Intertextual Dialogue and Humanization in David Simon’s The Corner

This article presents a reading of the six-part HBO miniseries The Corner (2000) which was co-written by David Simon and David Mills and directed by Charles S. Dutton. Focusing in particular on its use of flashbacks, intertextuality, melodrama, and realism, the article argues that this series has its chief interest in humanizing a group of people—namely drug addicts—who otherwise are relegated to the margins of popular television shows. Taking a point of departure in showing how a family in an impoverished neighborhood is afflicted by drug addiction, The Corner tries to counter existing discourses about people living in blighted inner-city neighborhoods, and through intertextual dialogue with the genre of the “hood film”—exemplified by John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood (1991)—The Corner explicitly makes a different depiction of similar subject matters than is generally found in “hood films.” The article shows how The Corner’s societal critique is embedded in both realism and melodrama as a way of insisting on the veracity of its subject matter while also using emotionality—pathos—as a core part of its appeal and political argumentation.