My personal opinion is that The Wire is the greatest TV drama that's ever been made - yes, even better than the way-more-popular Sopranos. It never got recognition from the Emmys, but many TV critics hailed this show. I went to a seminar with David Simon, the creator, and a couple critics remarked that no show ever came as close to the depth of a novel as this one.

Much of this is due to its realism. Although the show itself isn't factual in terms of depicting historical events, it's portrayal of cop/drug/gang/city culture is unmatched.

There were even rumors that drug dealers were watching The Wire to get clues on how to operate better. Here's a NY Times blog entry by the Freakonomics guys that discusses some of this: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire/

The show was never enormously successful, but there's very few incredibly brilliant shows that are (Arrested Development cancelled, e.g.)
Source(s):
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-o...

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