The Only Show That Matters

Season four of The Wire is now available on DVD and it's the perfect gift for any decent person out there. Of course, you won't want to run out and buy season four unless you've seen seasons one, two, and three, so keep that in mind. But if you've never seen the show, you have to see the show. You have to stop reading this post right now, open up your Netflix queue, and sign yourself for disc one of season one and then come back.

Okay, back? It's the best show on television. The best show in the history of television. And with season five ready to start airing in about a month, it's by far the best show that's currently still on. So you need to watch it. Okay? Okay.

Comments

And with season five ready to start airing in about a month

But it's only going to be 10 episodes, and then it's all over! Sad.

Only one person I know (personally, that is) has started watching it and not ended up agreeing that it's the best thing ever done with TV. That would be my mom, and I'm pretty sure it's because she's slightly hard of hearing and couldn't ever figure out the Baltimore accent or slang.

Posted by Antid Oto | December 5, 2007 9:50 AM

"The best show in the history of television."

Matthew, your claim here is the most hyperbolic claim in the history of the blogosphere.

Posted by Petey | December 5, 2007 9:50 AM

"Only one person I know (personally, that is) has started watching it and not ended up agreeing that it's the best thing ever done with TV."

Make that two people.

I love The Wire, have watched every episode so far, am eagerly looking forward to the coming season, and yet don't think it's the best thing ever done with TV.

Posted by Petey | December 5, 2007 9:53 AM

I don't know you personally.

Posted by Antid Oto | December 5, 2007 9:54 AM

MY:
Don't you know how to put a link so if someone clicks on the picture, it will take them to Amazon(or where ever) to buy it. Not only that, but if you send them to Amazon and a reader buys it, you can make money off Amazon for it. I figured you would know that by now(especially back in the pre-Atlantic days).

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | December 5, 2007 9:55 AM

"I don't know you personally."

I'm offended. I thought we had a bond.

Posted by Petey | December 5, 2007 9:58 AM

The Simpsons, The Muppet Show, Your Show of Shows, Seinfeld, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Andy Griffith Show disagree with you.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | December 5, 2007 9:59 AM

I've gotta say that I love that Season 4 poster, both the highlighting of Duquan's Chucks and the "No Corner Left Behind" tagline.

Posted by Petey | December 5, 2007 10:02 AM

They disagree, but they're wrong.

Posted by Ray | December 5, 2007 10:04 AM

Agree. The best show on TV. And it's good to see some of the actors on the show gaining recognition by getting cast in other TV shows and movies.

Posted by phil from new york | December 5, 2007 10:06 AM

I was inspired to rent The Wire this summer after reading an Yglesias post. It's the best thing I've gotten out of this blog. I've seen seasons 1-3. I'm hoping season 4 is better than season 3. But Season 3 is still better than nearly anything on TV.

Posted by Joe Strummer | December 5, 2007 10:06 AM

Jeffrey Davis - The Andy Griffith Show? Really?

But I notice that your shows are almost all comedies. Matt probably unwisely ignores comedies in his discussion. I do think it's arguable that The Wire is the best drama in the history of television.

Posted by John | December 5, 2007 10:07 AM

The Wire is good, but the best show in the history of television Matt is Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Posted by Lee | December 5, 2007 10:12 AM

"I do think it's arguable that The Wire is the best drama in the history of television."

The Sopranos. The West Wing. Hill Street Blues. ER. NYPD Blue. Law and Order (before it sucked). Manimal. Yeah, I'd say it's arguable.

I always love how unique, idiosyncratic shows get overpraised as though unique and idiosyncratic are synonymous with great.

Mike

Posted by MBunge | December 5, 2007 10:13 AM

I've only seen season one but want to catch up before season 5 starts. Can I skip any of the middle seasons? season 2 maybe?

Posted by right | December 5, 2007 10:15 AM

Check out these prequel teasers at Amazon:

Prop Joe on the playground in 1962

Bunk meets McNulty in 2000

Omar as an adolescent in 1985

Posted by Trevor | December 5, 2007 10:17 AM

Here's the correct link for the Omar prequel, which is the best of the three.

Posted by Petey | December 5, 2007 10:29 AM

The down side of watching The Wire is that it shows you what is possible with the medium, and then everything else seems so stupid and shallow.

To "right:" Don't skip either of the intervening three seasons. There's definitely some unevenness, but all three are immensely rich.

Posted by B Woods | December 5, 2007 10:29 AM

The Wire rocks!!! I thought Deadwood was awesome too. Every other word in the dialogue was a swear. You'd be swearing a lot too if you lived back then.

Posted by Peter K. | December 5, 2007 10:38 AM

I'm not buying any DVDs this holiday season, as giving money to producers while the WGA is striking about (among other things) DVD revenues seems wrong to me.

