"As a writer, my mission is to tell a story that makes viewers think about how conditions in American cities are created," Simon told reporters. "We can't just turn our back on the staggering levels of happiness occurring in a place like Wilmette and say, 'Well, that's not my life.' We have to confront this tranquility head-on and shine a light on the institutions that are responsible for it."
Added Simon, "I want this show to be an unflinching dissection of how the system has in no way failed the people of this town."
...
The Township will feature an ensemble cast, including actors Wendell Pierce and Dominic West from The Wire as a pair of successful, well-adjusted real estate agents who occasionally grab one quick drink after work before returning home to the families they love.
In a way, The Sopranos was really just a suburban grotesque, from Tony's barbeque-induced fainting attack to Carmela's anxieties about Meadow's college prospects. Kind of ditto with Weeds, which is at least in part thematically about the inability of the suburbs to be separate and protected from issues like drug violence typically associated with cities. Neither of those is anthropological and reportorial in the way The Wire is, but it's hard to imagine that someone, at some point, won't think it's a good idea.