Product Details

• Actors: Dominic West, Chris Bauer, Paul Ben-Victor, John Doman, Idris Elba
• Directors: Brad Anderson, Clark Johnson, Clément Virgo, Daniel Attias, Edward Bianchi
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 10
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: HBO Home Video
• DVD Release Date: January 25, 2005
• Run Time: 1495 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0006V4KY0
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,334 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Drama > Television > The Wire

• For more information about "The Wire - The Complete First and Second Seasons" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
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.

It hardly seems possible, but The Wire's second season is even better than the first. The "visual novel" concept of this masterful HBO series is taken even further in a rich, labyrinthine plot revolving around the longshoremen of Baltimore's struggling cargo docks, where corruption, smuggling, and murder draw the attention of detective McNulty (Dominic West), who's been demoted to harbor patrol while his former colleagues have been similarly reassigned following season 1. What brings them back together is a series of events which at first seem unrelated (including 13 bodies found in a cargo container), and their ongoing effort to topple the drug empire of "Stringer" Bell (Idris Elba) and the imprisoned Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris), whose business is suffering from short supply, high demand, and disruption of distribution. The dutiful diligence of a Marine Police Patrol Officer and the moral outrage of the longshoremen's union leader are also factored into the suspicious goings-on at the loading docks, and what unfolds in these 12 episodes is an American crime epic easily on par with the Godfather saga. Yes, it's that good.

Detailed synopsis is pointless; The Wire must be seen, heard, and absorbed to fully appreciate the way in which over 40 characters are flawlessly incorporated into a sprawling but tightly disciplined plot that deals, in the larger sense, with the deindustrialization of America and the struggle of longshoremen in a changing economical climate. Offering a privileged and occasionally frightening glimpse of the inner workings of shipping ports and cargo transports, The Wire is also a detailed exposé of organized crime and blue-collar corruption, and an authentic, well-informed study of political maneuvering among police and city officials. There's not a single false note to be found in the cast, direction, or writing of this phenomenal series, hailed by many critics as "the best show on television." With all due respect to HBO's other excellent series, The Wire tops them all. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the Sopranos , December 14, 2005

By	Reggie L. Mattocks (Upper Marlboro, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Though it isn't given the National publicity as the Sopranos, the Wire undoubtedly is much better. I say that not taking away from how good the Sopranos is, but the fact is the Wire is not only showing you Baltimore's Hood, but every ghetto hood across America. From D.C. to Philly to the brick city in Jersey, to the 5 boroughs in NYC, to the dirty dirty down south, to them wards in Texas, all the way to Cali. Granted, most of the characters in the Wire dress and talk East Coast, the struggles and lifestyles are no different in the drug game. The Wire is not afraid to show you the gully side of drugs, police corruption, political corruption, and dishoner amongst men and women who break bread together and will off each other or their families over principle. This is basically a reflection of what our society has become and The Wire doesn't try to sugarcoat it or hide that fact. Probably why it's on HBO and not on regular TV (Is there such a thing as free regular TV anymore?). The acting is top notch from everyone including extras. This set gets watched just as much as my Godfather, Heat, Goodfellas, Casino or Scarface movies do. It's on the same level.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second the Motion, July 31, 2005

By	D. Shein (Oregon) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm jealous: the Amazon editorial review above is a 100 percent bull's-eye, and I wish I had written it.

This IS the best show on HBO (or on television for that matter). The writing has a richness and precision that is not describable and the casting is as perfect as I have ever seen. The storylines are intricate and gripping, the characters are layered and real, and the acting is beyond description -- there isn't a weak performance, or even an average one, anywhere. From top to bottom, The Wire is brilliant. Its craft is stunning and its heart is profound.

More good news: the third season is up to the standard of the first two. With due respect to Hill Street Blues, the Sopranos, and many other greats, this is the best work I have seen on television. The Wire is without peer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The realest series, May 29, 2005

By	C_realla (Brooklyn Park MN) - See all my reviews

The Wire is one of the most raw and realistic shows that portrays all angles of the dope game and street life. It takes place in Baltimore and shows perspective from the police and the drug dealers. The only downside to watching this series is that the episodes are addictive and one can easily spend 3 hours watching all the episodes on a disc.