The Wire, episodes 3x01-3x04

“Time After Time” to “All Due Respect”

Any long running, ongoing story will eventually become about itself, at least a little bit.

Take Star Wars as a very high profile mainstream example. The original film just wanted to be a good time at the movies, going for the kind of good old fashioned escapism George Lucas grew up with. You can argue it’s about the Vietnam War or whatever, but that’s a…