one sitting. It was a late night, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I thought of all the things my Dad would say as I watched part of the first season.

It was good to have the HBO Club resurface. But now I was the organizer, leader, host, remote-control holder, caterer, moderator and lone member.

Club is still in session and my Dad is watching from above.

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