Here it is, my first ever television review. I’m not a big TV guy. I watch my sports, and about 10 Seinfeld re-runs a week, but that’s about it. The only new show I regularly watch is Lost, although I generally wait until the season is over and watch all the new eps in a couple of days…

Anyway. The point is I think most TV stinks. But people raved about The Wire. Still, I wasn’t convinced, not until my boss, who has similar tastes and TV and movies to myself, vehemently recommended it - he basically said “you HAVE to watch it.” (I don’t actually think he was saying, “watch it or you’re fired,” but it could have been implied.)

So, watch it I did. All five seasons. 60 episodes… in about three weeks. Yes. It’s that good… I simply could not stop watching. Now that Season 5 is out on DVD, the time is right for you to check it out too.

The Wire tells the story of a group of detectives in the Baltimore Police department. But it doesn’t stop there. It tells the story of the drug dealers they’re investigating. It tells the stories of the people the drugs and investigations affect, from the docks, to the schools, to city halls, to the city newspapers. In reality, the city of Baltimore is real main character of the show.

I don’t even how to tell you how good the show is. On the surface, it’s a cop show. But it’s so much more. The stories unfold in a subtle, engaging manner; there’s little flash or extravagance involved. The show lets you decide on your own who the good guys and bad guys are - it doesn’t come out and tell you.

The acting and writing are so good, I don’t even know where to begin.

But perhaps here’s one great example (I’ll try and tell it spoiler-free). As the first season builds towards its climax, you start to see just how dangerous this job is for the cops. There’s a great air of inevitability surrounding them - you just know one of them is going to get hurt or killed.

Finally, in the 10th episode (of 12), one of the cops is placed in a tough situation at the start of the episode. And you can feel it - you know, you just KNOW - something bad is going to happen. And it does.

But even though you knew it was going to happen, you saw it coming - it still shocks you. You’re still on the edge of your seat until the very moment, and you’re rocked when it happens.

You shouldn’t be. You saw it coming. But you still were.

That’s because the show draws you in, emotionally, like no other TV I’ve ever seen. It makes you care for all of these characters - really, once you are hooked, it’s impossible not to care, and instead of sitting there waiting for the shit to hit the fan and saying “I knew it!” when it does, you sit there praying it doesn’t. And when it does all you can do is choke back the tears.

That’s good TV.

I can’t decide which season is my favourite. I know I loved the first and third seasons, and I still to this day am amazed at how they turned those kids into such real people in Season 4. And although the fifth season was the show’s weakest, it’s still a damn sight better than anything else you’ll see on TV.

But something about season two keeps me thinking that was the best season. There was something simply ingenious about the way they introduced a whole bunch of new characters, and just as you fell in love with them all, they pulled the curtain back a little more to reveal just how they all tied in to the first season. I’ve never seen anything like that before. No other TV show would ever take that risk - to set aside everything you loved about the first season for the first six or seven episodes of the next, in order to expand the story, before bringing the whole thing together in a startling climax at the end.

Anyway. Don’t listen to me, check out the myriad reviews on the Web proclaiming The Wire as the best television show ever. And then go and rent it or buy it or whatever. Just give it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Tags: television review, The Wire