The Wire: Complete HBO Season 2

See Larger Image	List Price: £50.99 Our Price: £14.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Starring: Dominic West, Chris Bauer, Paul Ben-Victor, John Doman, Idris Elba Directed By: Daniel Attias, Edward Bianchi, Elodie Keene, Ernest R. Dickerson, Rob Bailey Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 7321900725590 Format: PAL Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 5 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2005-10-10 Running Time: 780 Studio: Warner Home Video
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Editorial Reviews: Picking up after the dramatic events of its maiden season, the second series of The Wire achieves something really rather special: it even manages to outclass the first. For those fresh to the show, surely the best, most intelligent piece of scripted drama to emerge from America in the last decade, the actual premise is fairly simple. Across the thirteen episodes of its season, it charts one case, and the numerous influences upon it. So it devotes roughly equal time to those committing the crimes as it does to those chasing them. This time, the Baltimore Police Department have twin worries. There’s the continuing, festering narrative of events from the season before, along with a new problem when a container of dead bodies turns up at the nearby docks. After initial battles over whose statistics the bodies will be attributed to, a fresh case begins for the embattled officers of the Major Crimes Unit. Yet season two is about much more than the case itself. Bubbling under the surface are characters with real problems, that take their toll on the day-to-day, while at the docks themselves there are union struggles underway, which also have a part to play. Thanks to, frankly, superb scripting, these various narrative threads are woven together quite brilliantly, and the result is perhaps the finest series of The Wire to date. And that’s no small feat. If you’re one of the many who have let The Wire fly under their radar thus far, then you’re urged to rectify that. Clearly season one is the logical starting point, but begin your adventure in the knowledge that this second series is simple exceptional. For the rest of the US television industry, this is the standard to aim for. --Simon Brew
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: 2nd Season which does that rare thing of topping the 1st Comment: With the 1st season setting the scene and introducing the characters the 2nd season does that rare thing of being even better, Though the story does still contains the continuing Barksdale story with Stringer Bell holding the reins as Avon alongside his nephew are incarcerated due the conclusions of the investigation in season 1. It is the new strand that drives the 2nd series even more. It introduces the tragic tale of the Sobotka's, a family of Batimore Dockers who's head Frank sometimes goes to not exactly legitimate methods to keep the money coming in but is a generous but compromised man. So when he rubs childhood adversary Deputy Commissioner Valchek up the wrong way with a incident that concerns amongst such things as Church stained glass window, Valchek blackmails a returning Frankie Faison from Season 1 as Commisssioner Burrell for political reasons to getting him to launch an investigation into Frank's activities. When after Burrell tries to buy him off some dead beats determined to do nothing, Valchek requests Daniels langishing in the Police Evidence dungeon to put together another Details to lead the investigation including Valchek's son-in-law a returning "Prez" from season 1. What starts out as a childhood spat gone out of control becomes much bigger when Mcnulty (now Harbour Patrol for his sins) dredges up a Jane Doe in the docks and then connects it to a cargo hold full of 13 dead immigrant girls which Jimmy makes rather maliciously fall in to the jurisdiction of his old boss Major Rawls and ends up being put in the laps of a rather unimpressed Lester & Bunk who base their investigation from Daniels Detail but when their investiagtions become connected end up becoming part of Daniels Detail and after a number of episodes, Daniels agrees to take the case off Rawl's hands in exchange for his co-operation including the one thing Rawls is loathed to grant due to his axe to gring with a certain Detective that used to be part of his squad. This season also looks into Mcnulty's home life and is flawed personality concerning his family life and coming to terms with his demotion and his borderline alcoholism and is just about pulled from the brink when Rawls allows Daniels to get his own way in exchange for taking the 13 jane does off his roster after being convinced by Bunk & Lester that they are connected to Valchek's Sorbotka case. Also Port Cop Officier Beatrice Russell (Amy Ryan) who is initially left with the immigrant girls case till Mcnulty's intervention is a new addition and makes for an interesting a solid but more wet behind the ears member of the team who lacks experience but has connections with the Dockers including Frank himself which assists in the case and becomes a fine a valuable memeber of the Detail. Kima returns after a stint behind a desk due to receovering from her shooting from season 1 much to her now pregnant girlfriends dismay. Herc & now Sergeant Carver also return to complete the Team Season 2 improves on the standard of 1st season by making the storytelling even more compelling, where it's Avon's nephew D'Angelo that was the concience and one of the main drives of the story in season 1, it is Chris Bauer's Frank which is the concern of series 2. Frank is loyal to his workers but is involved in what he thinks his petty smuggling and theft but becomes deeper involved with a dangerous group ran by a man simply named "The Greek". Frank's nephew and son become embroiled in "The Greek's" operation and result in events and actions which will be life changing and tragic for them all. Pablo Schrieber as Frank's nephew Nicky gets deeper in with "The Greek's" right hand Spiros (Paul Ben Victor) who