The Best Show on Television Returns to HBO Tonight: "The Wire"

The Wire has been called "the best show in television" by Matthew Yglesias and many other critics.Rod 2.0 had a great post in today's edition about one of the highlights of the show, Michael K. Williams, who plays the gay deadly assassin Omar (depicted on the left with a fellow assassin, the chilling Brother Mouzone). As Rod points out, one of the features of The Wire is the integrated and dispassionate way the openly gay characters are portrayed.

This Sunday September 10, Season 4 begins airing on HBO. The first and third seasons were the most incrediblely engaging, brilliantly acted, beautifully written pieces of dramatic episodic television that I have seen. I still don't understand why The Sopranos was getting so many Emmy plaudits while The Wire was shut out. Although the show has won the more prestigious Peabody award I am always surprised by the number of people who have never heard of the show (too cheap to get HBO?).

I finally saw the first episode of Season 4 on HBO On Demand tonight and was quite impressed. I saw some interviews with the principal actors of the show and they said the theme of this season is "edication." The main drivers of the plot in the first three seasons have left the stage and the first episode was really about updating the audience on where everyone has landed. In addition, the writers have indicated an increased focus on the youngest members of the Baltimore ghetto, by introducing a group of boys who could be any age between 10 to 16. It will be fascinating to see how the events of the upcoming season are reflected in the lives of these "shawties."

The Wire combines race, politics, drama, and crime with one of the most racially diverse casts on television. Check it out!