![]() Wood Harris plays the elusive Avon Barksdale to perfection, Larry Gilliard, Jr. The same holds true for the other side of the law. The performances are wonderfully realistic, deep, and completely believable. It's an elaborate game of cat-and-mouse that shows the war on drugs (or is it a personal war after all?) from different sides. Over 13 episodes, The Wire chronicles a turbulent investigation by a ragtag task force working with low tech equipment out of a cold basement, including plenty of hard case work, chases, shootouts (both with guns and with cameras), and wiretapping. Without giving too much away, the basic premise is that Baltimore law enforcement has its sights set on taking down drug kingpin Avon Barksdale. Taking the viewpoint of both the police and the drug pushers it tries to infiltrate, the show presents the viewer with a layered approach to crime drama that takes more cues from documentaries and movie classics like The Conversation than contemporary cop shows on network TV. The first season of The Wire follows a complex and utterly gripping police investigation set among the projects of West Baltimore. ![]() Luckily, HBO today released the entire first season on DVD so even the non-TiVo-owning public gets a second chance at seeing what is easily one of the best cop dramas ever made. Considering the critical acclaim, it's confounding that the show has yet to break through and gain the level of viewer recognition of HBO's big guns. ![]() Ever heard of The Wire? The show may have been inexplicably snubbed by the Emmys, but virtually every major publication that knows what's what on television has heaped David Simon's Baltimore-based cop show with accolades.
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