I finally sat down and watched Season 1, Disc 1 of The Wire. Not a show for the faint of heart, given that a) it's super gritty and violent, and b) you really have to pay attention to understand the intricate plotlines. So far I'm impressed. I'm not quite ready to crown this the greatest show of all time, but I do recognize that this is a more ambitious kind of TV crime drama than what came before. This is light years away from a Law and Order-type series, where basically the police and the attorneys are always good and the criminals are always evil. The series shows similarities between the criminal and the law enforcement hierarchies, which I think is pretty daring. Also, the glamour factor is reduced, and you can see how cops and drug dealers alike face politics and incompetence and hassles, just like in any other job. If you want to understand the criminal justice system, this seems like the drama that gets closest to what it's really like. On to Disc 2 then...