after going behind his Uncle with some scams gets offered the chance of payment in Heroin. Nicky then see's the oppurtunity that Ziggy, Frank's son had tried to intice him into but was reluctant due to Ziggy's firebrand personality and unexperience in dealing. Nicky being a more shrewd, clever and adept at turning his hand to new oppurtunities excepts the heroin and starts dealing in his neighberhood through the local connections, cutting out Ziggy of the scheme which sows the seeds of startling actions later in the season. Daniels and the team concentrate on tracking the drugs, Herc & Carver doing the surveilance and gathering vital info as well as the scams with the stealing of Cargo holds which connect them to Lester & Bunk's Jane Does case. After setting up wire taps and cloning the computer system the dockers use to discover the deceptions they start to zero on in on the Sorbotka's schemes, with Nicky becoming more embroiled and Frank not being aware how deep his Nephew is involved and how unpredictable is son Ziggy is becoming. The story of the port aces' the Barkdale angle of the 1st season by presenting Bauer's tragic but decent Frank and the fate of his families involvement with "The Greek" who seems to have friends in high places who start to throw huge spanners in the Details operation. When the FBI come involved due to Valchek's thirst to bring down Frank the information starts to leak and "The Greek" becomes aware of the operation. The strands of the Barksdale empire become embroiled in the port story as Stringer has to strike a deal with the competition "Propostion Joe's " (Robert F Chew) crew due to lack of product which see's Stringer's grip on Avon's territory slipping made more awkward by Joe's people in a particular "Cheese", (Hip Hop star Wu Tang Clan's "Method Man") as Joe has dealing with Spiros as they are providing him with a steady supply of heroin bought through on the docks. Regulars from series 1 make an apperance, Bubbles continues to thieve to fund his habit and Omar continues to taunt Stringer as well as assisting Mcnulty in putting away a Barksdale soldier arrested due to incidents covered in season 1. Like Soprano's the characters aren't always likeable but compelling and make each episode fly by, the detail in the storytelling is astonishing and is truly masterful. An With 3 more seasons to go I'm practically salivating for some more of this stunning piece of TV. Yes! The Wire really is that Good! Customer Rating: Summary: The quality continues Comment: It didn't take me long after finishing the first series to start watching the second. With the main characters all established the storyline switches to a new case based around the docks whilst the underlying baltimore drugs scene continues in the background, often blurring into the main case. Its very clever the way the story from series one continues into series two giving continuity and realism and helps resolve the questions and issues left unanswered. Certainly if you enjoyed the first series the second series is an obvious 'must watch' and for those people they can be assured its more of the same high quality viewing. For new viewers you should be starting with series one (obviously) as it sets the scene for what i assume will be the complete five series collection perfectly - Put your toe in the water with the first series, if you like it snap up the next four when you see them at the right price! I gave the first series a 4* rating and this series 5. In fact both series are equal and i was maybe a little unfair to the first one. Enjoy TV drama at its very best Customer Rating:* Summary: Excellent. Comment: When The Wire started it was easy to see it as just another cop show, until its overwhelmingly high quality lifted it onto another level. After all, the narrative of Season 1 was simply that of cops versus drug dealers, with some murky political dealings on the side but these were left relatively unexplored. Season 2, however, shows creator David Simon's real plan: he is trying to craft the definitive portrayal of the turn-of-the-century American city. Like a Grand Theft Auto game, progressing onto Season 2 'unlocks' another chunk of the city, this time the docks and a new cast of characters, including Eastern European criminals, the unions and their families, and introduces an important new thread to the tapestry of the show. At the end of Season 1, Lt. Daniels' unit successfully cracked the Barksdale case, but political infighting between different police departments saw arrests made prematurely. Whilst Avon and D'Angelo were sent down, the evidence against Avon was flimsy and his time inside was limited, whilst back on the street the formidable Stringer Bell has been put in charge. Meanwhile, Daniels has been booted down to work in the evidence lock-up and McNulty has been sent over to the harbour patrol, to his extreme annoyance, whilst Freamon and Bunt are working in homicide. When McNulty fishes a body out of the harbour and port authority police officer Beadie Russell uncovers thirteen corpses in a freight container, the police's attention is turned to the harbour. This garners the interest of Commander Valchek, who is anxious to bring down the head of the stevedores' union, Frank Sobotka, after his union raises more cash for the local church's new stained-glass windows than Valchek's. Season 2 of The Wire sprawls slightly more than the first season, a result of the story having to incorporate a large number of new characters and locations whilst at the same time keeping tabs on the characters from Season 1. The project gangs, Stringer Bell, Omar and so forth are firmly on the back-burner for the season, with their story forming a subplot that clears up some loose ends from the first season and sets up the events of Season 3, where they return to prominence. Whilst characters such as Omar and Bubs get limited screen time as a result compared to the first year, at least they don't vanish altogether. Luckily, the new characters are a good match for the originals. Union politics and the gradual loss of American industry and hands-on labour