IN MEMORIAM: David Mills, 1961-2010

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IN MEMORIAM: David Mills, 1961-2010

POSTED: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 6:08 PM

Filed Under: In Memoriam | TV

Sad to report the death of television writer/journalist David Mills, who passed away yesterday, from what some news outlets are reporting is a brain aneurysm. Mills got his start in television penning an episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets, based on his college buddy David Simon's book of the same name. Simon would, of course, go on to create The Wire, and added Mills to its venerable writing staff (above is a clip from the Mills-penned episode "Soft Eyes," the second episode of the fourth season, which I regard to be one of the strongest seasons of television ever made). Often overlooked because of The Wire's success in prolonging the same themes into full-season arcs, is Mills and Simon's HBO miniseries The Corner, also based on a Simon book. It's an excellent mini-series and deserves a spot in any Wire fan's Netflix queue. Mills was, again, collaborating with Simon on his new HBO Treme about life in post-Katrina New Orleans, which debuts Sun., April 11. Mills also notably wrote for Kingpin, ER and NYPD Blue. But before his work in television, Mills was a reporter. In 1989, he wrote for the Washington Times a piece on Public Enemy in which Professor Griff made antisemitic statements, leading to his ouster from the group. Author Sistah Souljah was in similar hot water after a she told Mills that violence by blacks against was justified during the 1992 LA riots. Then-president Bill Clinton criticized Souljah in a speech at the Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, leading to the coining of the phrase "The Sistah Souljah Moment." Friend of Critical Mass and CP contributor Mike Pelusi led us to this obit by one of my favorite TV writers, Alan Sepinwall, who justly memorializes his friend.

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