You think the Sopranos was real? If it were it would have been about a transfer of power from Jersey to New York with the entire upper reaches of the family locked up by the start of the second season. And check out the body count, nah not even close to a reflection of reality.

But why would it be? It was a TV show, it exaggerated but used references in life we could all relate to (bratty kids, wife bustin your chops) to hook us in and make the dramatic impact of the entertainment worth while. WHich hats off it did superbly well.

As for the Wire if you can't see historical perspective in the Wire then you are missing the point. Yeah okay David Simon aint from Baltimore I get that and you dont want no outsider telling your story but hey he came through you ask me by making a show we could all relate to one way or the other.

Let me clue you in on a little something. TV aint about being real its about conveying to the viewer real life issues we can relate to in an exaggerated way as to give us empathy for the characters and most importantly make good entertainment for us the viewer.

The Sopranos was funnier than the Wire and Breaking Bad was good but the Wire was solid and the most compelling from a real life point of view.

Do I care who the real life Barksdale crew is or how they get their kicks? Not really, the thing is a real life show about these kids would bore the crap out of me very quickly. Corner boy culture is dumbass bullshit and we all know the drill.

The focus point of the show was the drug trade and the reasons why the drug trade take root in Baltimore is many of the same a reason of decline we see in other cities too. The whole show was about a city in decline and how the drug trade was filling the void.

I read an interview with David Simon where he mentioned that they were considering three locations for season 2. The two unchosen ones were a steel mill and a GM plant.

Season 2 is a good example of capturing this thought. That Polak Sobaotka "we used to build shit in this country" speech is what the show was saying. That kind of skilled blue collar work is drying up in all sectors. If the port was going through a slowdown how do the next generation of hardworking blue collar guys with no education put bread on their table?

And, of course, this ties back into the drug trade -- the other, better-paying jobs that the drug dealing youth we see could have just don't exist anymore. It's the streets or work at Foot Locker for minimum wage.

Agree or not (and I'm with David Simon in his analysis of the drug trade) the historical perspective was there and people I spoke to from Baltimore recognize a somewhat exaggerated version of the city in this show. No-one says its real but that people think it is close enough is a compliment to the writers on the show.

As for the streets and the corner boy shit what were we missing? I mean another cliched show about corner boys popping each other alone would have been weak.

It was looking at these issues from all the other angles from the port, press, police to city hall to the schoolyard that really set the Wire apart as one of the best ever shows.