Posted by samba00 | December 5, 2007 10:39 AM

Great news, Matt. I shall immediately update my Netflix queue. I was getting ready to ditch HBO, what with the end of "Curb" and all. Now I'll have to keep paying the bastards, as season five begins, so I've heard, in January, and it looks like I will have caught up by then. Season three, by the bye, was simply astonishing, if there's anybody out there who hasn't seen it yet.

Posted by Jasper | December 5, 2007 10:44 AM

I think The Wire is mediocre at best. To call it the best TV show ever is laughable (and very, very narrow).
This doesn't mean that I have poor taste, or that I'm uncultured, or unsophisticated, or need someone here to explain to me why I'm wrong. I just don't like it as much as some of the people here obviously do. And that's ... okay.
Please, people, get a life. As William Shatner said on SNL to the Trekkies, "It's just a TV show."

Posted by dissenter | December 5, 2007 10:45 AM

MBunge, I'm not sure I get your post. Are you being ironic? Aren't the Sopranos, the West Wing, Hill Street Blues, and ER famously "idiosyncratic"? Some might use the term "ground breaking".

Is the Wire the best drama in the history of television? Probably. No other show has such realistic and compelling characters. And I've never seen local politics dealt with (as in, the politics within the police force, schools, etc.) as deeply. What I like best about the Wire is that it never departs from the real world. It keeps a high level of quality all the way through without ever being self-consciously "arty" (I'm talking to you David Chase).

Posted by Rob Mac | December 5, 2007 10:48 AM

Jeffrey Davis - The Andy Griffith Show? Really?

Lots of different comic voices.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | December 5, 2007 11:02 AM

No, dissenter, I'm sorry. You've now clearly shown yourself to be a person of limited discernment and probably poorly educated to boot.

While there are certainly other dramas that compete with The Wire in terms of quality, I can only assume that people are being ironic when they bring up Law and Order, West Wing, Hill Street Blues or ER (!!!). Have none of you ever seen Homicide?

And the best comedy television is all British - Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, I'm Alan Partridge, The Office (UK). I'd only put, maybe, Arrested Development and the Simpsons in that pantheon with Seinfeld, Taxi and, maybe, The Mary Tyler Moore Show as knocking on the door but not quite there.

Posted by vanya | December 5, 2007 11:03 AM

Jesus, Matt, you're young and hyberbolic. And have you so easily abandoned Veronica Mars, which I remember you touting as the best thing in TV not so long ago. (VM was decent in Season 1, OK in 2, and dreadful in 3 before getting the hook.) Just off the top of my older head: I Love Lucy, The Naked City, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, All in the Family, Kojak (early seasons largely shot in NYC were great), Hill Street Blues, Cheers, Seinfeld, Homicide, ER (original cast, I have not watched in years) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Serenity (more Whedon, please). And I'm sure I'm leaving some obviously great shows out.

Posted by Marlowe | December 5, 2007 11:13 AM

"Have none of you ever seen Homicide?"

Great show-probably the best ever on a major network(and also a David Simon project). It's been off the air about 10 years and it still holds up. I'd probably rank The Wire higher, but I'd love to see what Homicide would have been like if it had the creative freedom HBO affords.

Posted by Waingro | December 5, 2007 11:15 AM

Television? Who watches (yechh) television?

Posted by godoggo | December 5, 2007 11:16 AM

Just for the record, Obama likes The Wire

Posted by Jacob | December 5, 2007 11:16 AM

Best show ever: Columbo.
Screw the rest of you.

Posted by ack | December 5, 2007 11:21 AM

Well, Matt since my previous comment was a bit harsh, I should add that I happen to love Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and own a complete set of both on DVD. We all have our guilty pleasures.

Posted by Marlowe | December 5, 2007 11:24 AM

Says vanya, "No, dissenter, I'm sorry. You've now clearly shown yourself to be a person of limited discernment and probably poorly educated to boot."

Thank you for at least beginning your bullshit with an apology.

"Limited discernment"? Because I don't think the show lives up to the hype? What do you know about discernment? Is it possible I live the realities this show depicts and think that it gets it wrong?

"Poorly educated"? (I wonder what you think of the dock workers in the show. You must really look down your nose at those blue collar morons. Same with the police, actually. They're so uneducated, unlike high-falutin' vanya.)

I have a very good education, consummating in law school. I just don't share your artistic taste. But of course, a good education can produce the elitism that emanates from your comment.

Posted by dissenter | December 5, 2007 11:25 AM

What really makes "The Wire" so great isn't that it is realistic, has rich characters, or deals with local politics sharply, though it does all these things and more.

