The Wire

Ok, if you haven't seen the wire series 1 yet, then go and beg, borrow or steal it now and watch it. It's that simple.

Great TV. I got a present of it for my birthday (thanks Jer & Gem) and was completely hooked straight away. I had seen a couple of episodes here and there, but it was on at an awkward time before so I hadn't followed it.

Damn, it's good. For all kinds of reasons. It's essentially cops and drug dudes, called the wire after the wire taps the cops put on the drug guys phones.

A lot of it is political, the politics of police work and also the politics of the drug world.

The Wire has a very 'real' feel to it. Very compelling stuff... it's completely believable, all the difficulties around doing good police work due to political pressure from 'career cops' and that kind of jazz - then I found this article which explains a lot of why it feels so real.

Great story, great characters, great acting, great direction... for those of you also in Ireland it's now on season three, monday nights, 10.30 TG4.

Some of the stuff in The Wire reminded me of The Sweeney, in the way that they are not afraid to show the un-pc side of police work - cops beating up suspects, cops stealing cash during raids, all that kind of thing... and without painting characters with one single act either - ie if a cop takes cash on a raid he doesn't become 'the-cop-who-takes-money-during-raids', nor is he therefore a bad cop automatically... the series includes some of the complexities of life. Which is nice for a change.

Shades of grey, rather than everything being black and white, good guys vs bad guys.

IMDB says of the Wire: "Many of the minor characters are played by real-life police officers, politicians and former criminals. In fact, many of the former criminals who act on the show were previously arrested by the real-life cops who act on the show."

A quote from tv.com: In New York's Newsday, Diane Werts says: "Most TV crime series aspire to John Grisham's level. 'The Wire' aspires to Dostoevsky's."

Another glowing review can be seen on videovista.net

Also found interesting enough article about how 'The Wire' may be 'too smart' for most viewers.

Anyway, worth a watch. Oh and Bif likes it too.