WHEATON, MD – After a 14-year hiatus, David Simon and George Pelecanos announced they have begun production on a sixth season of their hit HBO show, The Wire, which will focus this time on the recent drama at the Montgomery County planning board.
“We spent years at The Wire mining Baltimore for stories of backstabbing, infighting and bureaucratic dysfunction,” said Pelecanos, a Silver Spring resident. “But it turns out that my native county government has just as much drama.”
In keeping with the existing series structure, which focuses each season on the challenges and shortcomings of a different social or political institution, Simon and Pelecanos decided to set season six at the MoCo planning board after a series of recent scandals there, including in-office alcohol consumption, closed-door firings, and an alleged dick measuring competition. However, unlike the first five seasons of the The Wire, season six will be a comedy.
“We wanted to mix the dramatic themes of The Wire with the slapstick humor of Parks and Rec because this whole thing is just so comical to outsiders,” said Simon, a graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. “Who would have thought this group of housing and land use nerds could have created such an amazing shitshow? The next thing you know, they’ll be hunting each other down with Super Soakers in the hallway while they whistle The Farmer in the Dell.”
Casting has already begun for the series. Actor Ted Danson will play the role of the planning chair, with Aziz Ansari, Phyllis Smith, and local Marylanders Jonathan Banks (Northwood High School), and Wanda Sykes (Arundel High School) making up the rest of the commission.
Planning commission staff declined to comment on the specifics of the season six news but did concede that the commission has been engulfed in unusual controversy ever since an apparent insider attempt to oust the chair of the commission. “They tried and failed to force him out and it’s been craziness ever since,” said one staffer who asked to remain anonymous. “But you know what they say: when you come at the king, you best not miss.”
