David Simon: Time to tell another story about something else.
John Backderf: The story was going nowhere.
Simon: It's bullshit.
Backderf: Nothing definite.
Simon: Nope. God help us all.
*
Backderf: After that I just kind of wigged out stylistically.
Simon: Sure, though it changes nothing in the premise.
Backderf: I look for punchlines.
Simon: Why is the underclass so invisible?
Backderf: They weren't always evil.
*
Simon: And the irony of the fact that among the people unwittingly participating in their exploitation was an American labor union, which once guaranteed a living wage to its members but was now struggling, in the post-industrial era, to avoid itself being marginalized and exploited.
Backderf: I did that for a year—a miserable, maggot-infested, stinking, reeking year.
Simon: Go all the way with it.
Backderf: You can't drop the ball.
Simon: It's hard to stay afloat in these times, when the entire industry is sinking.
Backderf: That's too easy. That's an out.
Simon: You just said it exactly.