Wire, The - Season 5 Reviews

Sheer Brilliance!

If you are not already an addict, you can believe the hype. The Wire is simply the best TV series ever made. It even trumps other HBO greats such as the Sopranos and Deadwood.

You get believable and morally complex characters, wonderful acting and direction, an epic story arc, superb writing, political and social issues (with no PC-ness), and even a cool soundtrack.

The good news is that you need to start with the First Season. The bad news is that you may not get out of the house for a couple of months.

the wire complete fifth season

strange that i had never heard of this series before , i just wanted to see what it was all about, not very good in my opinion i must say

Out with a bang... AND a wimper

This end to an all time TV favourite doesn't disappoint - even though it has been judged by fans of the series everywhere as controversial. I guess you could say the story set up from the Police perspective may seem more contrived and possibly incredible at first but stick with it - the general truth in this latest chapter about how the truth needs to be bent for political reasons in order to get anything in the US rings true. In fact the whole bigger theme of this season (of the media manipulating the political arena) is arguably more relevant to the UK than any other given the way we joined the US in Iraq based on falsely reported WMDs. And the way that MPs can be 'executed' by press innuendo, policies or personal lives leaked to the press. I know that the end of the final episode was somewhat different to what we've come to expect from The Wire but I for one needed something like it say goodbye to these amazing characters. Only thing now is what on earth can replace such good writing?

awesome

TV will never be the same. This is too awesome

The Wire: The Best!

This whole series is simply the best television series ever, bar none. Watch it.

the greatest.

tried watching the shield as it had been heralded as a cop show to rival any other with its realism and tough characters. gave up after 6 episodes realsising that the wire had made all other cop shows obsolete. With it's overlapping carefully crafted storylines, characterisation unrivalled in tv history and its absorbing uncompromising portrait of baltimore it makes a mockery of almost anything else ever produced on tv. Are there more engrossing characters in tv than mcnulty and stringer ina word no. Personally i felt the 2nd series was the best perhaps it should best be viewed as a whole like any great book

The Wire...Entire series..

The Sopranos was/is excellent..However The Wire is probably one of the finest TV dramas ever produced...Brilliant,intelligent..insightful.compl ex.Everything that you could want is there..all the critical accolades are totally founded..make the effort,it will reward you constantly,wonderfully layered,acted,directed,and above all,written..you will never see a better show in this vein..there are police involved,but this is not a 'cop show'..It is the story of a city(Baltimore), and the way that the characters and situations interact with each other,with a massive cast there is always something that will surprise and shock the viewer,and the fashion in which tiny details flesh out situations that may have only been previously referred to almost in passing..There is no musical score to distract,music is there in context..The only slight problem can be the dense fog of language,but this something to get used to,or use subtitles,but always concentrate...and one other point,there are number of intelligent features..usually audio commentaries from writers,actors,producers etc.but can sometimes refer to events that are upcoming..

Enjoy..you will..and spread the word..the best TV series you will ever see..

FANTASTIC

I remember getting the first season just as a hope of a decent series to watch.

I cant believe how good the 5 seasons have been, to sum up the program its like take Sopranos, Oz, and Deadwood except with better acting, direction, plots and complexity and depth to everything.

This simply is the best television series for the last 20 years, possibly ever.

No cop out

I learnt more about American politics watching this show than from the entire BBC output of the last fifty years. This is a fitting ending to the best written TV series I have ever seen, and what great characters. Here's to ya McNulty.

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Great but not the best!

It is hard to be critical of The wire as it is one of the best TV shows ever but for the 1st time I thought the McNulty faking a serial killer targeting the homeless was pointless and a pretty lame plot but I still enjoyed this series but not as much as the earlier 4 seasons