The Wire Season 1
The Wire Season 1 was released on DVD by HBO Home Video on October 12, 2004. It is now available at The Wire Season 1 . The Wire is a realistic and compelling saga centered on a big drug investigation in the lower income projects of Baltimore. The lives of the detectives and the drug dealers are gone over in depth and show both the hardships and the successes. The shows how the lines between good and evil in the undercover world of narcotics can easily get blurred.
There are two story lines that start the season. The first involves Detective Jimmy McNulty, played by Dominic West, who is increasingly disillusioned by the courts inability to prosecute and convict anyone in the Barksdale drug network. He contacts a federal judge and is able to get an investigation started into this drug network running through the housing projects in Baltimore. The story continues through the initial set up and all of the technological aspects of an undercover operation. All of the various legislative and judicial institutions involved are examined that either help or hinder the investigations including the District Attorney, defense lawyers, judges, police, informants and others.
The other story line looks at the reality of being in a drug network on the wrong side of the law. It looks at all the players from teenage and younger street dealers all the way to the head of the organization, Avon Barksdale. The show makes no excuses for these characters and shows them as they really would be on the street. A story within the story is the rise of Avon’s nephew D’Angelo as he learns his way in the organization and gets more responsibility. D’Angelo is the main target of Detective McNulty’s investigation this season.
The Wire Season 1 strives to make sure that all the characters are fully developed and that no one is a stereotypical character. All of the investigative narcotics officers are have full story lines and backgrounds from the gay female detective Greggs (Sonja Sohn) to the two very brutal competitive detectives with a penchant for violence to the quiet older detective who has a lot more going on than everyone thinks.
The Wire paints a very complicated picture of both sides of the war on drugs. It is a realistic (meaning violent) show that touches on themes that people do not want to realize. The war on drugs can never be won and because of this governments are diverting funds into areas that can show definite results. Check out The Wire Season 1