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Positive:
91
Mixed:
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Negative:
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Critic Reviews
Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
It's better than ever. [David] Simon has always been good, but he seems to have truly matured this year as both a writer ... and executive producer. No one is making richer television drama than he is right now. [18 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
Dense, richly layered, packed with dozens of colorful characters (enough for four series), "The Wire" unfolds as a sophisticated, sometimes impenetrable and always ultra-gritty documentary. But it pays off after meticulous, devoted viewing, delivering rewards not unlike those won by readers who conquer Joyce, Faulkner or Henry James. [18 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
If you do that rare TV thing of actually paying close attention, HBO's complex, richly detailed crime drama will sweep you away like a fine novel. [17 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
The best drama on television. [18 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
If there were an Emmy for most great moments per hour, "The Wire" would deserve it. [17 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
There hasn't been a television drama as good as "The Wire" since the equally ignored "Homicide: Life on the Street" held down the bottom rungs of the Nielsen ratings a decade ago. [17 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
Those along for the ride since the beginning have rightly come to savor this as one of TV's premier hours --- a meticulously written, superbly acted program that demands undivided attention. [16 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
What Simon is doing with "The Wire" - besides crafting arguably the most realistic cop show ever - is taking the narrative style of books and translating it to television. ... By itself, it raises TV's collective IQ at least a few points. [29 May 2003]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
The Wire doesn't receive the attention of other HBO dramas, but it should. It often surpasses them in the chances it takes and the stories it tells. [1 Jun 2003]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
One of the best series anywhere. [8 Jun 2003]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
It's flat-out brilliant. [1 Jun 2003]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
There is little precedence within television history for the rich portrayal of working class life as depicted by The Wire. [1 Jun 2003]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
The best show on television. That's right. It's better, even, than that other HBO series, the one about the nice New Jersey family, because for all of David Chase's brilliance with character in "The Sopranos," he can sometimes wander down thematic dead ends in search of a great dramatic discovery. Simon, with his careful plotting, police-investigation structure and sure sense of what he is trying to say, gives "The Wire" a sense of propulsion, of every moment building to something.
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Jun 14, 2013
Season 1 Review:
It's loose and rambling; its dramatic climaxes don't coincide neatly with the conclusion of any given episode. Its dialogue, overseen by creator David Simon ... is so good it often sounds improvised. One criticism of the show I've read is that it's repetitive (in showing the slow process of how the police bring down bad guys). But what those critics don't get is that those qualities are exactly what make 'The Wire' the funkiest cop show on TV.
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Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Spellbinding...The Wire is compelling in its complexity, heart-rending in its humanity, and surprising in the ways it finds to spin the conventions of cop drama. [31 May 2002, p.4]
Season 4 Review:
The breadth and ambition of "The Wire" are unrivaled and that taken cumulatively over the course of a season -- any season -- it's an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era.
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Season 4 Review:
The best series on TV, period. [15 Sep 2006, p.63]
Season 4 Review:
Yes, it's tough to trace the relationships between various ranks within the police department and the city and state governments, but that doesn't mean this is an incredibly serious drama it takes a degree in literature to understand. "The Wire" is funny and odd and sad and, above all, engrossing.
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Jul 18, 2013
Season 3 Review:
'The Wire' has become one of the smartest, most ambitious shows on television. With its attention to detail and its shifting points of view -- we spend equal time inside the heads of cops and criminals -- it is also one of the most novelistic, now more than ever before. [19 Sep 2004]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
An immensely satisfying - and immensely complicated - police drama. [31 May 2003]
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
The difficulty of teasing apart these tangled relationships and getting up to speed on backstory will prove too daunting for some viewers, especially those who prefer quick and tidy resolutions. But if you're willing to tolerate some initial confusion, "The Wire" rewards patience. The dialogue is sharply funny and richly colloquial, and the actors are a constant astonishment.
Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
Be forewarned that opener is dense, quick- moving and largely absent the sort of explanatory dialogue that dramatic series typically use to ensure that we have our bearings. Even viewers who savored each installment of the original series may feel disoriented. Newcomers may feel as though they're watching a foreign-language film without subtitles. My advice is to videotape it, re-watch and have faith. The coherence quotient goes up by the hour, and patience will be rewarded. [30 May 2003]
Jul 1, 2013
Season 2 Review:
[The Wire's] attention to detail, plus a vast canvas of characters, makes for a dense boulder of a story that moves creakily for the first couple of hours. But once it gets rolling, it's irresistible because of the humanity creator-writer David Simon finds in his characters.
