The 2002-2007 HBO series The Wire has often been called ‘Dickensian’ despite the explicit reticence of its creator, who called the comparison ‘flattering’ but irrelevant. Critics who conjure up Dickens’s novels in order to discuss the show’s aesthetics rely on various definitions of the Dickensian, thus shedding light on the multilayered and sometimes self-contradictory quality of this adjective as it exists in contemporary culture. The present article seeks to explore one of these layers, comparing the experiences of the city offered to Victorian readers of Oliver Twist and to today’s viewers of The Wire. It concludes by looking at a recent blog article, in which the HBO series is parodically rewritten as a Victorian illustrated serial.