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this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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The Wire. It's the best piece of visual media ever created. Not only is it the best portrayal of the inner city drugs trade but also the decaying institutions and social structures that allow it to flourish, and the corrupting influence of dirty money.
It also is consistently the best written show on TV and is grounded in it's reality better than anything else. Half the cast were complete unknowns, in many cases plucked from the streets of Baltimore itself and there are standout performances all across it's vast and diverse cast.
It's a little slow to get going, the first few episodes have a lot of ground to cover to get the viewer up to speed, it also makes no effort to ease the viewer in, with a lot of jargon, slang and some very thick accents to content with, there's also no "previously on the wire" to go over key points from earlier episodes so it definitely requires more participation from the viewer than most TV but it's all the better for it.
The Wire hit me so hard. Nothing quite like it.
I recently re-watched The Wire, and 100% agree with it. It's at the cusp of being so outdated that only olds will get it and technical elements seem quaint, but wow, it still hits so hard. 25/10, I'll probably watch it again in another 20 years and enjoy it all over again.
Season 5 has some questionable plot lines though... McNulty's serial killer shenanigans are a little meh
Yeah, and Marlo Stanfield was very one-dimensional. That being said, I think it stopped far short of jumping the shark, and with the newspaper angle, made sense that a cop might leverage information asymmetry to get what they want by taking advantage of a bad journalist making mistakes. The core concept is solid, and maybe there's some moving pieces that don't quite work.
Yeah it's still a great season of TV. Just in comparison to the previous 4, it doesn't hit the same level imo.
Yeah, the serial killer angle might have been better if it was like Herc or someone else planting the evidence. Making it Jimmy was too far imo. They make it make sense, but I still feel like it's a major stretch for his character as it had been established in past seasons.
Jimmy did some stupid shit, usually for the right reasons... But that was out of character imo
Great show but season 2 is such a momentum killer I'd probably watch them 1,3,4,2,5 if I was going to rewatch
Ah no! Season 2 is almost the best season and has some of the best acting. Chris Bauer as Frank Sobotka is one of the best performances ever.
It's almost a meme that season 2 is jarring on a first watch but you have to think about The Wire as more than about a gang and the cops but about America, and in some respects, it's about post-industrial western societies and nowhere is that theme more real and visceral as in the dock workers of season 2.
I watched The Wire for the first time a few months ago. My wife couldn't get past the first couple episodes since it's a little dated, but I am glad I stuck with it because that show was freaking phenomenal.
I really wish I could have enjoyed it too. I watched it about 7 years ago maybe, and I don't know if it had just been built up too much (greatest show evarr!!) or if it just wasn't my jam, but I didn't enjoy it. Did watch the whole damn thing, though. Just meh. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
It's almost a period piece now, a time capsule of the early 00s. I never could understand the "it's dated" argument, did she watch Chernobyl or Bridgerton or Gladiator?
Yeah that's probably a good way to think of it. She did love Chernobyl - but that might be because it was a modern retelling of a historical event. Same way that people love Stranger Things for the nostalgia, but aren't exactly going back and rewatching shows filmed in the 80s.
The only show Charlie Brooker had nothing bad to say about.
https://youtu.be/sZ2iGYwdEi8
Completely agree, there is The Wire and then there is everything else. It is simply in a tier of its own.