The Wire

I thought I had mentioned The Wire before, but I can only find a fleeting comment about it in my previous posts. It deserves much more than a fleeting comment. We finished the box set a couple of weeks back. I highly recommend it - it's not just about cops and drug dealers. It explores the whole money trail - the unions, the developers, the politicians, the role of the media, and there is a whole Season focused on the schools -  it shows how little hope there is for these kids - heart-breaking - out of all the kids we get to know, only two get out of the game - one gets a job in a shoe-shop, the other is more or less adopted by an ex-cop (sounds strange, but it works).

Great characters, many of them dead by the time the whole show is over. I think my favourite is Omar - he's a bit like Robin Hood, except he doesn't give to the poor, he just robs the rich drug dealers!

In many ways, it's completely depressing in its depiction of corruption, how the police hierarchy are only interested in meeting statistics set by the mayor's office, how the real bad guys get away with everything, and it's only the young kids on the corners who pay the hard price. But there are many more dimensions to it - there is plenty of humour (with a main character like McNulty, you just never know what to expect), and with so many characters on both sides of the law, plenty of stories to make it into a rich tapestry of life in Baltimore (and I guess of many other American inner-cities).

Oh, I did give it another mention a while back. I knew I had mentioned the sub-titles some time back. They are a life-saver - don't try to watch it without sub-titles.

And before I go, a special mention to Aiden Gillen, an Irish actor who plays an ambitious politician. You may have seen him in Love/Hate on RTE, where he plays, ironically enough, a top Dublin drug dealer.

PS: I got the picture of Omar from this website, where you'll find an in-depth review.