The Wire: Season One.

We have been plowing through the first season of the Wire at home. It is surprising great and everyone should rent it.

1) It is set in baltimore, and a lot of CRIME takes place on street names like Lanvale (that becky and liz used to live on), which is just strange.

2) It does a great job of showing what a pain in the ass it can be to be a police officer, with the utter bureaucracy of it all. Departments stepping on each other, politicians with agendas defining police priority. It really does a good job of showing why it is so hard to really FIX systematic problems

3) Everything has a consequence. Actions taken by the characters resonate through the worlds of both the criminals and the police. Using wiretaps and listening devices as ways of connecting the police and criminals, and wrapping their worlds together is amazingly interesting. HBO does a great job (in all their series) of illustrating how one action can move down to all the characters in a realistic and compelling way.

4) It is HBO, so they act like real humans. They do stupid human things, and sad human things and they don't seem to be acting at all.

5) So far, they haven't used the "cocktease" device to make me want to watch other episodes. "Will they hook up?" Oh I have to tune in. They don't do that and I am happy about it. We will see if they try to pull that shit in subsequent seasons.

So, you should rent this series. It is a great thing to watch on a rainy day.