The Wire
It’s so much more than just drug busting.
Metadata
| Creators | David Simon |
| Stars | Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Sonja Sohn, Wendell Pierce, Idris Elba |
The show in 3 sentences
As one of A’s favorite shows, we of course ended up watching the entire thing during Covid.
The Wire isn’t really just about drug dealers, cops, politics, or the school system. It’s about Baltimore as a whole. The show has a huge cast, and all of their stories slowly overlap through different institutions, neighborhoods, and relationships. Each season shifts its focus to a different part of the city, and the bigger picture gets more complicated as it goes.
It has some of the best characters and writing I’ve ever seen on TV. Even minor characters feel memorable, and almost no one is simply good or bad. The whole thing feels less like a crime show and more like watching a city function—and fail—in real time.