The Wire is my favourite TV show, ever.

The Wire is a voice of dissent, and one that is well-informed and cogent. Ambitious in its choice of subject matter – the political, economic and social constructs in American cities – it doesn’t just show that America is broken, it points out the flaws in its systems and policies, and offers many clues as to how all should be improved. Angry and relevant, The Wire makes you think.

Like a great novel, the show has an intelligent and multi-layered structure. It unwinds slowly – but with ever-present drama – so that it is rewarding as you get into it. Each season the show grows in scope. Starting with the drug organisations, the police and criminal justice system, its plotlines grow in later seasons to include the working class dockworkers, the politicians, the schools and the media. It draws parallels between the different institutions and also reveals how they are connected. Once you understand these links they appear obvious, and yet you can see that the connections are not clear to the real people involved.

The Wire features a massive cast of characters, all of which are beautifully realized; all are flawed in some way; and all are trapped in, and ultimately betrayed by their institutions. Despite the huge cast, each character acts consistently, and yet it is a testament to the quality of writing that each and every character grows in some way through the five seasons.

On that note, The Wire is relentlessly realistic. Its creator, David Simon, was a Baltimore Sun newspaperman covering the police beat, and his main cohort Ed Burns a Baltimore policeman and later a school teacher. The writers who support them likewise base their writing on real first hand experiences and a deep understanding of their subject matter. The writing team are masters of the found. The show contains countless events, characters and pieces of dialogue which actually happened or which are based on actual events. “Stealing life” as Simon calls it. The cast is predominantly black, a rarity in American TV, but entirely consistent with Baltimore’s demographics. The Wire is very true to Baltimore; in fact Baltimore is the star of the show. Likewise the vernacular used in the show is real, as spoken in the current day by drug dealers on the streets or by policemen or journalists. There are no pauses for neat explanations and so it can sometimes be difficult to follow conversations, but very rewarding when you do start to catch on to the lingo. This realism is taken to its extreme by the inclusion in the cast (especially as extras) of non actors including real life policemen, drug dealers, politicians, and journalists (and even a drug dealer Burns put away for a 34 year sentence back in 1984 – he must have got out early!)

Most importantly, The Wire is immensely entertaining. If you love The Sopranos, you will love The Wire. It works as a cop show, but it will spoil cop shows for you forever. As Simon puts it, anyone who has seen the Wire won’t be able to “watch C.S.I. or N.Y.P.D. Blue or Law & Order again without knowing that every punch was pulled on those shows”. The show also has a wealth of truly great characters. Everyone will have their favourite characters*, but all of the characters are interesting and believable and compelling: You care about them. The Wire is also extremely funny, much more so to my mind than equivalent dramatic shows. If you are not yet convinced, and want to taste some of the funny parts then watch the detectives move a desk, or investigate a murder scene while chatting in their own unique language, or drink or just reminisce (the scenes where the police get drunk are particularly funny – and realistic!)

I cannot urge you strongly enough: Watch The Wire, now.

* Some of my favourites include:

Omar, a gay, charismatic, ruthless yet honourable gangster, who robs only drug dealers and whistles while he does it (possibly the coolest fictional character since Batman) (PS Omar is also Obama’s favourite character);

“Bubbles” (or just plain “Bubs” if you know him well), a junkie, scammer and informant who is the soul of the show;

Felicity “Snoop” Pearson (real name: Felicity “Snoop” Pearson) who plays a drug enforcer and who in real life has served a prison sentence for murder, back when she was really in the drug trade (and who Steven King has called “perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series”);

And of course, the po-lice: McNutty (pronounced the “Bubs” way, or McNulty otherwise), a deeply flawed man who one can’t help but like very much; or Lester or Kima or Bunk or… actually I like all the characters