The Wire - The Complete Fourth Season

Customer Rating:
Summary: Maybe the best season of any television show ever.
Comment: I assume if you're reading this review you own, or at least have seen, seasons 1 through 3 of the critically acclaimed program The Wire. If not what are you doing; go out and buy or rent or try to borrow from someone the previous seasons, and start from Season 1. Do not, I repeat do not, skip a single episode much less a season. That might be fine for some TV shows, but not The Wire. The Wire unfolds like a great novel, building on itself piece by piece, and with a scope beyond anything done in television beforehand. It's a show that requires dedication, and with that dedication you will absorb some of the most satisfying experiences you have ever felt from a TV show.

For those that have seen seasons 1 through 3, rest assured that Season 4 isn't only on par with those first three season; in my opinion it suprasses them. Every Wire season ads a new layer to the Baltimore culture, and this season it's the school. For me, as someone who went to inner city schools though not in Baltimore, it was aghast how much I could relate my experiences to those of the kids on the show. There are four major characters--Michael, Namond, Randy, and Dukie--and all are performed by the young actors very well.

I'm not going to give much away. The first episode, like the first episode of the other seasons, purposely frustrates the viewer with many new characters brand new plotlines not always clear, and it's hard to make total sense of it even by the third episode. The more the season progresses the more you appreciate that they did confuse you in the beginning because there always is a payoff. This is the first season that doesn't rely much on the Barksdale crew, but it picks up at the street very well, as it does with the Law, and at the Hall. Along with the School all four aspects of the Wire connect in a way so seamless you're amazed television is capable of something so grand.

Special features include six Audio commentaries, and two nice documentaries on the show. One of the commentaries includes all four actors playing the kids I mentioned above, along with the actor who plays Prop Joe, and it's one of the more memorable commentaries I have seen.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The 1st time N my life I've ever been glued 2 a TV
Comment: Short & Sweet. Didn't watch this series before it was taken off the air. Heard all the rave reviews. Did my research and ordered Season 4 (to start with).

Easily the most dynamic TV series of my lifetime. Incredible acting (and from such young kids), brilliant writing and great storylines.

Powerful, engaging, thought-provoking, eye-popping, emotional, deep, inspiring, gripping, maddening.

There aren't enough words 2 describe this show.

I think what makes this season so real is the fact you'll look at the four boys and easily place them in your own lives as people you'd know. So to see them face real world problems and make life/death decisions at such young ages and with relatively little information, it hits home hard.

This is what I call "Reality Television." What makes this show all the more impactful is the fact that, sadly, most of these scenarios and portrayals are at least loosely based on real events that went down (and continue 2 go down) in the streets of Baltimore.

I believe a stat from the Special Features Documentary says that 80% of the characters depicted were based on real people! If that doesn't draw viewers in, I don't know what else will?

This DVD series is a must have.

Period.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great stuff
Comment: Great stuff. I feel like I know the whole g'dam town of Baltimore, from top to bottom. Seriously, it's like these people aren't even actors. In fact, you can't even imagine them as actors, being away from the set, that's how good they are. It doesn't even seem possible that they're acting. There's probably not too much higher praise you can give an actor than this. This is like going to see a great movie at the Cineplex, only the effing thing is 100 hours long, and you get to watch it go on and on, and the quality never goes down-- just stays at the same high level. Thanks guys. Great work.
Larry W. Phillips

Customer Rating:
Summary: "Life" isn't fair...it's "life"...
Comment: Just finished the set...3 days. I find irony in the fact that one of the most beautiful things ever created was born of ugliness. If aliens were to come down to Earth, curious about what it meant to be human, I would show them "The Wire". I don't feel much hope, day to day. It's tough to be positive. Erosion. Winners and losers. You can't win in this life without being a little evil it seems. No good deed and all of that...just watch the show. It's a gift in a world that eats corporate s^%t and begs for more. Embrace the truth, do what you can...subtract from the evil, don't add. All you can do...maybe you'll make it...

..but probably not.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best season of the best series ever made.
Comment: If you haven't already seen the Wire, see it. There is nothing better. This is in my opinion the best season of it. It is the most intelligent, raw and simply brilliant television show ever made, buy it.