The Wire - The Complete First and Second Seasons

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780783133775
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN: 0783133774
Label: HBO Home Video
Manufacturer: HBO Home Video
Number Of Items: 10
Publisher: HBO Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-01-25
Studio: HBO Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2002-06-02

Editorial Review:

Amazon.comAfter one episode of The Wire you'll be hooked. After three, you'll be astonished by the precision of its storytelling. After viewing all 13 episodes of the HBO series' remarkable first season, you'll be cheering a bona-fide American masterpiece. Series creator David Simon was a veteran crime reporter from The Baltimore Sun who cowrote the book that inspired TV's Homicide, and cowriter Ed Burns was a Baltimore cop, lending impeccable street-cred to an inner-city Baltimore saga (and companion piece to The Corner) that Simon aptly describes as 'a visual novel' and 'a treatise on institutions and individuals' as opposed to a conventional good-vs.-evil police procedural. Owing a creative debt to the novels of Richard Price (especially Clockers), the series opens as maverick Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West, in a star-making role) is tapping into a vast network of drugs and death around southwest Baltimore's deteriorating housing projects. With a mandate to get results ASAP, a haphazard team is assembled to join McNulty's increasingly complex investigation, built upon countless hours of electronic surveillance.

The show's split-perspective plotting is so richly layered, so breathtakingly authentic and based on finely drawn characters brought to life by a perfect ensemble cast, that it defies concise description. Simon, Burns, and their cowriters control every intricate aspect of the unfolding epic; directors are top-drawer (including Clark Johnson, helmer of The Shield's finest episodes), but they are servants to the story, resulting in a TV series like no other: unpredictable, complicated, and demanding the viewer's rapt attention, The Wire is 'an angry show' (in Simon's words) that refuses to comfort with easy answers to deep-rooted societal problems. Moral gray zones proliferate in a universe where ruthless killers have a logical code, and where the cops are just as ambiguous as their targets. That ambiguity extends to the ending as well; season 1 leaves several issues unresolved, leaving you begging for the even more impressive developments that await in season 2.

It hardly seems possible, but The Wire's second season is even better than the first. The 'visual novel' concept of this masterful HBO series is taken even further in a rich, labyrinthine plot revolving around the longshoremen of Baltimore's struggling cargo docks, where corruption, smuggling, and murder draw the attention of detective McNulty (Dominic West), who's been demoted to harbor patrol while his former colleagues have been similarly reassigned following season 1. What brings them back together is a series of events which at first seem unrelated (including 13 bodies found in a cargo container), and their ongoing effort to topple the drug empire of 'Stringer' Bell (Idris Elba) and the imprisoned Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris), whose business is suffering from short supply, high demand, and disruption of distribution. The dutiful diligence of a Marine Police Patrol Officer and the moral outrage of the longshoremen's union leader are also factored into the suspicious goings-on at the loading docks, and what unfolds in these 12 episodes is an American crime epic easily on par with the Godfather saga. Yes, it's that good.

Detailed synopsis is pointless; The Wire must be seen, heard, and absorbed to fully appreciate the way in which over 40 characters are flawlessly incorporated into a sprawling but tightly disciplined plot that deals, in the larger sense, with the deindustrialization of America and the struggle of longshoremen in a changing economical climate. Offering a privileged and occasionally frightening glimpse of the inner workings of shipping ports and cargo transports, The Wire is also a detailed exposé of organized crime and blue-collar corruption, and an authentic, well-informed study of political maneuvering among police and city officials. There's not a single false note to be found in the cast, direction, or writing of this phenomenal series, hailed by many critics as 'the best show on television.' With all due respect to HBO's other excellent series, The Wire tops them all. --Jeff Shannon

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- The best police / crime drama ever.
A gritty realistic telling of life in the city of Baltimore meant for those who drive through Baltimore on I-95 or over fly over it, but never care about the life on the streets.

The language, which if taken out of context would be shocking, is as necessary to setting the mood as the backdrop of city landmarks and abandoned buildings.

The bad guys are not all bad, but there is little excuse-making forthcoming by the writers. The good guys are not all that good and their excuses sound too hollow to be believed.

Wathcing it on dvd is superior to the week to week viewing on HBO since it is meant to be like chapters in a book. The going seems slow in the beginning of each season and the pace too frantic at the end, but the real story is charecter development. You cannot help but wonder what happens to these charecters lives when the season is done.

The ensemble cast is surpassed only by the writing.

This is time well spent, even if no one you know has ever even heard about the show.

Because you are left wanting more, the lack of special features usually filling up a dvd are really missed.

Rating:

- BEST T.V. Series Out
With over 10 out of 10 stars given on their latest season(4) in every newspaper around, these older seasons show where the characters came from and how they developed. Amazing show, well drafted cast, and impelling story line. Its one of a kind!

Rating:

- The Wire-The Complete First and Second Seasons
EXCELLENT!!!!!! KEPT ME WANTING MORE. WATCHING IT FROM THE BEGINING ALLOWED ME TO FORM RELATIONSHIP WITH A LOT OF THE CHARACTERS. CAN'T WAIT TO RECIEVE SEASONS THREE AND FOUR I HOPE THIS PROGRAM NEVER END. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Rating:

- Great series
The Wire is very well written, and shows a side of American urban life that is truly interesting. No real heroes here, just a bunch of people trying to get by.

Rating:

- Simple truth
Still the best show on television. Seeing these seasons again, they stand the test of time.

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The Wire - The Complete First and Second Seasons

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