The Wire - The Complete First Season
by Clark Johnson
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DVD details
Actor: Dominic West, Idris Elba, Jr. Larry Gilliard, Sonja Sohn, Wendell PierceDirector: Clark Johnson
Brand: WIRE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 775 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: HBO Home Video
Product features:
- From David Simon, creator and co-writer of HBO's triple Emmy-winning mini-series The Corner, this unvarnished, highly realistic HBO series follows a single sprawling drug and murder investigation in Baltimore. Told from the point of view of both the police and their targets, the series captures a universe of subterfuge and surveillance, where easy distinctions between good and evil, and crime and
DVD Reviews of The Wire - The Complete First Season
DVD Review: The best cop series I have ever seen
Summary: 5 Stars
I came to this series with very very high expectations: it is supposed to be realistic with ambiguous outcomes and the realization of a wider tableau than normally expected in pat cop melodramas. I was astonished to find that it surpassed my expectations by an order of magnitude, to the point that I unequivocally believe that this is the best coherent drama that I have ever seen on TV. This isn't about taut drama that is self-contained in a single episode and full of deus ex machina resolutions, but a long multifaceted narrative with complex characters and deep themes on urban America at a time of industrial decline. The acting - all by relative unknowns who are perfectly cast - could not be better: the subtlety and slow evolution of the characters is unprecedented in my view, as is the realism. You get difficult careers, vital political issues, and damaged personal lives, all while fulfilling the calling of being "a police". I have never seen anything like it.
In this first season, a team slowly coalesces into a wonderful combination of talent, fanatical focus, and mission. McNulty is the emotional focus of the team: he is a screwup with an alcohol problem, but a great cop. His family life is a disaster, his career in ruins because of his failures to play the politics. Gifted with raw charm and a maniacal focus on getting the bad guys, he finds a way to become a member in an extraordinary team. Though he has many internal enemies, there are many people of great talent he can latch onto. He is a realistic participant in the Baltimore ecosystem of struggling workers in a deindutrialized economy, sociopathic drug dealers, corrupted politicians, and caring citizens, including cops. One of his greatest enemies is the need to maintain statistics in the drug war, going for short-term showiness that hinders deeper investigations into crime lords who are entering legitimate businesses.
The underworld is a parallel universe with its own rituals and ethic. The characters in it are also great, with vividly believable nicknames, like string and little man, and they are realistic personalities. There are outcasts in it who are parasites in conflict with the organized crime figures who are corrupting politics in the city (e.g. Omar v. Stringer), pathetic junkies who try to survive (e.g. Bubbles), and young ghetto rats trying to make it and willing to murder their adversaries to do so.
What is the most interesting, for me, was the portrayal of the extraordinary intricacy, each with its uncertainties and consequences, of the way that a prosecutorial case must be put together. While somewhat successful, it leaves much to be done, in the next seasons. There are baddies pursued, and their organization in all its intricate parts become potential targets in a legal proceedings, with wonderful lawyers developing them with egotistical judges.
Each episode is dense, but dependent on the others and ever more densely complex. You can watch them multiple times, with deeper perception of them at each viewing. It is best not to watch too many in one sitting, but at most 2 per evening.
This is some of the best TV I have ever experienced. Recommended with the greatest enthusiasm.
DVD Review: Love it
Summary: 5 Stars
Acting, writing, sound of this series is fantastic. I enjoyed it and would watch it all again and again, although not normally have I been a fan of HBO or crime drama.DVD Review: No spoilers here just a strong recommendation
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished watching Season 5 of The Wire and can say without a doubt that this series is an amazing journey from beginning (Season 1) to end (Season 5). This show is for those that crave interesting storylines, unpredictable plot twists, characters that really grow on you from episode to episode, season to season and still somehow stay grounded to reality...its a show that breaks the rules and challenges the viewer. Even though this show didnt win tons of awards like The Sopranos it is in my opinion a more rewarding viewing experience than The Sopranos. This show is not for those who are impatient and have short attention spans or want instant gratification...if you are then you won't last the first few episodes of season 1. The beauty of The Wire is that it grows and evolves so by the time you reach the final season things fall into place in such a masterful way that it is time well spent. So if your ready for the journey then grab Season 1, keep an open mind, be patient, and absorb this masterpiece.
DVD Review: Great show!
Summary: 5 Stars
This season is suspenseful, interesting, and very well done. The character development is fantastic. Only bad thing is that it does not come in wide screen. DVD Review: LOVE THIS SHOW
Summary: 4 Stars
I very rarely watch a series on cable but when I heard about THE WIRE and read some great reviews I felt it was worth a watch.I am glad I did!This show has so much detail to characters and plot and sub plots I cant believe all this stuff is based on real life experences and I have only watched the first season..The actors who are not celeberty types do a fantastic job on their portrayl of characters and I also understand there are some actual real people from the Baltimore streets in it as well.If you like realism and not just some writer taking a guess at what goes on this WIRE IS HIGHLY RECOMENDED..
Description of The Wire - The Complete First Season
Told from the points of view of cops and criminals alike, follows a drug investigation in Baltimore, MD.No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: WIRE
Title: SEASON 1
Street Release Date: 06/06/2006
Genre: TELEVISION
After one episode of The Wire you'll be hooked. After three, you'll be astonished by the precision of its storytelling. After viewing all 13 episodes of the HBO series' remarkable first season, you'll be cheering a bona-fide American masterpiece. Series creator David Simon was a veteran crime reporter from The Baltimore Sun who cowrote the book that inspired TV's Homicide, and cowriter Ed Burns was a Baltimore cop, lending impeccable street-cred to an inner-city Baltimore saga (and companion piece to The Corner) that Simon aptly describes as "a visual novel" and "a treatise on institutions and individuals" as opposed to a conventional good-vs.-evil police procedural. Owing a creative debt to the novels of Richard Price (especially Clockers), the series opens as maverick Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West, in a star-making role) is tapping into a vast network of drugs and death around southwest Baltimore's deteriorating housing projects. With a mandate to get results ASAP, a haphazard team is assembled to join McNulty's increasingly complex investigation, built upon countless hours of electronic surveillance.
The show's split-perspective plotting is so richly layered, so breathtakingly authentic and based on finely drawn characters brought to life by a perfect ensemble cast, that it defies concise description. Simon, Burns, and their cowriters control every intricate aspect of the unfolding epic; directors are top-drawer (including Clark Johnson, helmer of The Shield's finest episodes), but they are servants to the story, resulting in a TV series like no other: unpredictable, complicated, and demanding the viewer's rapt attention, The Wire is "an angry show" (in Simon's words) that refuses to comfort with easy answers to deep-rooted societal problems. Moral gray zones proliferate in a universe where ruthless killers have a logical code, and where the cops are just as ambiguous as their targets. That ambiguity extends to the ending as well; season 1 leaves several issues unresolved, leaving you begging for the even more impressive developments that await in season 2. --Jeff Shannon
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