What makes "The Wire" great is that it tells a complex story with overarching themes and moods, without being preachy or self-righteous (though I do worry about some lionizing of the proper role of the media in season 5). The Wire tells compelling stories about the people in one city in one time in America, while telling us something about our culture, and urban American specifically, at the same time. Lots of the shows mentioned in previous comments have great characters, writing, drama, etc. None deal with societal themes as complex and as deftly as the wire does.

Posted by Comment | December 5, 2007 11:36 AM

Dissenter - Is it possible I live the realities this show depicts and think that it gets it wrong?

No. If that were actually true, you would probably have a lower opinion of the show than "mediocre." You're just someone so insecure about his/her own artistic taste that you have to get defensive when criticizing a popular show and protest that you are nonetheless cultured, sensitive, etc. If you really think Simon's show is dishonest, poorly written, badly acted, whatever, and you'd care to back it up, that might be an interesting post. Simply claiming "I don't like it and my taste is valid too" is just ego preening.

Posted by vanya | December 5, 2007 11:38 AM

I have no doubt that The Wire is the best show ever made.

Posted by eriks | December 5, 2007 11:45 AM

Although I mentioned it in an earlier post, it is worth reiterating others' comments on Homicide, whioh may actually be the best drama ever on TV. Though under constant assault from NBC to prettify the cast (RIP Jon Polito's Crosetti, hello some of the weaker characters of the late seasons) and ratchet up the action, this show was a marvel (with the posible exception of Season 7). I'd really recommend the complete series DVD set that used to go for only about $150 on Amazon (they no longer seem to sell it directly, though list third party sellers). It comes in a faux squad room file cabinet, includes all 7 seasons (slightly misleading, since seasons 1 and 2 together only total 13 episodes), contains all crossover Law & Order episodes, and includes the TV movie that effectively served as a series conclusion the season following its cancellation (flawed, but a must for fans since it ties up some loose ends--and the last scene will haunt you). If you'd ever been in the box with Pembleton, Matt, you'd concede the greatness of this show.

Posted by Marlowe | December 5, 2007 11:48 AM

I'd rank it up there with my own list of best tv shows - Scenes from a Marriage and Berlin Alexanderplatz. I like Matt's enthusiasm for it, too.

Posted by roger | December 5, 2007 11:51 AM

Six Feet Under. Best drama. Most ambitious, too. Upstairs Downstairs deserves props.

Wire's good, but uneven. The Corner was better.

And since we're lumping in the Hun's series, I'd add Heimat to the list -- vastly superior to Berlin Alexanderplatz.

Give Matty a year or two and he'll move onto other entertainments. Hell, a couple of years ago, he was touting Scissor Sisters as the future of rawk.

Posted by Jamey | December 5, 2007 12:06 PM

It's Barack Obama's favorite show also (along with MASH).

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash9.htm

Barack Obama tells TV Guide that his favorite TV character of all time is "SpongeBob SquarePants, because SpongeBob is the show I watch with my daughters." His favorite TV shows of all time are M*A*S*H and The Wire.

Posted by Jeff | December 5, 2007 12:12 PM

vanya,
I simply responded to a post and comment thread that overexaggerates the quality of a TV show. You like it, I don't. I'm not the one who's ego preening. You know nothing about me, but if you think you do go ahead and fool yourself. If you think I'm insecure about my artistic taste, I'm not going to demonstrate otherwise. I was merely letting people know that it's possible to disagree about the quality of a show and that it doesn't mean there's something deeply fundamentally wrong with them.
Welcome to the real world where people can disagree with you for legitimate reasons. If I were you I'd grow some thicker skin. If you think that someone who doesn't agree with you on your own opinion of a TV show is thus uneducated, you're exposing yourself for the immature adolescent twat that you really are.

Posted by dissenter | December 5, 2007 12:24 PM

"The best show in the history of television. "

Perhaps the best episodic multi-year drama (not a miniseries) on American television. Worldwide, though, I would say that Sandbaggers and Heimat are better. Sandbaggers actually has some of the same themes as The Wire: organizational politics, this time within the upper-level bureaucracy of the UK's late Cold War intelligence/foreign affairs departments. Remember that a lot of Mike Leigh's early career, Das Boot and a lot of Bergman and Rossellini's late careers were actually made for European or British television. (Fanny and Alexander was actually a miniseries, as was Das Boot).

von Trier's The Kingdom shouldn't be ignored either, though it's not quite to my taste.

Posted by burritoboy | December 5, 2007 12:26 PM

If we're including miniseries, the original Traffik was pretty damn good too.

Posted by Antid Oto | December 5, 2007 12:38 PM

There are two different positions of disagreement to stake out here:

1) These things are all subjective and subject to personal taste.

2) There are better shows.

