Join The Breakfast Club

One of the reasons I love HBO's The Wire is that its full of liminal characters who don't fit into typical dramatic archetypes. I found this refreshing in a world endlessly replicated character types (rookie cop, funny fat guy, evil boss, etc.) and I also found it made the show seem very "real." However, much like, "dark" "unique" and "edgy," "real" is a word that offers little in the way of description, so to further elaborate: I find the character's personalities are just as multifaceted, unpredictable and three-dimensional as any living person. The show doesn't feel like it was written and the viewer is given the sense that they are "the wire," surveilling real-life events and being privy to situations they would never see -- perhaps it feels like a "reality show"?

No. It absolutely does not. And I think we can all agree that reality shows don't particularly feel like reality either.

With existential crisis looming dangerously close, let's hit the brakes and look back at 1985's The Breakfast Club. John Hughes based his film around stereotypes: Jock, Nerd, Rebel, Princess, Freak. Repeatedly referenced in everything from psychology classes to writer's rooms, the film perfectly encapsulated these useful popculture/high school archetypes and, with some additions, they became the model for future groupings of teens in horror films, TV series and even The Real World.

The media (and all of us, really) struggle to categorize people constantly -- hipsters, scene kids, bro's, gangsters, stoners -- its a quick shortcut to describe a person. There are even the more "scientific" personality types that you can test for online that will rob you of individuality and stuff you into one of four categories complete with potential careers.

It's not a new thing (punks, squares, hippies), but as people become more at one with media through reality programming and social networking, the tendency towards archetypal fulfillment seems to increase. MySpace pages (less so with Facebook) become carefully constructed advertisements with flags to signal other members of a particular group that you are there (Comic nerd! Shoegazer!). Clothing too (Hot Topic/American Apparel) can quickly drop you into a group and (leather jacket/varsity jacket) always has I suppose. But as the line between media and reality blurs, how much are people putting themselves into categories in order to become as easily definable as the "real" people they see on TV or meet online? If you only have a moment to make an impression on someone in our race toward oblivion, do you want to present an easily getable image?

If there was a wire tap on you, what hasty conclusion about you might the eves droppers draw?