I thought "Lonesome Dove" was the best I'd seen on TV until "The Wire" came around. This is the only show I watch at broadcast time instead of later on a DVR.

For those who seek intellectual stimulation and depth, this is the best show on TV.

This show is great on so many levels that it has set the standard to which all other shows are to be compared. The writing is great, and the actors have took ownership of the roles they were cast in. Pure genius. "Woe is to them that call evil good, and good evil" - Prop Joe

New world, new issues. Here's hoping for a strong finish.

If you are looking for convention and safety in your tv entertainment you'll be disappointed, the wire offers the sort of hard fought rewards usually found in great novels. it compares well to anything of the last 20 years (including movies), and i think it will stand the test over the next 20 years too.

While A FEW of the disparaging posts listed below make at least some relevant and coherent arguments, it's PREPOSTEROUS to give even the last, so-called weakest season of The Wire anything less than a 10/10. The only real fault of this season, all overwrought and haughty criticism aside, is that the show probably tried to do too much, especially given that the season was limited to ten episodes. The irony is palpable in statements like "the serial-killer storyline was unrealistic"; the show had built so much credibility in the previous seasons that McNulty's transgressions were a bit far-fetched, even though no one would have admitted as much while they watched these brilliant final episodes. In the end, the major themes like the system's immovability and the ultimate triumph of evil despite the existence of nobility all rang true as much as ever. This show takes its rightful place atop all others in that its STORY was so massively complex yet succinctly coherent. It redefined drama, and turned the dial to "eleven".… Expand

This is the best show, bar none. The Wire is as real as it gets. No predictable, overly dramatized scripts here.

Season five seamlessly integrates yet another beautifully realized, dysfunctional, depressing (and yet often hilarious) aspect of Baltimore city life. And even if you think the newsroom doesn't carry the same emotional punch of the schools story arc from season 4, it's still equally relevant, and further serves the show's purpose, namely, telling the story of the decline of an American city. From the corners to the precincts to the docks to the schools to the newsdesk, "it's all connected." It's not TV. It's not even HBO. Simply put, it's one of mankind's greatest artistic achievements. Okay, have I overhyped it enough for you yet?… Expand

There's been so much critical hype for this show that people might be skeptical, but it really is fantastic. You also might be fooled into thinking it's preachy or too depressing. It's not at all; it's engrossing and exciting and funny and smart.

There's simply never been anything better. Unfortunately, it's complex and it scares away new viewers, but for those who rent the DVDs and get caught up, it will change the way the think about the "art" of television.

Greatest show in TV history.

Off to a great start!!!! Keep it coming and PLEASE don't end like the Sopranos.

Best HBO series ever, that's right Sopranos, you heard me. I doubted and naysayed until season 4, but once I started watching I couldn't stop. If you aren't hooked by the end of the third episode in season 1, then I offer a full refund.

As good as ever, particularly the cops and robbers-level plot. McNulty and Marlo eat up the screen.

Absolutely the best show on television. To be honest, season 4 was such an outstanding season (in a show filled with stellar seasons) that I wasn't sure how good the final season would be once I heard the storyline. To my surprise, after the first 7 episodes it's the same Wire that makes it hard to ever feel good about watching any other show. It just sets the bar so high, that when you hear about shows like Prison Break, and "Lost" and people talking about how good they are, you can't help but chuckle. I've never found a person who hasn't been hooked on the Wire after watching five or more episodes. It can take that long to get into and comprehend what's going on, but it's absolutely worth it. It's going to be sad once this season ends. I don't know if there will ever be a better show on television anytime in the upcoming decades. It's that good.… Expand

The best of the best that tv ever had to offer, even when measured against season 4, season 5 though not as strong, is just as great

Best show ever on tv completing its tale.

Bar none, the best show on TV - ever!

It's a shame this show in the previous seasons never won an Emmy. Just shows you the stupidity of what the general consensus calls "Good TV" McNulty is the man.

The best series that ever existed. Nothing vome close to the complexity of The Wire.

I was born and raised in Baltimore and taught in the Baltimore school system. These first-hand experiences only heighten my respect for this series. While the stories are fictional, the depiction of them is truth. As television struggles to find its future, this series come closer than any other to realizing its potential.

The show has lost all of its flow with the addition of the "baltimore sun" story line. This is the final season and instead of allowing us to dig in to the characters we've come to love/hate they add in some dry, uninteresting, newsroom crap. It seems to me that HBO is setting up a spin-off show and ruining the wire to use it as a launching pad.

