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| The Wire : Complete HBO Season 1 | 
 enlarge | Actors: Dominic West, Sonja Sohn
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £50.99
Buy New: £14.98
You Save: £36.01 (71%)
New (15) from £14.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 8
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Running Time: 720 minutes
Number Of Items: 5
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
EAN: 7321900253949
ASIN: B0007IK5Z0
Release Date: April 18, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Television really doesn't come much better than this. Criminally ignored by far, far too many people, The Wire has proven itself to be that rarest of things: an intelligent, clever, character-driven show, that's lasted more than one season.This boxset brings together all the episodes from the maiden series of The Wire, spread across thirteen episodes. Yet those episodes, unlike many in the police genre where the show spends a good deal of its time, are dedicated to just one case. Furthermore, it follows both sides of the case. Thus, there's the Baltimore police department, with its statistics to manage, its internal politics to manage and its chain of command to respect, set against a highly organised drug gang, who too have more than their fair share of problems. The Wire is a slow burn show, taking time to delicate put its pieces in place. Rarely do you get a dramatic end to an episode, and it's not afraid to humanise and blur the lines between good and bad. But, bluntly, there's nothing--not even The Sopranos--that US TV has broadcast in the last ten years that can hold a torch to it. This first series is genuinely outstanding television, and really deserves your attention. And the good news? Excellent as it is, this first series isn't even the best that The Wire has to offer…--Simon Brew
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Cop drama for the intelligent October 9, 2008
Before you consider the 5* reviews and purchase this set you should take the following into account. This is a gritty, hard and multi layered crime drama set in the world of drug dealing and use at the lowest social level. There's little glamour and the storline unravels slowly but at a consistent pace. The language is quite full on but never over the top or gratuitous.
However, the acting is first rate with the characters, especially the 'baddies' very real and strong. You can believe this is actual policework, slow, political, ponderous and covered in red tape.
If you've got the stamina and concentration this is a very rewarding watch, if you want fast paced glossy action it isn't.
I've rated at four stars because this isn't the best drama i've ever seen, however it's an HBO series which is a recomendation in itself. Finally, if you've booked a holiday in Baltimore do not watch the series, you'll be cancelling the trip.
Flawlessly good October 8, 2008
The Wire is, at first glance, Yet Another Cop Show, about a group of disparate and conflicted police officers working to bring down criminals who are often not much better than they are. Yawn. However, there are two things that mean that people should take this seriously. Firstly, it's made by HBO who, up to a couple of years ago anyway, seemed physically incapable of making something unless it was absolutely gripping and awesome. Secondly, it's the creation of former police writer and journalist David Simon, whose previous show was the brilliant Homicide: Life on the Street.
The Wire kicks off on the mean streets of Baltimore, Maryland. A murder case against a young black man named D'Angelo Barksdale collapses when one of the witnesses is scared into retracting her testimony. The furious judge learns from homicide detective Jimmy McNulty that D'Angelo is a junior member of a far-reaching criminal gang run by his cousin, the extremely elusive Avon Barksdale. This gang controls all the drug supplies on the west side of the city, and are protected by a labyrinth of legit front organisations. Determined to get some payback, the judge uses his influence to have a special joint homicide-narcotics unit formed to bring down the Barksdale gang, with McNulty assigned and an up-and-coming officer named Lt. Daniels placed in charge.
The investigation into the Barksdale organisation by the unit forms the backbone of the first season of the show, but that's just one side of the story. We also get to see the investigation from the POV of the criminals themselves, most notably D'Angelo as he finds himself free but busted down to supplying the lowest of the estates, as well as the kids who work for him. A dangerous, unpredictable third faction is also in play in the form of the one-man army Omar Little, a criminal whose personal code means he can only steal from other criminals. The police try to form an alliance with Omar to bring down Barksdale, but their erstwhile ally has an unfortunate tendency to blow away the criminals they're trying to get locked up, which makes this a difficult task.
