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The Wire Is A Special Piece of TV History

The Wire is another high quality drama from The Home Box Office Network (HBO) , building on its reputation for real-life TV series with great storylines and complex, well written characters in series such as The Sopranos and Band of Brothers.

HBO have also produced other top quality dramas from The Wire's creators in The Corner, The Wire's fore-runner and the Iraqi war themed Generation Kill which are now available on DVD from Amazon.

BBC shows The Wire on BBC 2.

For us Wire fans, the BBC's decision to show The Wire on BBC 2, shows their faith in the integrity and quality of the drama. Once you have seen the first episode you will be hooked and want to see the rest ... its very, very addictive!

If you've missed the early seasons on TV, you could sign up for a free trial with Lovefilm and rent it or you could treat yourself or a friend to the Season 1 DVD ... it may be the best £9.99 you have spent in a while.

To quote The New York Times, "The Wire is ... unquestionably one of the best and most original series on televison". We agree and as keen fans here at TheWireDVD.co.uk we want to spread the word on how great this TV show is.

To help you, we have summarised the plots for each series, given background on the main characters (hopefully without giving too much of the intricate plot away!) and found the best online deals for you.

The Wire is real life.

At first sight, The Wire is a cop drama, focusing on the attempts of a dedicated team of specialists to take down a druglord. Fortunately, it is much, much more than that. The Wire is a dissection of Baltimore, a modern North American city, depicting the political and socio-economic struggles of all levels of society, on both sides of the law.

The Wire depicts the lives of every part of the drug "food chain", from junkies to dealers, and from cops to politicians ... there is no obvious goodie or baddie.

The two principal creators are David Simon, who worked for many years as a police reporter for The Baltimore Sun newspaper, and Ed Burns who is a former homicide detective who worked extended drug surveillance cases.

Such is The Wire's authenticity, that one real-life dealer from Baltimore commented in an interview that the only unrealistic thing about The Wire is that no m*f* in it watches The Wire!

The acting is superb!

If you didn't know otherwise, the acting is so good and natural that it could be a documentary (albeit with a suicidal production team!) The characters are so authentic that UK viewers may need subtitles to understand the Baltimore street dialect.

Sydnor and Bubbs walking through the streets of Baltimore

The storylines seem to develop slowly, but cross reference each other so that they are deeper than they first appear.
Each series has a theme and the inter-twining storylines mean that characters weave in and out, slowly developing until you start to really care about them and feel genuinely sorry when they meet their untimely end or life deals them a really bad blow.

Much of The Wire is shot on location in Baltimore, Maryland aka Bodymore, Murderland and the characters are plausible as they are either Baltimore characters or an amalgam of a number of characters. Bunk and Bubbles really existed.

Series one focuses on the Barksdale drug crew and the police's attempts to bring them to justice using wiretaps, informers and good old-fashioned detective work.

Series two moves onto Baltimore's dying port, dealing with the realities of life on and around the city's once proud docks, whilst still linking with the downtown street corner drug culture.

The Wire Series 3 - Stringer Bell and Senator Clay Davis

Series three centres upon the City Hall and the State Senate, corruption and the importance of demographics and political deals in deciding who becomes Mayor.

The Wire Series 4 - Prez and the failing Baltimore Education System

Series four tackles the failing inner city public education system, where statistics and perceived performance are more important than learning or teaching and the kids learn more on the street corners than in class.

The Wire Series 5 - The Baltimore Sun and lazy journalism

Series five is clearly influenced by David Simon's own experience on the Baltimore Sun and examines the role of the press and its effects upon the city. Lazy journalism, lies and sensationalism taking over from honest investigative reporting.

The rules change. The game remains the same.

The heart breaking closing montage reinforces the series' motto ...that life goes on. Unlike most cop shows there is no fairytale ending ... the whole process just starts again, but with different protagonists. That is the depressing conclusion you come to after almost 60 hours immersed in The Wire's version of Baltimore and its people.

The Wire is intense and addictive.

The Wire is intense and addictive - a visual masterpiece The Wire raises the bar for "cop dramas", every single episode is a masterpiece and in our opinion one of the best TV series ever! You will be hooked from Episode 1 all the way through to Episode 60. We were!