Jim Halpert And Stringer Bell Are The Same Person: An Investigation

Binge-watching ‘The Office’ and ‘The Wire’ together has brought about a revelation hiding in plain sight.

David Dennis, Jr.
4 min readOct 19, 2020

I binge-watch. Like, a lot. It’s just one of the things I have the privilege to do as someone who works from home 100 percent of the time. I’ve spent endless hours watching new shows and movies whether I’ve liked them or not. Whole seasons breeze by in a matter of days, playing in the background while I type away at whatever I’m working on. But something strange happened during COVID: I found myself wanting the comfort of shows I was already familiar with. I don’t know what exactly brought about this phenomenon but it seems like everyone was on board revisiting their favorite shows while quarantined, whether that be Mad Men, The Sopranos, The Good Place, The Americans or anything else that I used to obsess over.

For me, the summer binge was a cocktail of The Wire and The Office. By day I was devouring the story of Baltimore and the towers. By night my wife and I were unwinding while finding laughs with the crew from Scranton. But as I watched the two shows, I’d start to get this weird feeling of déjà vu. I wasn’t quite sure where it was coming from as the two shows couldn’t be more different. Then it hit me: when I watch Stringer…

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David Dennis, Jr.

Level Sr. Writer covering Race, Culture, Politics, TV, Music. Previously: The Undefeated, The Atlantic, Washington Post. Forthcoming book: The Movement Made Us