HBO's 'Wire' is a "challenging masterpiece" . . .

[OneBlueSky]

Yes, HBO's 'Wire' is challenging. It's also a masterpiece.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/06/DDG7BKV7HK26.DTL

Over the course of its first three seasons, "The Wire" on HBO has been one of the great achievements in television artistry, a novelistic approach to storytelling in a medium that rewards quick, decisive and clear storytelling. It has never flinched from ambition -- dissecting a troubled American city, Baltimore, as well as and certainly more truly than any history book could have. It has tackled the drug war in this country as it simultaneously explores race, poverty and "the death of the American working class," the failure of political systems to help the people they serve and the tyranny of lost hope. Few series in the history of television have explored the plight of inner-city African Americans and none -- not one -- has done it as well.

(snip)

The whole gist of Season 4, in fact, revolves around education. And not just in the wildly dysfunctional, borderline hopeless Baltimore public schools system, but as has been the way of "The Wire" -- a series that has managed to contrast the mundane failures of office work (police) with the mundane failures of being a drug dealer running a syndicate -- the show will explore all facets of education, from what volunteer boxing instructor Cutty (Chad L. Coleman) brings to young kids trying to stay off the street to what kids on the corner are learning about the drug trade from older dealers to what "Bunny" Colvin (Robert Wisdom), the repudiated major in the police department (who tried to set up a legalized drug experiment), can do to help a Maryland university study at-risk kids.

(snip)

There is a crushing sense of failure at all turns in "The Wire," but that has never, in three seasons, been as disheartening as it might sound. That's because Simon has ratcheted down the age range of where hope meets reality. And at that intersection, we meet a whole new batch of kids on "The Wire." Emphasis on kids. Simon catches them at a crossroads, their innocence still intact despite it all. Their vulnerability exposed. Season 4 follows the lives of a band of grade-school kids who will find out sooner than they should that their world begins and ends at the corner.

It's not Simon who should worry that people won't watch his show because it's difficult. It's viewers who should worry that they are missing the absolute best of what television has to offer merely because it requires effort.

- more . . .

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/06/DDG7BKV7HK26.DTL

[Mabus]

1. We've already watched the first episode of season four

and I can't wait for the second episode!

Simon and Burns use their experiences as former cop, reporter and teacher to really make the show realistic. It is a great series. People should watch "The Corner" too. It is the true story of the Boyd family and their battles with the corner and drugs. The Boyds (Fran and her sons) have been actors in "The Wire".

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. The best series on TV.

We've been watching it since it's inception. Fine acting, fine writing, fine direction and wonderful social commentary.

[Mabus]

3. So did we

The acting is incredible. The characters are so well-written and believable. Oh man, I cried when Wallace got shot. He was one of my favorite characters. It still tugs at my heart.

We're either watching the news shows or the premium channels. One of the reasons we keep HBO is because of "The Wire" and most of its other original programming.

Have you caught the two half-hour specials? They really add to the series.