Dissenter seems to be arguing 1). Personally, I think this argument is pretty weak. At some level, I will grant a certain subjectivity, but there is a large component that is not. If one person says that the show is the best every and another says its mediocre, one of them is wrong. I realize that this makes me seem elitist and snobby. And to a certain extent I'm both and happy to admit it. With respect to 2) I don't know how to evaluate older shows. Maybe they were relevant in their time. But I didn't see them when they came out, and they don't usually hold up very well.

Posted by mpowell | December 5, 2007 12:47 PM

"MBunge, I'm not sure I get your post. Are you being ironic? Aren't the Sopranos, the West Wing, Hill Street Blues, and ER famously "idiosyncratic"? Some might use the term "ground breaking".

Is the Wire the best drama in the history of television? Probably. No other show has such realistic and compelling characters. And I've never seen local politics dealt with (as in, the politics within the police force, schools, etc.) as deeply. What I like best about the Wire is that it never departs from the real world. It keeps a high level of quality all the way through without ever being self-consciously "arty" (I'm talking to you David Chase)."

The problem is that some folks confuse doing certain things very well with being "great". Whether it's Sorkin's dialog, Chase bringing arty pretentions to a mob story or the "realism" of The Wire, they latch onto those things and hail them as making that show so much better than anything else. They also make excuses that those things are more important than other storytelling elements like plot or actually being entertaining.

This isn't to say The Wire isn't very, very good. But most of the comments about the show seem to focus on how well it's done, but that's not the same thing as being a great show. And appealing very strongly to a tiny audience is not a better marker of greatness than appealing more broadly to a larger audience.

Mike

Posted by MBunge | December 5, 2007 1:05 PM

Mpowell, I don't agree. How can it be anything but subjective?
To use the example of MASH, since it's come up as another great show and Barak's favorite with The Wire: Some people thought it was the best, other people thought it was either unfunny when it was supposed to be funny, or too preachy when it was supposed to be serious. I used to think MASH was a great show, but when I've watched reruns the magic is gone. That doesn't mean I'm right to think it's not as good a show as I thought, only that my subjective taste is not what it once was. Perhaps my tastes have changed for the worse.
I remember telling someone that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was one of the best movies I had ever seen. The person (who was very cultured and highly educated) thought it was a piece of pretentious crap. I couldn't understand why, but that doesn't mean I'm right and he's wrong, or vice versa.
Point being, it's dangerous to say any show is unquestionably "the best ever." No matter how high quality the show, it's still going to come down to subjective taste.
I don't agree with dissenter that The Wire is "mediocre at best," and it does seem like he's (or she's) being unnecessarily provocative. But I also don't think there's something wrong with anyone who doesn't see what people are so excited about. If one person says that the show is the best ever and another says it's mediocre, both of them can be right. It's not like this is a matter of gospel truth.

Posted by frank e | December 5, 2007 1:08 PM

re the Huns - I've only seen Heimat I (1918-1960?). I wouldn't call it a classic. It pulls its punches in the Nazi/WW II era (all her sons make it through the war unscathed? Only the unlikeable characters join the Nazi party?), gets mawkishly sentimental in places, and the makeup is poorly done - characters often don't seem to age correctly (well, I found it distracting).

(Oddly enough, the German version of the Office (Stromberg is surprisingly good.)

But if you like historic serials "La Meglio Gioventu" (Best of youth) is better - truly outstanding.

Posted by vanya | December 5, 2007 1:20 PM

Best of youth is very good.

Before you can say best ever you have to watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Posted by Bloix | December 5, 2007 1:33 PM

I'm with you Matt. One can debate whether it's the best TV show ever, but I am almost certain that it's the best *underappreciated* TV show ever.

Posted by scruncher | December 5, 2007 1:38 PM

I've been watchign Hopmicide on DVD since I only caught it sporadically when it was on.

It really feels like a rough draft for The Wire. Or I suppose you could say it is what The Wire would be if it had been on NBC instead of HBO, the sex and violence tuned down, longer form sorty telling lessened so that people can jump in at any point, soem filler added to create a full season of 20 some episodes instead of 12 and so on.

My take on the debate would be The Wire is the best dramatic TV series ever made, but I admit there is some subjectivity so can see people disagreeing. What I think is just posturing however is people who say it is mediocre, this strikes me as Slate/TNRish being contradictory for it's own sake.

Posted by Eric K | December 5, 2007 1:43 PM

Bloix,

Good call, Smiley's People is pretty good too, not as good as T,T,S,S, but still way better than most miniseries

Posted by Eric K | December 5, 2007 1:47 PM

Can't forget Kieslowski's Dekalog if we're namechecking great miniseries.

Posted by hilker | December 5, 2007 2:05 PM

The Wire is the best show in the history of television?

I second, third, whatever that.