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Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
A scorching look at the drug trade in a Baltimore housing project through the eyes of mid-level dealers and police. [31 May 2002, p.C1]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
It's to the network's credit that it undertakes projects that aren't necessarily big crowd-pleasers but have a palpable artistic integrity and social significance. [1 June 2002, p.C01]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Stark and disturbing, The Wire, like HBO's "Oz" and "The Sopranos," is not for those of tender sensibilities. It is often violent and vulgar. But, make no mistake, it is often brilliant. [1 June 2002, p.E6]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Their ear for dialogue is exceptional, and there's no doubt they know their characters. HBO is well aware, too, which is why the network left the authors to their work. [1 June 2002, p.9]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Telling its story from the perspectives of the police and the narcotraffickers, The Wire unfolds slowly, like an evil flower; more cerebral than slam-bang. At times it resembles a chess match as the adversaries plot moves and countermoves; at other times, a jigsaw puzzle, as the cops assemble a portrait of the gang from scraps of information. [1 June 2002, p.E1]
Apr 28, 2013
Season 1 Review:
A well-crafted opening to a television drama is like an overture to a musical. To succeed, it must, however fleetingly, sound the major themes and melody of the piece, as well as suggesting its continuing sensibility. Tonight's opening is a great one. [2 June 2002, p.5E]
Season 5 Review:
The fans, no doubt, will be content with the conclusion of the brutal street politics--usually the best aspect of each season--as we witness a brilliantly stormy resolution of the unrest between Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew), Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector), who continues to expand his power, and the charismatic, elegant brute Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), a murderous thief worth cherishing.
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Season 5 Review:
The absence of gimmickry and the presence of respect for the story and the audience give The Wire organic advantages over nearly all other TV dramas, whether they deal with cops and crime or birds and bees. Which is to say: If you want to see the television of tomorrow, it's on HBO tonight.
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Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
As good as some other cop shows are -- "The Shield," for example -- no other comes this close to a true-to-life portrayal of life on the mean streets. [29 May 2003]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
While there are moments of overly arty chatter, the show's ability to create a believable sense of place is nothing short of astounding (as is its profanity). Much of the credit goes to an incredible cast, led by West, Sohn, Gilliard and Lance Reddick as McNulty's boss.
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Jul 18, 2013
Season 2 Review:
There's something inspiring about series creator David Simon's trusting his audience enough to tell a complex story about the elusive motives of cops, drug dealers and longshoremen without shortchanging his characters' humanity in the process. [31 May 2003]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
Though it's extremely well done, The Wire lacks the signature HBO kick of discovering something brand new, that giddy feeling of freshness that immediately attached itself to "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under." With The Wire, there's a less-exciting echo: Same old, same old. Been there, done that. [31 May 2002]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
This is a series that's all about the fine print, finding its most emotional moments not in violent confrontations between good guys and bad guys in the drug war, but in depicting the battles of bureaucrats. So while it's less original than genre-busting "The Sopranos," the ultrapensive "Six Feet Under" or the uninhibited "Sex and the City," "The Wire" is still sophisticated and significant television. [31 May 2002, p.12]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
The Wire is a cop drama from top to bottom. It does take a systemic view of the issue, like "Traffic," Steven Soderbergh's drug-trade saga. But it never sacrifices drama and character for lecture. [31 May 2002, p.E14]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
The Wire is by no means a worthless enterprise, and Episode 2 is an improvement over Sunday's comparatively off-putting premiere. It'll be tough to go the distance with this one, though, and far easier to look away. [1 June 2002, p.1C]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
This nebulous look at the blurry line between crime and the law is already being done better on FX's "The Shield." That series...is instantly more approachable and arresting. In The Wire, the characters' hazy morality is so ill-defined and sketchy that it's hard to care about them. West is a compelling lead, but his purpose and motivation aren't clear. He's a tough sell as the show's main protagonist. [1 June 2002, p.23]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
But the feeling here is that Simon may have dipped into his Baltimore crime well one too many times. Tonight's pilot episode, while intriguing in spots, is hampered by a convoluted tangle of multiple plot threads and numerous characters, most of whom seem to have no interesting wrinkles. Worse yet, the story moves at an annoyingly sluggish pace. [1 June 2002, p.4]
Apr 28, 2013
Season 1 Review:
The language is supposed to be realistic and maybe it is realistic, but it often feels self-conscious, like an overly thick Southern accent. That's too bad, because when Mr. Simon and Edward Burns, who are credited with the writing of the first five episodes, pull back a bit, they sometimes achieve a rough eloquence.
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Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
The Wire looks and feels like an ordinary show from some other network that snuck on to the air while the HBO execs' backs were turned. [31 May 2002, p.122]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
The Wire gives so little, it almost begs to be abandoned; then a scene or a smidgen of character development offers a hook that might keep viewers interested. But TV shows, no matter how complex or thought-provoking, shouldn't require that much work. [1 June 2002, p.B-6]
Apr 29, 2013
Season 1 Review:
After watching five hours of preview tapes, I'm interested to see how The Wire turns out. But without characters to care for, much less root for, I'm not exactly burning with curiosity -- the way I am with most of HBO's other series...When it comes down to The Wire, this show falls short.
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