We analyze the very first scene of the TV series the Wire, in which Detective McNulty chats with a witness of the murder of Snot Boogie (aka Omar Isaiah Betts). McNulty is a smooth operator of narrative tension, and he shows us the ropes of how to think about what people want out of conversation. We give a play-by-play of some of his tricks, and then ask: why should we take examples from fiction seriously if they’re made up in order to get views?
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Snot Boogie and Strategic Storytelling