Posted by The Carpetmuncher | December 5, 2007 2:06 PM

(Slightly) Embarrassed to say that I haven't yet seen a single frame of The Wire, but if compares favorably with Homicide, then I'll definitely have to take a look.

FWIW: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is the only (non-animated) TV comedy I've seen that matches the magic of Seinfeld or Cheers at their best.

Posted by dry_fish | December 5, 2007 2:21 PM

Good point hilker, I always forget Dekalog was originally made for TV.

I would throw in I,Claudius too.

Posted by vanya | December 5, 2007 2:32 PM

I love The Wire, but since it's the only TV show I've consistently and fully watched in a few years (that and Arrested Development), I have no source of comparison. But I agree with whateverone else says: all other shows that I glance at seem shallow and flat after seeing The Wire.

I like Season 2 the best. I think that's a minority opinion. I am somewhat fascinated by the shipping industry.

Posted by XY | December 5, 2007 3:12 PM

The Wire as a series is the greatest TV experience ever (yay for hyperbole!). But for more casual TV viewers, it's impossible to watch a single, isolated episode and get any enjoyment out of it. For these sorts of people, I can see why the Wire might be the worst TV experience ever (counterbalancing hyperbole).

Also, SpongeBob SquarePants is the wateriest show ever (non sequitor hyperbole).

Posted by kjmij | December 5, 2007 3:29 PM

Does The Wire get better after the first episode?

I heard so much about how great the show was that I, ahem, obtained the first few episodes. I didn't even get through the first one. It wasn't spectacularly bad or anything, but it was kind of corny and REALLY boring.

But a lot of pilots of otherwise good shows suck.

Posted by Jason C. | December 5, 2007 3:32 PM

FWIW: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is the only (non-animated) TV comedy I've seen that matches the magic of Seinfeld or Cheers at their best.

You might want to check out "30 Rock." Seriously. It's that good. I'm addicted, and I think it may be the best network sitcom ever.

Posted by Jasper | December 5, 2007 3:34 PM

Matt, I remember when I was a Deadwood-loving intern at the Prospect you told me to go out and get the Wire, and I did. And now I am hooked. So your proselytizing has already made one convert to the cause.

Posted by Brendan Mackie | December 5, 2007 3:39 PM

I agree that the Wire seasons 1 and 3 is the best TV show I've ever seen, by far. (Season 2 was much weaker, IMHO.)

Posted by ed | December 5, 2007 3:44 PM

"Does The Wire get better after the first episode?"

Yes. I think fans of the show manage to forget how clunky and reliant the first couple episodes are, particularly the experimenting with different camera styles. I remember being really bugged by the security camera stuff you see early on.

Trust me, Jason C, by the time that stuff goes away you'll be so caught up with Wallace and Bodie and the Barksdale crew and McNulty and Bunk and Daniels (and you'll hate Prez so much), you'll forgive those first couple episodes.

Thanks to Petey for the link fix.

Posted by Trevor | December 5, 2007 3:51 PM

Ack, at least is correct: the best series ever was Columbo.

And "Police Squad!" (Available on Youtube).

Posted by GC | December 5, 2007 3:53 PM

My original comment was blinkered by being exclusively about American TV.

Opening up the floor to other sources, I'd include the 1st season of Absolutely Fabulous, Monty Python (until Cleese left), The Singing Detective, Wodehouse Playhouse.

The Singing Detective is more intense and more intensely funny on the subject of pain than even Richard Pryor.

And while I can't speak to anyone else's sense of bliss, Wodehouse Playhouse with Pauline Collins and John Alderton would often be so silly as approach some kind of nirvana. It takes intelligence and wit to be that silly.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | December 5, 2007 4:02 PM

Mark me down as one of the maybe greatest show evers on television.

CLEARLY the best show on television today, imo.

Posted by Armando | December 5, 2007 4:05 PM

At the very least, it's a credible contender for the title, and probably the only show presently airing that deserves that distinction.

Posted by Anthony Damiani | December 5, 2007 4:07 PM

Oh GAAAAaaaawd, who cares if it's the best ever? It's really really great, and run go see it, and that's all that matters.

No go back to debating The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones, somewhere where I can't hear you.

Posted by Phoebe | December 5, 2007 5:08 PM

No. The Simpsons, seasons 2-7. It's not close.

Posted by Freddie | December 5, 2007 5:17 PM

Battlestar Galactica (the new show) is by far my favorite show right now.

Earth, Bitches!

Posted by Chuck | December 5, 2007 5:21 PM

"I'm with you Matt. One can debate whether it's the best TV show ever, but I am almost certain that it's the best *underappreciated* TV show ever."

I would agree that The Wire is the best serial TV show ever.

