"The Wire never generated critical thought in a single person who was not already beginning at least to think critically, said beginning rooted in his/her history."
You keep writing this as if it were a proven fact rather than an oft repeated assertion of something it is obviously important for you to believe.
Which is weird because it denies the materiality of art and its potential for taking part in (being part of) the history you mention.
Neither the capitalists nor the catholic church made this mistake, spending an ungodly amount of money and human labor in manufacturing the ideology and culture that play such a large part in shaping the unconsciousness of the mass.
Joanna