From the first 7 episodes, this season is every bit as amazing as the first 4. Funny that the lowest score comes from the Baltimore Sun, being that this season closely follows the inner workings of that very paper.

Funny that the Baltimore Sun, which is trashed in this season, gives it the lowest score of all.

The Best TV Show EVER, and I have been watching tv since 1950; only the anthology drama series (Climax, Playhouse 90, etc.) ran stuff this good, but without this much consistency. I have watched 55 episodes of the wire, and the worst grade I would give any episode was a B.

Just watched the first episode. Brilliant as always. The negative reviewers have their head's shoved far where the sun doesn't shine.

Best television show ever.

The only show that has made me regret giving up television 15 years ago. If other shows take The Wire's lead, I'll consider hooking cable back up. Stunning television, easily better than 90% of what is in the theaters today (& the casting directors deserve Emmy's for their sublime vision).

Still the best show in TV. Too bad no one watches. What a terrific swan song season 4 has been so far...

As brilliant as the previous seasons, and still far and away the best show on television. We don't get as much of the schools from season 4, but Omar is back with a vengeance as heroic villain, and McNulty is at his best again as tragic hero.

Raw, gritty, sometimes comedic and always utterly human, "The Wire" is a must-see for every citizen who cares about the state of urban America.

This last season of the wire isn't as good as the previous four but it is still the best cop "shoot em up" shows on tv.

I am not a fan of TV - I've never seen one episode of 'Cheers' 'The Simpsons' 'Soparanos', etc. When my son from college brought us 4 DVDs of 'The Wire' and recommended that we watch it, I was skeptical. After the first episode, I continued to be skeptical, 'It's so real it's not entertaining' I told my husband. Two episodes later, I was hooked - hooked on the character development, the gritty, humorous dialogs, the all-too recognizable plight of the city, the eye-opening realities of the drug world and the bungled maneuvers of the 'good guys'. Better than most movies, the Wire is entertainment at its finest.… Expand

I'm not sure what to think about this season. The unadulterated Wire fan in me wants to believe that the writers know what they are doing and that they can't lead us wrong. But the smart TV watcher in me thinks, hey, this stuff isn't all that grand. The cop angle is much to cheesy, with the reintoduction of McNulty now being the weight on the ankles of the drowning Lester, a once interesting character that is now nothing more than a symbol. Which, when you get right down to it, is the real problem with this season: everything is a symbol. Marlo can't be touched; (he's like Superman this guy), Omars tiny cursade ends in a heartbeat, effectively robbing the audience of three episodes, and, as I said before, McNulty is now a total detriment to the show. His fake serial killer angle has now sucked all enjoyment I once had watching the cops. I'm sorry to say that I think the writers and producers (where is Ed Burns name in the credits?) have finally hit Soprano's zone: they've become really, really full of themselves.… Expand

Great show. Weakest season yet. Just one question...who are these people that are calling this realistic or unrealistic...how are these television critics qualified to judge this as either??

The best written and best acted show on TV. I'm really sorry to see it go but I think it ran it's course and reached a natural end.

I'd give every other season an eleven if I could, but not this one. While the ending to Bubbles' story was completely flawless and amazing, the police story line, as someone else pointed out, was way too cheesy. I won't say that what happened was unrealistic or impossible, it was just very, very improbable. Something that I've always loved about The Wire is that not only has it never had impossible, theatrical, or unrealistic moments, it never even had improbable moments. That changed with season five. Oh, and I agree with everything that the Baltimore Sun said about the flaws in the newspaper storyline.… Expand

this is the most brilliant television series ever offered. A sociological powerhouse. breathtaking.

The first four seasons are so mind-blowing that Season 5 has left me disappointed. The cop plot is not believable in the slightest, and while the newsroom characters are very realistic, introducing them all in the final 'tie-everything-in-a-bow' season distracts from the focus on the main characters.

Far and away the best show I have ever seen on television. Nothing comes close in this genre.

The greatest show ever...period.

The greatest television series of all time!

A little ironic that the Baltimore Sun gives the lowest rating, no?

Unsatisfying ending to a difficult to watch series. I have really only kept up with it because I love Clarke Johnson and anything he is in.

Anytime a great show comes to an end u hear all of the negative.

One of the greatest shows ever created. Characters, Plotlines, Writing, and Directing is flawless.

The greatest television show I have ever watched. The writing for this show is intense, and so deep. I wonder how anyone cannot like this show.

It was the worst season EVER season four was much better.

This season is could be described with the word "BLUFF" because you suddenly see all levels of every organization trying to trick each other. It is a little bit funnier than season 4, which was unbelievably heavy (in a good way). I enjoyed the wrap up for most of the characters, some people changed little for the better: some for the worse: some didn't change at all.

