The Wire: Season 3 on DVD

So sad.

It took me about four months, but now it's over... I've seen all 37 episodes of David Simon's masterpiece of a television series that are currently available on DVD. Is there any point in even being on Netflix anymore?

Anyway, Season 3 of this smart, tightly-written, many-layered HBO drama about cops and criminals in Baltimore... overall I'd have to say this was the relatively weakest arc so far—call it an A-minus to the first two season's A-plus-pluses. Yes, the individual episodes were completely compelling, and it probably had some of the show's funniest moments yet, and I won't forget that preacher's nightime visit to Hamsterdam anytime soon, and it's always a pleasure to spend an evening with Omar and Stringer and Bubbles and Rawls and Kima and Carver and Herc and Lester and McNulty.


But I must say I never really got sucked into the machinations of "The Hall"—the politicians and police administration—the way I did the world of the Polish dockworkers and Greek Mafia in Season 2. And the denouement of one of the primary storylines... well you could see it coming a mile away, although I admit the timing was fiendishly clever. And though I personally, philosophically agree with the Hamsterdam experiment, I thought Simon, Ed Burns and their all-star cast of guest writers (this time including Richard Price and Dennis Lehane) maybe got a little preachy about this obviously good idea.

Really, though, these are minor complaints. The Wire remains a work of entertainment genius. Now can anyone recommend a TV series on DVD that I can get into while I await the release of Season 4? Maybe Lost? Deadwood? Anyone...?