Forget Netflix & Amazon Prime: the best series of all time is somewhere else!

“The wire“ is a devastatingly authentic mix of gripping thriller, moving character drama and biting social criticism. The series was created, developed and produced by former police reporter David Simon for the American pay-TV channel HBO (“The Sopranos”, “Game Of Thrones”).

Since the end of “The Wire” in 2008, Simon has continued to intellectually entertain audiences with excellent titles such as “Generation Kill,” “Treme,” “Show Me A Hero,” “The Deuce” and most recently “The Plot Against America” ‘, challenging TV entertainment. Nevertheless, ‘The Wire’ is and remains his absolute masterpiece. Even years after I first saw the series, I still occasionally think about individual storylines and am fascinated by the clever interweaving of exciting fiction and sad reality.

If you look around any major American city, away from the tourist attractions, the posh wealthy neighborhoods or the tidy business districts, you will see that the gap between rich and poor is much wider there than in this country. The outcome of the government’s ‘War on Drugs’, once grandly heralded but soon waged solely for cynical PR purposes, usually looks like this: the state and its often corrupt regional authorities allow the weak to society almost to its own devices. Drug trafficking in particular is conducted openly and in many areas the law of the stronger or the more ruthless applies. Exactly as depicted in “The Wire”.

The series captures this phenomenon in a shockingly realistic way. The few police officers, politicians, lawyers, social workers, journalists, teachers or private individuals who are committed to combating the situation, as well as the gangsters and junkies who usually have no other way of life, are considered as portrayed tangible, complex people. The audience can identify with various, often very different characters. For me, this is exactly what makes “The Wire” so special.

All 60 episodes of “The Wire” are currently included in the flat-rate subscription to WOW (formerly Sky Ticket). So before you jump into the next mediocre Netflix series that the streaming service is pushing with all its might, watch WOW and read this brilliant milestone in TV history:

But the series can also continue DVD* And Blu-ray* or with other streaming providers such as Amazon Prime paid video on demand* be acquired.

That’s what “The Wire” on WOW is about

Baltimore, shortly after the turn of the millennium: Violent crime and drug trafficking in urban hotspots are at all-time highs. Usually the authorities just look the other way. Officials no longer believe they can get the situation back under control.

Thanks to his perseverance, the idealistic detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) still manages to form a special unit, consisting of representatives of the murder squad and the narcotics squad. However, this is a thorn in the side of the powerful Major Rawls (John Doman) and there is no support from above. Besides McNulty’s few confidants (including Wendell Pierce), there are only officers no one else in the department wants to work with (Clarke Peters, Sonja Sohn, etc.).

The police’s first target is the highly efficient organization of drug lord Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) and his highly intelligent partner Stringer Bell (Idris Elba). McNulty & Co. want to find out more about the duo via pager and telephone surveillance, but they have no idea what unscrupulous behavior they are capable of…

What makes “The Wire” so great

Unlike TV crime hits that started around the same time, like the “CSI” shows, “Criminal Minds” or the various “Law & Order” spinoffs, there is no crude division into black and white or good and evil . . All figures move in all possible shades of gray. We have dealers and murderers on one side and cops on the other. But they are all shown with different facets. The real villain of the series is the political and social system that makes such a world possible – that becomes clear as the episodes progress.

A major factor in the series’ credibility is the producers’ decision not to cast familiar faces. In this way, characters can be developed that the audience does not yet have any expectations of based on their actors. Several now established stars such as Idris Elba (“Thor 1 – 3”, “The Suicide Squad”) and Michael B. Jordan (“Creed”, “Black Panther”), but also Dominic West (“300”, “The Crown” ) “), Lance Reddick from the series “John Wick”, Seth Gilliam (“The Walking Dead”), Jamie Hector (“Bosch”) and last but not least Michael K. Williams (“Boardwalk Empire”), who unfortunately has a lot died too early. This is where the big breakthrough was achieved.

Furthermore, the design of the series is nothing short of masterful. The dirty, rough look feels almost depressingly real. There is no distance to accommodate the incidents. The camera – and therefore the audience – is always close by when someone is injured or killed, injects drugs or suffers psychological torment. The dialogues are sometimes quite philosophical in nature, other times direct and realistically coarse – things are clearly expressed. And very importantly: the authors take the time to develop their unforgettable characters and stories in true slow-burn style. All five seasons tell standalone stories. But together they create an absolutely well-rounded, deeply satisfying overall story.