Cheap Cds - The Wire : Complete HBO Season 1

Back to The Wire : Complete HBO Season 1

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Outstanding - just get beyond the first episode
Comment: I watched the first episode of the Wire a few months ago and wasn't sure what to make of it and
allowed the box set to gather dust on the shelf. However, while on holiday I started watching 2 or 3
episodes at a time and suddenly it had a rhythm that wasn't there before. This isn't some quick fix
TV like Lost or 24, this unfolds like a novel (unsurprising as the show features writing from the
likes of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos) and rewards the viewer who follows the simple
instruction on the cover of the box 'Listen Carefully'. I'm now on series 4 and it gets better and
better - I envy those who haven't yet discovered this brilliant series - they have such an treat in
store for them.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Life on the streets
Comment: I've read a lot of reviews about how The Wire is difficult viewing. Is it? It's certainly viewing
that demands your concentration. You can't turn it on while you're doing something else because you
have to watch what's happening, but I think if you've seen Homicide: Life on the Street you will
have an idea of the politics and philosophy behind the show.

And well you might,
because the show's creator David Simon wrote the novel that Homicide is based on, as well as a few
episodes of the show, and the Wire is based in Baltimore, albeit focussing more on drugs than on
homicides.

The characters are real. They have failings and strengths, they're good at
some things but not at others, they can be irrational and emotional. This means you can find
yourself liking characters who have made dodgy lifestyle choices, just as you can find yourself
hating the cops.

But that's not special. That's what writing is meant to be like. We
forget because television drama is nowadays written to appeal to markets, but drama used to have
real characters.

Is it slow? I didn't notice because so much was going on. Does it
have swearing and violence? Well, yeah. But it's about cops and drug dealers. And yeah, there's
the seemingly obligatory strip joint that all American crime shows must feature (sigh) but I'll let
it off that one.

It has humour, it has political commentary, it has good drama. />
What it is is a cracking little show, well worth your money if you're a fan of Homicide or
NYPD Blue or if you like examinations of morality.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Cop drama for the intelligent
Comment: Before you consider the 5* reviews and purchase this set you should take the following into account.
This is a gritty, hard and multi layered crime drama set in the world of drug dealing and use at the
lowest social level. There's little glamour and the storline unravels slowly but at a consistent
pace. The language is quite full on but never over the top or gratuitous.
However, the acting
is first rate with the characters, especially the 'baddies' very real and strong. You can believe
this is actual policework, slow, political, ponderous and covered in red tape.
If you've got
the stamina and concentration this is a very rewarding watch, if you want fast paced glossy action
it isn't.
I've rated at four stars because this isn't the best drama i've ever seen, however
it's an HBO series which is a recomendation in itself. Finally, if you've booked a holiday in
Baltimore do not watch the series, you'll be cancelling the trip.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Flawlessly good
Comment: The Wire is, at first glance, Yet Another Cop Show, about a group of disparate and conflicted police
officers working to bring down criminals who are often not much better than they are. Yawn. However,
there are two things that mean that people should take this seriously. Firstly, it's made by HBO
who, up to a couple of years ago anyway, seemed physically incapable of making something unless it
was absolutely gripping and awesome. Secondly, it's the creation of former police writer and
journalist David Simon, whose previous show was the brilliant Homicide: Life on the Street. />
The Wire kicks off on the mean streets of Baltimore, Maryland. A murder case against a
young black man named D'Angelo Barksdale collapses when one of the witnesses is scared into
retracting her testimony. The furious judge learns from homicide detective Jimmy McNulty that
D'Angelo is a junior member of a far-reaching criminal gang run by his cousin, the extremely elusive
Avon Barksdale. This gang controls all the drug supplies on the west side of the city, and are
protected by a labyrinth of legit front organisations. Determined to get some payback, the judge
uses his influence to have a special joint homicide-narcotics unit formed to bring down the
Barksdale gang, with McNulty assigned and an up-and-coming officer named Lt. Daniels placed in
charge.