Not the best underappreciated one though: That distinction goes to "My So Called Life" and "Firefly". Neither one made it to a full season, and especially "My So Called Life" was just amazing.

By contrast The Wire has made it through five full seasons and won tons of praise in the mainstream press, while still on the air.

Posted by Ted Todorov | December 5, 2007 5:36 PM

While there have been other great shows, I think The Wire is pretty easily the best drama of the past 10 years at least. In my opinion only the Sorkin's West Wing years and the first two seasons of The Sopranos come close. (Six Feet Under tried way too hard).

That said, I'd like to give a quick shout-out to Freaks and Geeks, which I don't think anyone has mentioned yet. That was quality network TV.

Posted by CJH | December 5, 2007 8:31 PM

"But if you like historic serials "La Meglio Gioventu" (Best of youth) is better - truly outstanding."

Errr, no. Talk about pulling political punches in Heimat! Best of Youth manages to forget that Berlusconi dominates much of recent Italian history, and forgets that he was put there partially by the far right.....who literally don't exist in the miniseries. Only the far left is criticized in the many, many hours of Best of Youth.....even though the eventual turn of Italian politics towards Berlusconi proved that many of the Italian Left's arguments were, in fact, true.

A series that features a military counterintelligence policeman, and totally soft-pedals what that man's politics must have been? (Note to Americans: the Italian military counterintelligence police are deeply involved in far right-wing politics, and have often plotted coups against the government and violence against political opponents). Another character who just suddenly turns from Marxism to Chicago school economics because......he grows older and has babies? (There are plenty of serious Marxist economists who have families, even in the United States).

You'd finish watching Best of Youth and come away thinking that Italy has been some sort of placid Swedish paradise the past twenty years (once Italy gets rid of those nasty Marxists in the series, all the characters are freed to live in expensive country villas). You won't come up with any reason why millions of Italians support boyos like Berlusconi, Bossi, Fini and the like.

Posted by burritoboy | December 5, 2007 9:04 PM

I'll one up you Matt. I'll say it's the best show in the FUTURE of television!

And as someone who's seen every episode of seasons 1-3, many multiple times, please be assured I'm only half-kidding.

Posted by Jeff | December 5, 2007 11:39 PM

Season 5 will be the first that I'll actually watch on a week-to-week basis. I've watched the other four on DVD or on demand and usually ended up watching 7 or 8 episodes per sitting. I don't know if I'll be able to handle the week-long interstices between episodes. DVD, on demand, and TiVo have ruined my ability to watch TV in its normal format.

Posted by procrastinator | December 5, 2007 11:48 PM

arguing the best show on tv is like wondering what your best labotomy was. you think i'm kidding? kill your tv if you still can, then see what the world looks like without the non-stop manipulation. mass media is en-trancing, but dangerous for so many obvious reasons. if you need motivation, read 'four arguments for the elimination of television.' sure, a screed, but a necessary one. or find someone who hasn't plugged in for a few years, and have a conversation.

Posted by charlesf | December 6, 2007 1:06 AM

The academic argument for The Wire as THE BEST is pretty simple, and I would say that when one proposes an alternative, one ought to address some of these elements:

The cop show is likely the most basic of TV dramatic genre convention. The Wire is ingenius because it basically takes the premise of the cop show an totally skins it. It does so with such skill because the show is conceived and written by former particpants in an actual homicide department and an actual inner city drug beat. And the dissonance that it creates between the viewer's generic expectations and the characters' and narrative arc of the show point up several important critiques. First and foremost, the show explicitly calls out the cop genre for seeking the easy moralism of robbers punished and black and white morality tales. But it goes further to structurally confront the basic form of TV--by revealing the precise extent to which a story on an NYPD Blue or Law and Order is crammed into a 48 minute 4 act structure, and how flat, mindless and distortive the characters and stories usually end up when forced into those confines--that the actual form of network TV with commerical advertisements actually pushes those shows toward those simplistic portraits of a very real and complicated set of intertwing social problems in our society today.

But beyond even that, as the show expands its view to reveal an entire urban ecosystem of dysfunction, the show ends up questioning why the viewer expects so little of so many things in his/her world. Through the experience of watching this revelatory show, the viewer realizes the extent ot which most other show are mindless crap, to be sure. But the show has now moved to a place where its forcing the viewer to ask--why do we settle for crap? Why do we settle for it in the context of urban decay and senseless drug policy, and why do we structure so much of our thinking around these issues as the same kinds of pointless morality tales we watch on TV? Why do we acknowledge, and yet fail to correct, similar dysfunction and stupidity in our political systems and in our educational policy (and apparently this next season will move on to dissect similar problems in the media). In the end, the show really asks the viewer why are we all just sitting around doing nothing? Why are we passive, unmoved contemporaries to all of this, and how can we all spend out night in front of our TVs, distracting ourselves with mindless bullshit?