While this may not be the best season of the wire by a long shot (that goes to season 1, 3 or 4), it is still better than any single season from any other show on TV.

Believe the hype-- this is probably one of the most engaging shows ever put on air. If you are thinking it couldn't possibly stand up alongside all the hyperbole, just give it a chance and watch the first season.

Since most said that it was the weakest season, I lowered my standards. And while I was within that mindset, I saw the concluding season. Just marvelous. These characters will be sorely missed.

I thought the WIRE was the best TV I'd ever seen - so it was really a shame to end on a low. The final WIRE season was a great disappointment. A number of well-known characters suddenly became two-dimensional and behaved in ways that were totally at odds with how their behaviour had built over previous seasons. New characters were introduced that did not show any depth (unlike in previous seasons, the newsroom crowd did not become real people, compared to say the dock crowd). The plot became unrealistic to the point of farce, and rushed. I wonder how much of this was down to creative exhaustion, and how much of it was down to the reduced series length (in terms of numbers of episodes). Yes, my expectations were very high. But I realise that if I had come to series 5 of the Wire before any of the others, I would have thought it was just another slightly hyper-real gritty cop show.… Expand

If I did a review for all five seasons, well, that seems like a lot of work. So, I'll just say, that this show is, easily, one of the best television series ever. The performances are all great, and the writing and direction in each episode is impeccable with a level or realism that could only be provided by him. Easily the best crime drama ever on television.

The Wire is without a doubt the best T.V Show ever. However this season is frankly the weakest of the four. All four seasons preceding this one had a great character(s) that really strung you along through the season, McNulty and D', Sobotka, Stringer, The Kids. This season I didn't get that feeling, and although the Hamsterdam plotline was slightly far-fetched, the homeless killings was a bridge to far. The Wire thrives on verisimilitude, but it was just off this season. I loved the Bubbles storyline, and my god Marlo is just fantastic. But I just didn't love Tommy, the newspaper or even McNulty. It was disappointing to see the show slide from its brilliance.

What I can't understand is users giving this a red rating, get the **** off whatever you are smoking. ratings like that are reserved for thing like America's Next Top Model, I get that your unhappy that it lost some of its charm, but it is not a 2/10… Expand

As with previous years this new season of The Wire sees a shift in focus and this time around it is the role of the press. To be completely honest this new focus is never quite as interesting as the look at the school system from Season Four but the brilliant writing and superb performances continue to make The Wire unmissable viewing throughout these final ten episodes. By the time it reaches its fitting conclusion most viewers will realise they are seeing the end of something special.… Expand

The Wire peaks in season four, which is flawless, and then it takes a slight dip in its fifth and final season. Don't get me wrong. This season is still better than almost anything else on television, but there are some unbelievable plot twists, and it feels more rushed than previous seasons. Still amazing, but not perfect.

I've watched many, many television shows, and I can confidently affirm that The Wire is by far the greatest achievement in the history of TV. I won't bother typing up a long and well thought-out review because I'm sure the previous users have done a fair enough job of describing this show, but I will say this: no other television series compares to The Wire, and it will be a long time before another one does.… Expand

The most realistic thing I ever watched. Can't like any other show after watching The Wire. All the charaters are so real, they are like people you know from somewhere.

An average end to a great show. The most troublesome arc was Mcnulty's. The Mcnulty we saw from throughout last season was a satisfying conclusion to his character I think. It is hard for me to figure that the writers disagree since they brought him all the way back around to where he was. Then to top it off his colleagues give him a send off worthy of the smart determined detective we saw throughout this series. Certainly not the criminal,bungling police he became in this season. Compound that with the chicken fight he gets into with an equally criminal reporter, and you have by far the worst story arc of this series. They did some things right with certain characters this season, most notably Marlo and Bubbles. Also introducing a new character, Gus, who I wish we could have seen in a better story line. The newspaper angle had the potential to be very good, I wish it would have lived up to it. Plenty of shows have gone one season too long, that is my opinion of what happened to The Wire. But when I remember this show, i will remember the glory days, and the plethora of great characters that ran through this series.… Expand

The last season is very simple and I say that as a high praise. It comes full circle back to the beginning of the first season. You can see clearly the outline of a new cycle of stories, some people following the path of others before them and some people branching out into the unknown.
Many people will like one season more than another, because the themes covered are often different. But I think what most people enjoy in the Wire is how it elevates our understanding of any one theme by linking its causes and effects to so many other themes. A true work of Art and Sociology.… Expand