Aaaaah! I discovered it (yeah, I am always very late, having no TV makes me watch stuff that are 2 or 3 years old) a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say, despite my reluctance for any TV show, this stuff rocks.First reason: the set. The whole thing is in Baltimore, which is apparently a city as rough as a bear's ass (1 homicide a day.. keeps the doctor away. yep, no need for one anymore at this stage). For once it is not in Beverly Hills, in an upper class or suburbian area, where people have 5 cars and their problems on "is he going to go out with Rachel?". No, in The Wire, people take drugs, they fight to save their failed marriage, they have shootings on a daily basis
Second reason: the scenario. Brilliant. It always starts with a precise problem (a murder, a drug dealer) and then expands to a sociological analysis. The different levels of the series is the best aspect of it: things are intimately linked, one issue leads to another etc.
Third reason: the cast. I have to say that as usual the main actors are attractive and sexy. In a different way though. None of them is Jennifer Aniston or Eva Longoria, but they do rock and have this roughness that makes them even more attractive (must explain my taste for slightly fucked up guys...)
Fourth reason: the music and the language. No politically correct dialogues, no mainstream soundtrack. The main theme was written by Tom Waits, and the big fat rap is all over the place. It gives another rough dimension to the whole thing, something essentially harsh. That's why we like The Wire. The language is (thank God for the subtitles in the DVDs) the one you can expect in Summerhill (North Dublin area which is known for being the main provider of heroin in the City) but with this American intonation and the proper slang coming from the hood: "you feel me?", "love da bunk", "it all in the game"...
Fifth reason: realism. Of course it is a TV series, of course it is a fiction, but at last there is no happy ending to an American show. Yes, politicians are corrupted, yes, the bad guys always go away, yes, the drugs trade is as lively as it always was. We try our best to make the world a better place, but because we are not entirely good ourselves, we have to be confronted with our own flaws and eventually things are not much better at the end.
In other words, The Wire is a little jewel of TV production. If you haven't seen it yet, well, I cannot do anything else but recommend it to you. You feel me?