The investigation into the Barksdale organisation by the unit forms the
backbone of the first season of the show, but that's just one side of the story. We also get to see
the investigation from the POV of the criminals themselves, most notably D'Angelo as he finds
himself free but busted down to supplying the lowest of the estates, as well as the kids who work
for him. A dangerous, unpredictable third faction is also in play in the form of the one-man army
Omar Little, a criminal whose personal code means he can only steal from other criminals. The police
try to form an alliance with Omar to bring down Barksdale, but their erstwhile ally has an
unfortunate tendency to blow away the criminals they're trying to get locked up, which makes this a
difficult task.

The appeal of The Wire is hard to explain to those who haven't seen it.
It's fairly slow-moving (although never dull) in places and arguably takes two or three episodes to
really kick in. It's also pretty unforgiving if you miss an episode. Flashbacks to prior episodes
are non-existent, and plot points and character and emotional arcs often turn on a single
conversation from several episodes earlier. You need to pay attention here. Luckily, that's made
easy by the tight writing, the ingenious methods the criminals go to avoid being caught and the even
more intelligent methods the police need to use to investigate them, and the acting. It'd be almost
impossible to single out any of the actors for praise. British actor Dominic West has the closest
thing to a central role as McNulty, and handles the character very well, but Lance Reddick (more
recently seen as the enigmatic Abbadon in Lost) holds every scene he's in as the formidable Lt.
Daniels. Clarke Peters develops his character of Lester Freamon from almost a background role to
that of the most intelligent and confident officer on the team in a natural and impressive manner.
John Doman's constantly-infuriated performance as McNulty's commanding officer and eternal nemesis
Major Rawls has to be mentioned as well.

On the criminal side of things, British actor
Idris Elba (formerly seen as Vaughn in the excellent Ultraviolet) impresses as Stringer Bell, Avon
Barksdale's trusted number-two man, and Larry Gilliard Jr. provides the main criminal POV as 'D'
Barksdale, as he tries to claw his way back up the organisation amidst growing concerns about how
the family does business. For most people - including Barak Obama - the stand-out performances in
the show belong to two of the more morally ambiguous characters, namely Michael K. Williams as the
dangerously unpredictable Omar and Andre Royo as 'Bubs', a street informant struggling with his own
drug addiction. Royo's performance was so convincing that whilst filming he was offered a heroin fix
by a passer-by who thought he badly needed it, and later referred to this as his 'street Oscar'. />
The cast is uniformally brilliant, the writing is fantastic and the show is, surprisingly,
very funny. Whether it's the stories of some mind-bogglingly stupid criminals, or the ridiculous
difficulties the team faces at getting a desk into their basement office, or Bubs' methods of
identifying suspects for the police observers, the show has a jet-black vein of comedy which gives
several laughs per episode. This is necessary because the show can be quite bleak, showing as it
does wasted young lives amidst the crumbling tenements of a poor city, and a lot of the characters
die in rather unpleasant ways over the course of the investigation. The investigation also ends
messily, and the fates of many of the characters is left wide open for the second season.
/>The Wire: Season 1 (*****) takes a couple of episodes to build up a head of steam and get you into
its headspace, but once that's done it never lets go.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Utterly Compelling Television
Comment: The Wire, simply, is about Baltimore's drug trade told from the the point of view of the police, the
dealers, the bosses and the users. It's a complicated issue with heros and villains on each side
with those divisions sometimes blurring.

This is all told in an uncompromising way -
with slang laden dialogue, violence and moral turpitude. The viewer in firstly considered to be
smart and full of attention because things happen so fast that you sometimes miss things. The
characters are complex and develop over SEASONS rather than episodes and one finds oneself warming
to not just the police but the protagonists.

I think that this is one of the best
series that I have seen - it's up there with The West Wing, 24, Six Feet Under and Rescue Me. I
think The Wire pips it because it is so well made and so uncompromising with characters so rich that
you question whether they are actors at all. HBO must be considered, at this point, to be at the
apex of television as an art form.

An absolute must see.

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