are covered in a fascinating manner. Frank Sobotka (played by Chris Bauer) is the character whom the season's themes centre on, showing how an essentially decent man who values loyalty and fair play is gradually morally eroded, ground down by the city institutions and effectively destroyed, whilst the start of the same process is shown happening to his nephew Nicky (Pablo Schreiber). On the law-enforcement side, Amy Ryan makes a good impression as Beadie Russell, the working beat officer who is pulled into the detective unit formed to investigate the port situation and finds herself out of her depth, until she steps up. On the street side of things, the fascinating character of Brother Mouzone (Michael Potts) is introduced very late in the season, as more pieces are set up for the third year. The Wire remains dramatically intense, with several deaths (one in particular) and shocking plot developments meaning you don't know who is safe, or who can be trusted. The show's black sense of humour is retained (the entire investigation starts due to a personal feud between Valchek and Sobotka over whose union gives more money to their local church), the fascinating investigative tactics used by the police are expanded upon and the increasingly bleak portrayal of the modern American city is balanced by a few decent characters and moments of hope. The Wire: Season 2 (***) takes slightly longer to get going than Season 1, but remains gripping, intelligent and adult television and the climax is much harsher. Customer Rating: Summary: High quality drama Comment: Having been unimpressed with first series of The Wire, I only started watching this, the second series, due to the endless critical praise that I kept seeing every time I picked up a newspaper. And I'm glad I did. The second series of The Wire is a huge improvement on the first. The story is deliberately slow to get into its stride but nevertheless is compelling from the opening credits to the final fade. This is a high quality Police drama which shows the good and the bad in everyone; the criminals, the stevedores and the Police all have very human qualities, both strengths and weaknesses, and the divide between crime and order is a realistically hazy one. A highly realistic drama showing the pitfalls of Police investigative techniques, the hard graft that is Police work and the real difficulties securing evidence against those running the crime families. In the end the team has some success but, unlike dire series like The Shield and CSI, they don't always get their man. The interweaving storylines all add to the mix and give a much fuller picture than you get from the typical Police drama. I can't wait to watch the next three. Customer Rating: Summary: blood is thicker than water Comment:** Despite bringing in a case (of sorts) at the end of last season there is a fair bit of fallout for Baltimore's boys in blue at the beginning of season two. Lieutenant Daniels has been banished to the basement archives and McNulty is a fish out of water working with the harbour police. In fact the first few episodes show brilliantly how ill at ease he is. His barrel chest looks likely to topple him over the side of the boat and there's a repeating joke about his inability to tie any kind of knot. The action shifts for the most part away from the projects run by Avon Barksdale (who now languishes in jail with his nephew D'Angelo) and his crew and to the docks where stevedores and longshoremen ply their trade. In the modern age there is plenty of money to be made from those anonymous looking shipping containers but when one of them is found to contain the bodies of 14 eastern European women a new case begins. Some slightly transparent plotting allows Daniels out of his underground exile with carte blanche to assemble his old detail (and the promise that if they bring in a case the team will become permanent - very handy for subsequent series) but once things get going it's just nice to have them all back together again. Only McNulty is left adrift and we see his private life following that familiar collision course from the first season. His drunken conversations with 'Bunk' are a particular highlight (and should come with subtitles of their own). We also get to meet Mrs McNulty for the first time as he tries to patch together his relationship. At the centre of the case is the Sobotka family: Frank is a union official, knee-deep in corruption, his nephew Nick, short on hours at the docks, is doing what it takes to make money whilst also trying to keep Frank's son Ziggy from messing it all up. This series lacks some of the interest of the first. The dock workers can be difficult to care about at times because they are often shown to be just plain stupid. Higher up the ladder is 'The Greek' who with his constantly clicking worry beads is the enigmatic boss. The police work too doesn't get its hooks into you in the same way. Perhaps because of what they've learnt from the first case it all feels far more procedural rather than as if they're feeling their way through. But this is still a compelling series as we watch the personal lives of the team develop, that conflict between home and work putting strains on relationships. Barksdale's crew continue to fascinate and it is Stringer Bell, played brilliantly by British actor Idris Elba, who exerts all the power whilst Avon does his time inside. His hands are on everything, and I mean everything, and I wonder how that might develop in season three. Could there be some possible conflict in the future? The thief Omar is the other really strong character, still stalking the streets looking to revenge the murder of his 'boy'. Underneath his chilling exterior there is that passion of a man wronged and he is given some of the more memorable utterances. The script continues to be wonderfully baffling at times and maybe suffers in places from much more obvious political point making but whilst it may not have been as impressive a series it still remains far more engaging, serious and worth watching than anything comparable from this side of the water. More Reviews