The Wire

The fifth and final season of The Wire started on HBO last night. In case you don’t know, The Wire is the greatest television show ever. For those who’ve never seen it or never even heard of it, I’ll try to elucidate without spoiling anything.

On the face of it, The Wire seems like another cop show but it’s so much more than that. It’s a reflection on the modern American city, specifically Baltimore, Maryland. With each season the scope of the show expands and many new characters and organisations are brought into focus, as well as continuing the stories and themes from previous seasons.

Season 1 sees a Baltimore Police detail set up to investigate a West Baltimore drug dealing gang.

Season 2 focuses on the working class dock workers at the city port while continuing the drug related themes from the first season.

Season 3 goes back to the escalating drug and crime problems on the city’s streets while also looking at the politics of City Hall and the role it plays.

Season 4 brings the eduction system into view and examines the likely fates of the schoolkids.

Season 5 will be about the media and about how what is reported and what isn’t reported affects society.

The show has an all round authenticity rarely seen in fictional television or film. One of the two main reasons for this is that a lot of the actors are from Baltimore and some of them aren’t even professional actors but are basically playing themselves. The other reason is that the two creative forces behind The Wire, David Simon and Ed Burns, have lived through a lot of the events depicted in the show. Simon was a reporter with The Baltimore Sun and Burns was a homicide detective who became a schoolteacher.

It’s gritty, it’s realistic, it’s intense and at times it’s also funny. You need to pay close attention to every scene because nothing is given to the audience easily. It’s all in the details. But if you put in the work in meeting the show halfway then you’ll be rewarded in spades. So much so in fact, that it will spoil every other programme you watch. In particular, any other cop show will look laughably amateur.

I can’t recommend this show enough. If you only ever listen to one thing I say then listen to this… watch The Wire!

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