Great mysteries of TV #47: why does nobody watch The Wire? Despite gushes of critical affection, the best-acted, most complex cops’n’robbers show in television history gets lower viewing figures than the worst cack-brained US sitcoms. It makes you want to weep. Written like a 12-or 13-hour movie rather than a string of 60-minute episodes, The Wire cooks up a detailed and compelling look at the frontline troops on both sides of Boston’s drug wars. It’s not a dip-in, dip-out watch, though – you have to commit for the long haul. Wire-obsessives have been watching detective McNulty and his crew of cops failing to build a case against drug lord Stringer Bell for two seasons and it’s only now, in year three, they finally think they’ve nabbed him.
Acted with slow-burn conviction by a cast who bury themselves in character and boasting scripts by crime novelists like George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane, this is incredible telly. It’s so good that even this extras-lite DVD box set (a handful of commentaries and that’s yer lot) is a must-buy. Indeed, it’s so good that we can’t understand why you’re still reading this when there must be a DVD store open somewhere...
BEST BIT Bit of a spoiler, this: the moment when the series’ über bad guy receives his comeuppance.
