Trueblood on HBO

The entire critically-acclaimed HBO series The Wire has been out for quite some time now, enough for it to be sitting at half its original retail price on most store shelves and in most e-tailer's inventories.

For those unfamiliar with The Wire, it's a crime drama based in the North American city of Baltimore, Maryland. Unlike most crime dramas, The Wire doesn't follow the exploits of just the boys in blue, it has a far grander scope. It begins grand enough, following the exploits of the lowly police on the street, the upper brass, as well as the stories of the other side, the street-vending corner hopping kids and their kingpin drug leaders. From there and throughout the series, it slowly and expertly introduces stories that intertwine into the main plot. These new threads delve into parts of Baltimore life such as the Mayor's Office, political races, the mostly Polish dockworking community, the role of foreign cartels in seaport smuggling, the county prison, the construction and real estate industry, and even the public school system.

What emerges from this fantastically rich span of subject matter is a fantastic caricature of a city and the people who live within (and beyond) its limits. More than just a television show, The Wire grows into a remarkable dramatization of American culture, a culture that is largely hidden from the average person.

That this show has been time and time again ignored by the bigger award ceremonies like the Emmy Awards and the Golden Globes simply reveals their existence as a farce. Over five seasons the show has not received a single Golden Globe nomination, and only been nominated for two Emmy Awards for writing, both of which it lost. The fact that derivative dish-washing shows like The Good Wife and Grey's Anatomy can appear on the list for Best Drama while a thing so significant as The Wire can be simply ignored is absolutely preposterous.

Anyone with a love for great acting, great characters, great storytelling, and a great look into the much-ignored corners of American life and culture would do themselves a tremendous favor by picking up every last episode of The Wire.