This paper explores how HBO’s The Wire functions as an example of quality television that successfully portrays a variety of social issues and challenges dominant cultural narratives. The first part of the paper will focus on the particularities that enabled the development of the so-called “quality TV”. This segment also serves to introduce the background of the series as a collective effort of a great ensemble of actors and writers, which partly owes its success to a narrative style that has been described as a “visual novel”. Due to the show’s broad thematic approach, focus has been put on analyzing how it builds a complex narrative which serves to identify the connection between the struggles faced by the many characters found in fictional Baltimore and the demise of modern institutions. Instead of presenting a society based on ideas of equality and social mobility, the characters’ efforts are repeatedly halted by what can be described as institutional failure characterized by a neoliberal rationality. The concept of “the game” will further illustrate this claim, as it presents a particular worldview which serves as a response to oppressive living conditions. Finally, the paper argues that the dysfunctional institutions mirror the more fundamental socioeconomic changes in the US, which can be described as the emergence of neoliberal capitalism.