So, I got into this show VERY late, but I might not have gotten into it at all. Above is the promo for the fifth season of The Wire. It is slowly growing into one of my favorite television shows ever. Let me break it down:

1. It is a true serial series. As enjoyable as it can be to sit down and watch an episode of CSI, SVU, or CI, there is something about a serial series. I can’t speak about 24, but even though Lost has this over arching theme for the whole series/season, it still packages each episode which you could technically watch individually. The Wire doesn’t have any of that. There is a theme for each season, but you really need to watch from beginning to the end. No show-to-show stories…watch the season or you won’t get it. I like that.
2. Crazy amounts of characters that have personalities immediately. I kid you not…in just the first 5 episodes, there must be at least 30 to 40 regulars. Plus, they all aren’t just caricatures of some cliched character…they seem whole right away like you can relate to them. The actors really nail everything.
3. In relation to the above, even though nothing earth shattering happens every episode, it is interesting as hell. The dialog is on point. It adds interest through its mutliple characters and scene changes. You really have to keep up. It is almost like you take a really good, dialog heavy movie and just chop it up.
4. It’s really like no other show I’ve watched. Even though it seems on the outside to be a cop show, it bares no resemblance to any other show on television…ever. The fact this thing got greenlit…even on HBO or any other cable channel….is amazing.

I have actually found it difficult to watch other television shows because The Wire does things so differently, everything else just seems to pale in comparison. I hate to call it “the thinking man’s show” but in this day and age of easily consumable entertainment, The Wire is anti-TV.