A number of years ago my friend Brian popped over for a weekend of gaming and afterwards pulled out some DVDs he had brought along and thus was my introduction to HBO’s Cops and Druggies drama The Wire.

Set in Baltimore in 2002, when the series aired, The Wireparticularly the first season focused on a special police unit established to investigate and charge a local drug lord. What set The Wire apart from so many other crime and police shows was its intense dedication of depicting the reality of crime and policing on the streets of Baltimore. It is a police show where the police officers never engage in gun battles with the bad guys and are more often screwed over by departmental politics than and clever criminal conniving. Equally the drug dealers, from the teens on the corner to the masterminds are fully realized three dimensional characters removed from a simplistic portrayal of either being all good or all bad with the same humanity shown to the addicts trapped in their wretched lives. The Wire showed us people trapped in system not of their own making and which curtailed their choices and both police and criminals made choices that were both good and bad. After the first season the focus drifted a bit and while always interesting that lack of clear intent did seem to diminish the series.

Two weeks ago, I queued up the first episode intending simply to watch a few minutes before heading off the sleep. Instead, I was sucked into the intense personal drama and now I am watching an episode a night. I shall likely drop this re-watch once the season ends but it is good to see that quality acting, production, and writing remain irresistible nearly twenty years after its creation.

The Wire streams on HBOMax and HBO.