The Wire

This summer, while I was away in California, Nicole rented the first three seasons of The Wire from Netflix. In case you haven't heard, this is a series that shows on HBO; it is filmed and takes place in Baltimore, and focuses on the drug trade from several perspectives.

Recently, the fourth season appeared on DVD. Nicole enjoyed what she had seen, and awaited this new arrival with great anticipation. It immediately found its way to the top of our Netflix queue somehow, and we started receiving the disks shortly thereafter. We've watched the first two, and the third of four came today.

Although I know next to nothing about the first three seasons, I've enjoyed what I've seen. It's one of these very complex modern TV shows switching among several simultaneous overlapping narrative threads. It portrays a side of the city rather different from what we are accustomed to seeing, but often shows landmarks that we recognize. In fact, several years ago I encountered a film crew set up at the north end of Hopkins campus on my way home. I didn't get to see that episode, though.

There are a lot of episodes, and each one clocks in at a full hour because there are no commercials on HBO, but if you're up for it, I highly recommend it.