THE WIRE

It gets kind of sad when you know there's this one great show that totally blows you away, that at times you can't stop thinking about and would want to discuss with someone, but nobody you know has watched it or has even heard of it.

What's more sad is, after I got hooked on The Wire and started reading about it on the Internet, I found out that not much of anyone else around the world has been watching it either despite all the critical acclaim it's received.

But then I suppose this HBO series really isn't for mainstream audiences. For one, it's a cop drama that doesn't have any wild car chases, flashy gunfights or on-cue music. It's gritty, raw, has tons of swearing, sex, violence that'll make you wince, and is hell of a lot more complex than what most people are used to comprehending on the idiot box.

I usually pride myself in being able to guess what's going to happen next in a story, but in The Wire, I find myself constantly surprised and on edge, owing to its subtle writing and the total absence of cliches and stock situations. In a show that carries about fifteen major characters and probably triple or quadruple that amount of side characters, it's just amazing how each one is so fleshed out, delivering some of the best dialogues you're ever going to hear, on-screen or otherwise.

If I can't convince you, take a look at Metacritic.com (a site which gathers reviews from the likes of the Los Angeles Times and Time Magazine), where in their TV section The Wire ranks at the top with a 98% score (an average of 21 major publications reviews) – the only other two shows coming close to it are The Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica. When even a very minor character in a show gets a full article from the New York Times, and with Stephen King raving about her (“perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series”), wouldn't you even be the least bit curious?