In short, the show takes a passive, receptive form of media and transforms it into a genuinely brilliant and subversive critique of the early 21st century American experience. And a person may quibble with various part of its critique, but he has to admit that they have a fair bit more evidence supporting The Wire's argument than Everybody Loves Raymond's, Desperate Housewives', Grey's Anatomy's (ahem, HRC) or even Dick Wolf's for their respective portraits of America today. The show's ambition in this regard comes with a very high degree of difficulty, so to the extent the show has been so successful at its project, and won such wide praise for its authenticity and brains, it's really an unparalled feat.

We can let the conversation devolve into whether characteristic a, b or c is the necessary component to make great art. I would argue just that this kind of skill in terms of the thematic relevance and revelatory social commentary is far and away the most impressive thing we've seen on TV in any kind of show that attempts to comment such commentary. And the skill of the artistic craft of the show itself--the story telling, characterization, narrative arc, dialogue, cinematography--a) is absolutely top notch, and b) interlocks to reinforce the broader themes of the show. This makes the show uniquely both relevant to its viewers and timeless in terms of the dramatic force and visual and storytelling skill it brings to its message and the beauty it reveals in the portrait its draws of its universe, the city of Baltimore. I mean, really, be honest, who ever thought people all over the world would think that Baltimore was the least bit interesting before this show became a big deal? I just don't think there's another show that can plausibly claim to have accomplished that much in the history of the medium.

Posted by MSB | December 6, 2007 2:05 AM

msb, nicely written. and good question: 'Why are we passive, unmoved contemporaries to all of this, and how can we all spend out night in front of our TVs, distracting ourselves with mindless bullshit?'

what if that's the nature of the beast? you say 'subversive critique' but hell, television mass media thrives on being subversive, chews up all substance in its path and makes it its own, while we go along for the ride. being in a state of watching tv matters more to the reality of our experience than anything we might see there.

does your fine post here escape the terms that the medium itself sets? in other words, has this show you talk about gotten you out of the passive state that the medium induces, so that you will no longer sit there and take the 'mindless bullshit'? or will you love it just a little more.

read some of amazon's reader's reviews of 'four arguments for the elimination of television' to get a feel for what i'm inadequately trying to say here.

Posted by charlesf | December 6, 2007 4:53 AM

Since we're now listing "best shows" from a personal perspective, I vote for "The Avengers", "The Wild Wild West", "The Outer Limits" (original), "The Prisoner", "I Spy", "The Sandbaggers", and, of course, "Highlander" (well, I'm a Transhuman so a show about immortals is a must - since it went five seasons, had a spin-off show, a movie and another movie in the works, I can't be too wrong.)

Comedy shows? Dramas? Sitcoms? Variety shows? Soaps?

Fergeddaboudit.

(Although I was impressed by a soap opera that had a gang of ninjas invading a museum and a long drawn-out martial arts brawl between them and the museum security guards. Now that was soap opera class!)

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | December 6, 2007 4:58 AM

charlesf,

Well, I think I take your point and so do David Simon and Ed Burns. As I said, it's a highly ambitious goal for a show to attempt--to make its viewer want to turn off the TV set, go out in the world and try to make a difference. I don't know what measure we can adopt of a viewer's penitence that would be a satisfactory objective standard. And really, I think the success of the show has as much to do with a revelation (or confirmation) of what the experience of the urban underclass is and how various societal pressures combine to maintain the status quo. Above all, the show glamorizes people who are willing to take risks, stand up to their bosses, use their brains and work their asses off to try to make a difference (be it Lester, Cutty or whomever).

So then what counts as a sufficient change? Is it enough if I try to do more at my job to stand up to the man and rage against the machine? Do I have to come home from work and spend my nights volunteering with at-risk kids? Or join NORML? If I was already volunteering before I started watching The Wire, does that count? What if I think NORML has plenty of its own problems? I'm not sure we can put all that on a TV show--the achievement of an end result of transformative politics. I think it's enough to succeed at making transformation seem highly desirable. It's just not what other TV is designed to do, The Sopranos and most of the HBO line up included, and it's a much more difficult feat to pull off. At least I know I have a keener eye for a a stronger conviction behind my opposition to the kinds of societal problems The Wire describes, and how often can one say that after watching a dramtic serial on TV?

Now all that said, you could be right that I let the show off the hook to allow for "transformational politics hour" and then everyone turns back to their shut in, unmoved, passive lives. But it's unfair to make it such an either or distinction. There's potential for change, albeit perhaps less dynamic, in the fostering of new connoisseurship--if nothing else it makes a normal cops and robbers show unwatchable and the ending moral salutaton of any given Law and Order episode unwatachable. So if nothing else, people will watch less of that, and will be armed with arguments to discredit those that do. And because the show is big hit, it may allow for other shows of a similar ilk to find their way to air. Maybe it's enough to just be the spark for something, rather than a silver bullet to solve a host of interrelated and very difficult problems.