The appeal of The Wire is hard to explain to those who haven't seen it. It's fairly slow-moving (although never dull) in places and arguably takes two or three episodes to really kick in. It's also pretty unforgiving if you miss an episode. Flashbacks to prior episodes are non-existent, and plot points and character and emotional arcs often turn on a single conversation from several episodes earlier. You need to pay attention here. Luckily, that's made easy by the tight writing, the ingenious methods the criminals go to avoid being caught and the even more intelligent methods the police need to use to investigate them, and the acting. It'd be almost impossible to single out any of the actors for praise. British actor Dominic West has the closest thing to a central role as McNulty, and handles the character very well, but Lance Reddick (more recently seen as the enigmatic Abbadon in Lost) holds every scene he's in as the formidable Lt. Daniels. Clarke Peters develops his character of Lester Freamon from almost a background role to that of the most intelligent and confident officer on the team in a natural and impressive manner. John Doman's constantly-infuriated performance as McNulty's commanding officer and eternal nemesis Major Rawls has to be mentioned as well.
On the criminal side of things, British actor Idris Elba (formerly seen as Vaughn in the excellent Ultraviolet) impresses as Stringer Bell, Avon Barksdale's trusted number-two man, and Larry Gilliard Jr. provides the main criminal POV as 'D' Barksdale, as he tries to claw his way back up the organisation amidst growing concerns about how the family does business. For most people - including Barak Obama - the stand-out performances in the show belong to two of the more morally ambiguous characters, namely Michael K. Williams as the dangerously unpredictable Omar and Andre Royo as 'Bubs', a street informant struggling with his own drug addiction. Royo's performance was so convincing that whilst filming he was offered a heroin fix by a passer-by who thought he badly needed it, and later referred to this as his 'street Oscar'.
The cast is uniformally brilliant, the writing is fantastic and the show is, surprisingly, very funny. Whether it's the stories of some mind-bogglingly stupid criminals, or the ridiculous difficulties the team faces at getting a desk into their basement office, or Bubs' methods of identifying suspects for the police observers, the show has a jet-black vein of comedy which gives several laughs per episode. This is necessary because the show can be quite bleak, showing as it does wasted young lives amidst the crumbling tenements of a poor city, and a lot of the characters die in rather unpleasant ways over the course of the investigation. The investigation also ends messily, and the fates of many of the characters is left wide open for the second season.
The Wire: Season 1 (*****) takes a couple of episodes to build up a head of steam and get you into its headspace, but once that's done it never lets go.
Utterly Compelling Television September 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Wire, simply, is about Baltimore's drug trade told from the the point of view of the police, the dealers, the bosses and the users. It's a complicated issue with heros and villains on each side with those divisions sometimes blurring.
This is all told in an uncompromising way - with slang laden dialogue, violence and moral turpitude. The viewer in firstly considered to be smart and full of attention because things happen so fast that you sometimes miss things. The characters are complex and develop over SEASONS rather than episodes and one finds oneself warming to not just the police but the protagonists.
I think that this is one of the best series that I have seen - it's up there with The West Wing, 24, Six Feet Under and Rescue Me. I think The Wire pips it because it is so well made and so uncompromising with characters so rich that you question whether they are actors at all. HBO must be considered, at this point, to be at the apex of television as an art form.
An absolute must see.
This is what TV should be like September 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've just finished watching at the last ever episode of the wire and was compelled to write a review of this masterpiece. I won't go into too much detail just to say that if you like a superbly written, well acted (for the most part) show that's totally compelling without the need for gimmicks or an unrealistic pace, then this is the show for you, it may take a few episodes to get hooked in but once you are there's no turning back, all the seasons connect up so it truly is epic in scale, yet despite it's complexity, multiple character lines, authentic street talk and shifting plot developments, it's still easy to follow
One small criticism would be that some of the direction in the earlier episodes is a tad clunky and sometimes has a feel of finding it's feet a little, but overall it's an amazing achievement by creator David Simon and co. I put it right up there with the Sopranos but for different reasons. This fully realizes the potential of television in doing what film can't. Basically if you don't like this you've got no taste
five stars plus! September 22, 2008
Thanks, Amazon. I fancied this after reading about it on your website, and I really needed something to fill the void left after I had seen the Sopranos. Not as immediately engaging, but, in fact, this makes it all the more powerful since the audience has to concentrate on the drama unfolding, and on the disparate characters who populate the series. I am just at episode 10, and can't wait to finish this series and move on to the next. This is wonderfully written, un-cliched,intelligent and mesmeric, and I am so glad I discovered it (especially at the knock-down price on Amazon). Can I give it more than five stars, please?
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