THe wire is one of the coolest shows I've seen in awhile. HBO of course, based in Baltimore in early-mid 2000's. I'm only about 2/3 of the way through season 1, but so far the wire kicks more ass than pretty much anything I've seen lately. The major plot so far is this unit of reviled but generally well-meaning cops get put in a special unit that is going to set up a wiretap on a major baltimore drug dealer to try and bust his ass.
The characters are convincing, the acting is darn good, hilarious/awesome dialogue all the time by all characters, solid plots, good development and a whole pile of unexpected stuff in almost every episode.
It's like they took all the awesome parts of other crime series and rolled them into one show, leaving out all the shitty stuff. It's got
- the action of a CSI show without the mental retardation inducing one-liner dialogue
- The dialogue of a Law and Order episode without the geriatric pacing
- The win of an NYPD blue episode without Jimmy Smits' ass hanging out all over the place.
And a bunch of other stuff like:
- The main character is the biggest douche ever, but in a cool way.
- Lesbians. That. Make. Out.
- titties, fairly often
- An asshole superior officer that you just know is going to go down in the awesomest way ever
- A gay gangster named Omar that is takin' names and kickin' ass like nobody's business with a huge gun
- A cool super smart cop that got sidetracked into a shithole department 13 years ago for being honest and going against a superior. Nobody expects him to know anything, but he's the one that figures everything out in the first place.
- The black dude from LOST, who has a pretty badass character and is in charge of the special unit
- Comic relief by a couple of idiotic cops that are on the team.
- Good fights and realistic gunplay.
- Drug addict side-stories that are actually real looking and not just some useless minor character trying to "act stoned"
- "fuck" is said more than "the" in a few scenes.
Anyways, Check er out. It's worth a download at least for the first season.