Oh so it really is as great as everyone has been saying??
I have seent the box set and people say it's just as good as the sopranos but I have been a bit reserved. I might go and get it.
What is it that is so good about it?
The writing, acting and storytelling was all top-notch.
There were very few characters in "The Wire" who were completely "good" or completely "evil" and even they would occasionally slip up and make mistakes or be controlled/corrupted by institutions that were more powerful than they were.
Although most of the writing team was white, The Wire was one of the few shows to depict a cast with fully realized black characters that were neither supermen nor comic relief but just people like anyone else: equally able to be heroic or corrupt. No Will Smiths or Martin Lawrences here...
It may have been mentioned in another thread or one of the reviews but The Wire is one of the closest things to a modern day Dickens novel that we can see. Even the small roles are well drawn, logically developed and well acted. The Wire had an attention to detail that gave it a verisimilitude that most other TV shows lacked.
Whether it's a vicious gangster underboss that also reads Milton Friedman and Adam Smith; a female cop who preaches integrity in everything she does but will join in to beat a teen suspect; or a high ranking cop who tries to do the impossible in keeping crime down with less resources, The Wire delights in showing all the hypocrisies and contradictions involved in being human.The writers were not afraid of putting characters through a lot of s*** or eliminating them if that's what the story required.
Highly recommended..
