This is great stuff. I can't really add to what others have said here, except to say that this is definitely a series to watch. It's got everything you'd want from a crime drama like CSI, but much more. The characters are interesting: nobody fits an easy stereotype, and no one is simply a good guy or a bad guy. There are several overlapping story arcs, but they all fit together in a complex puzzle. There are hints of many much larger storylines that could be followed up on, but aren't -- it has the feel of a world, the world of Baltimore, unfolding on its own, and we happen to be given a glimpse of some of the interconnected lives of a few investigators and the ones they are investigating. But their lives are set against a backdrop of politicians, lawyers, a changing climate in America after 9/11, and much more.

I'd heard so many good things about this series but never had a chance to see it -- now that I've seen season one and am halfway through season two, I am hooked and will be watching through to the end. There's something about television done right that enables an experience you can't get from film -- stories that begin and end and of other stories that pick up where they leave off; a real sense of character growth that doesn't feel artificial, contrived to fit into a 2 hour window; also the feeling for continuity in character and places, of something unfolding over time. This is television done right, and it is rare and exciting to see it. Definitely a show to watch (if you aren't put off by the heavy language, some sexuality, heavy drug-related content, and violence - this is R rated television).

I am in the business - I run a Tac Squad. Normally, I stay away from this kind of show telling folks that if I wanted a slice of real life, I would go sit on a street corner. Well... I found my exception. This first season caught me hook, line, and sinker. The dialogue is not far off from what I hear on the streets 6 years and a couple of thousand miles away. The networks, lookouts, interviews, interactions between agencies - all of it is dead on (except for the drinkin, carousing, etc...!!!). If you ever wondered what the guys in the blue jeans and raid jackets really do - this is as close as you can get to a ride-along!!

I highly recommend this series - at least the first season - I start season two tomorrow!!

All the best,

Jay

The Wire is, at first glance, Yet Another Cop Show, about a group of disparate and conflicted police officers working to bring down criminals who are often not much better than they are. Yawn. However, there are two things that mean that people should take this seriously. Firstly, it's made by HBO who, up to a couple of years ago anyway, seemed physically incapable of making something unless it was absolutely gripping and awesome. Secondly, it's the creation of former police writer and journalist David Simon, whose previous show was the brilliant Homicide: Life on the Street.

The Wire kicks off on the mean streets of Baltimore, Maryland. A murder case against a young black man named D'Angelo Barksdale collapses when one of the witnesses is scared into retracting her testimony. The furious judge learns from homicide detective Jimmy McNulty that D'Angelo is a junior member of a far-reaching criminal gang run by his cousin, the extremely elusive Avon Barksdale. This gang controls all the drug supplies on the west side of the city, and are protected by a labyrinth of legit front organisations. Determined to get some payback, the judge uses his influence to have a special joint homicide-narcotics unit formed to bring down the Barksdale gang, with McNulty assigned and an up-and-coming officer named Lt. Daniels placed in charge.

The investigation into the Barksdale organisation by the unit forms the backbone of the first season of the show, but that's just one side of the story. We also get to see the investigation from the POV of the criminals themselves, most notably D'Angelo as he finds himself free but busted down to supplying the lowest of the estates, as well as the kids who work for him. A dangerous, unpredictable third faction is also in play in the form of the one-man army Omar Little, a criminal whose personal code means he can only steal from other criminals. The police try to form an alliance with Omar to bring down Barksdale, but their erstwhile ally has an unfortunate tendency to blow away the criminals they're trying to get locked up, which makes this a difficult task.