Posted by MSB | December 6, 2007 10:26 AM

Burritoboy,

You make some very interesting points about the historical and political flaws of La Meglio Gioventu, but none of that changes the fact that the show works as a compelling story (even if, arguably, right-wing propaganda). Heimat didn't just pull political punches, it pulled dramatic punches - none of the protagonists ever seemed to truly suffer or do anything really reprehensible. That is certainly not true of "La Meglio Gioventu".

Charlesf,

I work in the business world - I'd say most of the attorneys, executives and consultants I interact with watch very little television because there's simply no time - at most a few sporting events and maybe the morning news. I haven't noticed that lack of TV viewing has made their conversation particularly scintillating.

Posted by vanya | December 6, 2007 10:27 AM

vanya-
it all depends on intention and motivation, doesn't it?

msb-
maybe we are talking past each other, though i'd rather listen to you than me. i think you are concerned with socially conscious action and were inspired by 'the wire', which seems admirable, and i'm talking (since people are listing their favorite tv shows) about reclaiming one's inner life from the mass media. someone said it this way: they strip-mine our dreams and sell them back to us, and we eagerly buy. all a person has to do is stop and look at what images and names and characters inhabit our thinking now, and where they have come from, to see how deep in we now are to a spoon-fed reality disconnected from our own personal and natural world.

Posted by charlesf | December 6, 2007 5:02 PM

"i'm talking (since people are listing their favorite tv shows) about reclaiming one's inner life from the mass media. someone said it this way: they strip-mine our dreams and sell them back to us, and we eagerly buy. all a person has to do is stop and look at what images and names and characters inhabit our thinking now, and where they have come from, to see how deep in we now are to a spoon-fed reality disconnected from our own personal and natural world."

Obviously, the technology now is both more pervasive, persuasive and invasive, but why is today's mass media necessarily more objectionable than, say, nineteenth-century literature or Homeric epics or the immense teaching apparatus of the medieval Church? People have been peopling their imaginations with figures from literature or religion for at least three thousand years now. Now, the content of Homeric epics probably is better content than TV shows for people to do this with, but the mechanism isn't the problem, rather the low-quality content of the TV shows.

Posted by burritoboy | December 6, 2007 8:41 PM

burritoboy-

good question, and there's truth to what you say: we love stories and always have. we are creatures of the narrative. could we even survive if we weren't a character in our own play, if we didn't have organizing images?

but there are two big differences here. the technology and the media corporation. staring trancelike into an electrified box flashing it's images from a remote (geographically and personally) corporate media industry is hardly the same as listening to a grandfather telling family and community stories by the fire. or just sitting together by the fire. who does that anymore? what a laughably quaint idea.

even though it is how we knew each other for 10's of thousands of years. not to mention the rock solid grounding we had in nature that gave us a deeply shared experience to begin with, now hardly remembered in our culture.

besides that esoteric personal viewpoint that comes from being inspired by the deep wilderness for long stretches of solitude, there is another, much easier fact. some of us just can't turn on the tv for one simple reason: what it has to tell us is unpleasant. i grew up on literature, so maybe i am spoiled for a good turn of phrase. but the tone of commercial media, the character behind it, comes out of its infinitely shallow cynicism.

and then there is this one underlying bargain we make for their wonders: they don't care what brings the eyes, they just want eyes watching. trash or inspiring calls to action, it doesn't matter, so long as we sit and watch.

by the way, i watch a lot of movies, ozu is about my favorite. so that's where i am plugged in. and the internet. does that undercut the argument? doesn't feel that way. but i am no monk.

another book to consider besides 'four arguments for the elimination of television' is 'Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business'.

Posted by charlesf | December 7, 2007 12:02 AM

Picking the best TV dramas is like picking the best rock songs; no two people are going to agree complete.

Here are my choices, based on many years of diligent viewing. They are not "in order", just grouped vaguely. Dramas only, no sitcoms.

The Best
--------

The Wire
The Sopranos
Six Feet Under
Deadwood
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Homicide: Life on the Street
The Shield
Battlestar Galactica (SciFi network)

Honorable Mentions
------------------

Hill Street Blues (beginning of the modern era)
NYPD Blue
Angel
Oz
Miami Vice
Star Trek: DS9

From decades prior to the 1970's, I can honestly include only one: Have Gun, Will Travel. I don't know enough about other potential honorees.

Posted by Chloe | December 7, 2007 11:22 AM