Another Show You Need Watch

The Wire airs on HBO and is entering its fifth and last season. Here is a sampling of critic reactions to the previous season:

Chicago Tribune - Maureen Ryan

If you have only one hour a week for television, give it to "The Wire."

Kansas City Star - Star Aaron Barnhart

To me, what allows “The Wire” to surpass “The Sopranos” in the pantheon of greatest American TV shows is its ambition and its anger.

Newsday - Verne Gay

A critic for this paper once declared "The Wire" "the greatest dramatic series ever produced for television" and as the fourth season gets under way Sunday night, there's no reason to quibble with that assessment.

New York Post - Adam Buckman

One of the finest TV shows ever made.

TV Guide - Matt Roush

This is TV as great modern literature, a shattering and heartbreaking urban epic about a city (Baltimore) rotting from within.

Philadelphia Daily News - Ellen Gray

The best show on television.

San Jose Mercury News - Charlie McCollum

If you stick with it, you will be rewarded with some of the most compelling, provocative drama ever produced for television.

New England School of Communications - Seth Davis

I think you get my point, and yes, it is even better than Dawson's Creek.

As you can see The Wire has gotten the attention of the critics, but it has not been a draw for viewers. This show set in Baltimore is not your typical cops and robbers drama.

In other shows an investigation begins and ends in an hour. In The Wire an investigation begins and can take the entire season. Another difficulty is that there are no good guys or bad guys, instead the series is filled with gray characters. We learn that those in "the game" have motivations, flaws, and histories just like those on the other side of the law. In addition, The Wire has no lead character. There is a large cast ranging from City Hall, the schools, The Baltimore Sun, to street dealers, to the docks of Baltimore.

Many use the term novelistic when describing the show. To new viewers, expecting Law and Order, or The Shield it is slow and frustrating. All I can say is that it does take time to learn the names, figure out the accents, understand "the game", and piece together the hierarchy of the streets and the law. However, once the connections have been made, the characters and the story will stick with you for some time. This is a show designed to be watched more than once. Here is a link to the cast on HBO.com

*Thanks to Metacritic.com for critic quotes.

~Seth