The Wire

I hate Televison. I hate sitcoms. I hate lame cop dramas were hard boiled police can only say "hell, damn, crap, and shucks". I hate the lack of realism that network televison is bound to. Okay, I do like American Idol and The Science Channel but that's it. What I do like is unedited, uncensored t.v that can only come from the likes of HBO, Showtime, IFC, HD Movie Channel, and a few others. It's those channels that are the reason I got a LCD Flat Screen (in addition to the Bluray player for DVD's). So I don't watch Heroes, Lost, CSI, and countless other shows - I just can't get into them. I need the sex, violence, and language in order to fully enjoy my televison watching experience. What'da gonna do?

A good example of what I'm taking about is the HBO show, The Wire. There is no way in hell that this show could be as good as it is on network tv. And when I say good, I mean the best show ever aired on cable tv that I have watched in my whole life - and I've watched a lot. Th e Wire ran 5 seasons from 2002 to 2007 on HBO. I'd heard a little talk about it over the years but never gave it any attention. One day William Howell told me I should drop the 1st season in my Netflix Que and give it a look-see, he couldn't stop raving about it. William has been know to have pretty good taste in films/tv (with the obvious exception being Salem's Lot) so I trusted him and rented the 1st season......

Season One: To be honest when I put that first disk in I was expecting the normal Cops and Robbers drama, with a little more roughness around the edges about it due to the HBO connection. So I started watching, and subconsciously imposing my preconceived notions on it. Then something happened by the 3rd episode - what I was watching ceased to be Cop show and became something else - something so epic in scale and grandiose and real - I wasn't watching actors playing a role, I was watching a dance, a performance of characters that were so thought out and well-written that each one sucked you in to the world of Baltimore Maryland. All the joys and tragedies played out without a sappy music score, without emotional ques. This is how it is, take it or leave it. Cops were fucking assholes and did completely questionable things. The Drug Dealers displayed a work ethic that I wish some of my employees had. What was going on? This isn't Miami Vice or Hill Street Blues. How can cops drink on the job and cheat on their wives not have to pay the price at the end of the episode like normal televison? How can you show a drug lord going to college to earn a degree in business then go put the order out to kill a snitch and have that drug lord still standing at the end? Because this is how real life is. No apologies. Season one will suck you in. Be prepared - you will have no choice but to rent the rest of the seasons back to back and the next few months of your life will be consumed by it.

Season Two: It's the common thread among Wire fans that season two is the weakest out of the 5. But I think if you take a step back and look at the big picture, it's one of the most insightful, engrossing, and clever seasons. After the end of season one and all the play with the drug dealers and the wiretap that the cops used to catch them, you are expecting more of the same with season 2. Instead the focus shifts to the dock workers and the union troubles that plague Baltimore. The dock workers are still brilliantly written and acted and you get attached to them just as you did the others. There are still some drug dealings and all of the characters you grew to love from season 1 come back. We get to we see more of the inner working of both organizations - The Police and the Drug Lords - and what happens to both when they are dismantled, ironically enough both by the Police. This season moves slow but for a reason, it sets up the next two seasons and gets you ready for them. It is the calm before the storm.

Season Three and Four: I consider seasons 3 and 4 one giant season. You cannot have one without the other. It is quite possibly the best 24 episodes of televison ever produced. All the players are set, the pieces have been placed, and what follows will blow you completely away. I will not spoil anything here because I want you to experience it for yourself, but I guarantee you will blaze thru those disks. You feel pain when your favorite character dies. You will be in shock at some of the betrayal that goes on. You will be part of the 8th grade classroom where the lives and deaths of Baltimore children are played out before your eyes by some of the most gifted child actors I have ever seen. You will see the horrors of the drug trade from all sides and the helplessness that all involved battle day to day. It is brutal, beautiful, and absolutely riveting. By the end of season 4 you have invested so much with these characters and the city that to call it just another cop show would be folly - this place has become your home. And I will miss the hell out of it when I get to the end.