The original post: /r/television by /u/Thesmileycoyote on 2025-09-30 12:39:45+00:00.
This show has had its praises sung for decades now, but after countless retrospective and reddit reviews ive read i do feel i have a little i can add to the conversation myself!
For one the fact that this shows main character is Baltimore itself is one of its best features, one may say mcnulty is the main character (he is who we begin and end with and even with his faults he is the underdog we wanna see win and stick it to the bosses) but those that say mcnulty would be wrong, as the show progresses, even in season 1 we see that everyone gets there chance the focus of narrative is constantly weaving.
This in turn creates an affect where when some “thug” attacks some “cop” it isn’t just some cookie cutter bad guy attacking a cookie cutter good guy we grow an intimate connection with the characters from both sides to the point to where we kinda dont wanna see either side lose or win, or any of characters arrested or killed.
With how amazing that is, its down side is it may not be easy to appreciate at first unlike breaking bad where its one of the best your first go but gradually loses luster on each rewatch, The Wire only gets better and better and dont get me wrong i love breaking bad and I dont wanna turn this into a debate on which is better, I just wanna set expectations straight as these two shows are often grouped together as the two best crime dramas ever made (which is true) but dont go in expecting the same hi caliber action scenes this or the high stakes planning and tension from BB this show isn’t like that.
As I said, Baltimore itself is the main character, and we explore this character from every angle
Season 1: lower level gang operations opposed by the misfit fuck up police unit that has to intercept them Season 3: high level gang operations opposed by the higher level of corruption from the police force that leads into the city hall itself showing just how deep the systematic corruption is
Season 5: the swallowing up by the system from both sides, showing that even after everything nothing really changes one cop comes another goes one king falls and another rises
Now I put Season 2 and 4 to the side as I consider these side story Season (not taking away from them at all as im sure alot of you familiar with the series knows these are generally considered the two best seasons)
But they are also the 2 seasons that are the furthest removed from the over all story structure of the afro mentioned seasons these seasons push away the main story and main cast of characters expanding the lore of the city and showing us how things get brought up from the beginning and just how much the corruption affects the kids and working people caught between the gangs and the cops, I often wonder if it was intentional to put these idea in the fore front every second season! And they are truly amazing dont let me classifying them as side stories take away from there brilliance at all!
Finally let’s talk about the corner; people say these two shows arnt connected but just simply made people and share similar DNA, the corner is telling a true story and the wire is a story based on true events but in retrospect when you watch it, its hard not to imagine a young Avon off in the background on the street level grinding to where he would be when we get to Season 1
And when you look at it as this show just being another aspect of Baltimore character it fits in no question before we seen the perspective from the gangs, cops, working man, and the school kids, this time we seeing it from the drug addicts side of things
Id say the corner is a far more intimate story though, as stated before this isn’t just based on true events with some names fudged this is telling the real events beat by beat and it gets pretty tear jerking, every episode starts with a documentary style interview with the main character of that episode and fuck man all of em get me every time, those interviews add so much and if it wasn’t for Lester actor from the wire being interviewed in one of em id damn near think they were talking to real junkies off the street its THAT GOOD id wager to say that it might have the best acting overall between the two shows
If this is your first time watching id recommend watching the corner first just trust me, if your rewatching but by chance missed the corner WATCH THE CORNER you pretty much just discovered a secret season 0 you have never seen before!
TLDR if you havnt seen the corner or the wire watch the corner and the wire, if you have seen the corner and the wire rewatch the corner and the wire lmaoo