"You come at the king, you best not miss"

So for the past month or so I've been addicted to one of the greatest TV shows ever to grace our small screens; The Wire. After watching Deadwood, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip and The Shield pretty much back to back, catching them all after they had either been cancelled or on hiatus, I decided I'd finally watch the one that has been most applauded by even the most harshest of critics.



The Wire spanned for 5 Seasons, or 60 episodes, before it came to an end. Created by David Simon and Ed Burns, one a former newspaper reporter and the other an ex-detective, the story followed the realistic struggles of the police and their gangland counterparts. However, this would be selling the show short as it covered a wide variety of characters from varied backgrounds. The show was highly realistic and, even as a non-US resident, I saw a lot of similarities between how the city of Baltimore's police force and underworld worked when compared to that of my own city.



The Wire was never about one character, constantly intertwining the stories of the people of Baltimore until the show had a cast larger than that of most other well established TV Shows. The cast of the show was another huge draw for me, as most of the shows fictional cast was made of the very people who had influenced the creators to write the show in the first place and others where actors with a very similar upbringing to the characters they portrayed.



I could yatter on for years about this show. I'm amazed how lost I felt without it once I had seen the last episode but it has inspired me to maybe write something similar set in my own city (I'm an aspiring Director/Screenwriter didn't you know?). I've also made a point of not giving away any of the plot of the show as it's far better having no idea where the show is going to go next. I'll end on this note: If you watch The Wire and you don't think that Omar Little is the coolest man to ever appear on your TV with a shotgun, whistling "The Farmer in the Dell", then I really need to watch more TV...