The appeal of The Wire is hard to explain to those who haven't seen it. It's fairly slow-moving (although never dull) in places and arguably takes two or three episodes to really kick in. It's also pretty unforgiving if you miss an episode. Flashbacks to prior episodes are non-existent, and plot points and character and emotional arcs often turn on a single conversation from several episodes earlier. You need to pay attention here. Luckily, that's made easy by the tight writing, the ingenious methods the criminals go to avoid being caught and the even more intelligent methods the police need to use to investigate them, and the acting. It'd be almost impossible to single out any of the actors for praise. British actor Dominic West has the closest thing to a central role as McNulty, and handles the character very well, but Lance Reddick (more recently seen as the enigmatic Abbadon in Lost) holds every scene he's in as the formidable Lt. Daniels. Clarke Peters develops his character of Lester Freamon from almost a background role to that of the most intelligent and confident officer on the team in a natural and impressive manner. John Doman's constantly-infuriated performance as McNulty's commanding officer and eternal nemesis Major Rawls has to be mentioned as well.

On the criminal side of things, British actor Idris Elba (formerly seen as Vaughn in the excellent Ultraviolet) impresses as Stringer Bell, Avon Barksdale's trusted number-two man, and Larry Gilliard Jr. provides the main criminal POV as 'D' Barksdale, as he tries to claw his way back up the organisation amidst growing concerns about how the family does business. For most people - including Barak Obama - the stand-out performances in the show belong to two of the more morally ambiguous characters, namely Michael K. Williams as the dangerously unpredictable Omar and Andre Royo as 'Bubs', a street informant struggling with his own drug addiction. Royo's performance was so convincing that whilst filming he was offered a heroin fix by a passer-by who thought he badly needed it, and later referred to this as his 'street Oscar'.

The cast is uniformally brilliant, the writing is fantastic and the show is, surprisingly, very funny. Whether it's the stories of some mind-bogglingly stupid criminals, or the ridiculous difficulties the team faces at getting a desk into their basement office, or Bubs' methods of identifying suspects for the police observers, the show has a jet-black vein of comedy which gives several laughs per episode. This is necessary because the show can be quite bleak, showing as it does wasted young lives amidst the crumbling tenements of a poor city, and a lot of the characters die in rather unpleasant ways over the course of the investigation. The investigation also ends messily, and the fates of many of the characters is left wide open for the second season.

The Wire: Season 1 (*****) takes a couple of episodes to build up a head of steam and get you into its headspace, but once that's done it never lets go.

Reality bites. As one of the protagonists' mothers asks in the final episode of the season `what's right?' In Baltimore's narcotic investigation unit it is hard to say. Nearly everyone has a little dirt. Most of the bad guys were just born into doing what they do with no way out but to take a bullet or a stretch on the inside. Narcos bust for headlines to make rank. Dealers are in the game because they have no other way. Judges turn coat because it is election time, money goes missing, burnt out cops get wire tap equipment from the 1950s, computers are like gold and the body bags are mounting up. If you are not drinking then you are on the take. If you are on the take then the guilt of it runs home fast. Baltimore is falling apart and the worst thing about the drug war is that this label is all wrong... wars are something you can win.

The show revolves around Det. Jimmy McNulty, good police who does things behind the backs of his superiors, gets dumped with a bad detail and slowly turns into it a career making case that threatens to rock everyone from the street dealer to Capitol Hill. Within the space of 13 episodes you watch how broken cops build a reliable unit out of nothing and they work the streets to build a case against a residential area's top hoods. This is great drama through and through.

The Wire's got a lot of heart for telling it like it is and this is one of the reasons why this little known show often hits the top 10 best TV shows in the reviews. If it wasn't for the reviewers who know a good TV series when they see one, we wouldn't have a clue this was out there. Who would have thought that a little unknown knocking around could be a contender? If you like good TV then chances are that you will eventually want to try a few episodes and who knows, you might get the wire bug.

Pros:
- Like the real deal
- Solid police story, good balance of views
- TV drama for men

Cons:
- Only 13 episodes
- Sometimes its low production values are apparent
- Catering for male viewers and is not really viewing material for a couple.
- You might expect too much with the hype.

HBO series are unsensored television. That's a good medium when you want to tell a complicated and often ugly story. The Wire leverages those advantages to produce one of the best crime dramas ever filmed.

It lived up to the hype of all the previous reviewers so I'm on to season two now.