When it comes to acclaimed television shows of the 21st century, few are as universally praised as The Wire. While it wasn't as popular while it was on the air, in the years since its final episode in 2008, its reputation has increased significantly. What was once an acclaimed but underrated crime/drama series is now considered legendary and an essential watch for fans of prestige TV shows. When it comes to other HBO shows, perhaps its only competitor is The Sopranos, and even then, when judging what the greatest show of the 2000s was, one could get technical and point out that The Sopranos aired its first season in 1999.

So, The Wire is considered great, but what's it about? When it began in 2002, The Wire was predominantly concerned with following a group of police in Baltimore undertaking a wire-tapping operation to bring down a drug-dealing gang known as the Barksdale organization. Each season following the first introduced a new area of Baltimore that would be focused on, though it did this without ever forgetting previous storylines or characters. By the final season, the scope of the show and the size of its cast were huge, making The Wire feel like a true epic. It's great television from start to finish, but some seasons hit harder than others, as demonstrated by how they're ranked below, according to critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

5 Season 1 (2002)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%

Image via HBO

Season 1 of The Wire introduces viewers to a talented (and huge) cast from the get-go. Impressively, the size only grows as the seasons go on, but the increasing scope of the show is more incremental once you get past the first season. Things can feel overwhelming, at least initially, so if there's any reason why Season 1 is considered by critics to be a little less great than other seasons, it's probably due to the confusion some may feel when they start the show. It's possible to experience a feeling of being thrown into a televisual deep end, so to speak.

After a handful of episodes, things get clearer. By the end of the season, the fairly straightforward (by The Wire's standards) story about a wire-tapping operation taking on a street gang comes to a logical and emotionally powerful close. But one gets the sense that this world feels lived in, and that the characters all have immense histories, and those things take time to become accustomed to. For that reason, on first watch, season one of The Wire is the most challenging season. But on a rewatch, it's far more comprehensible, and even on a first watch, it comes together in the end. Either way, it's a strong start to the show and allows future seasons to build off it and become even better.

4 Season 5 (2008)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 93%

Image via HBO

The Wire is a show that's received a great deal of acclaim for its season finales, so it's fitting that it also has a great series finale. As mentioned before, by the fifth and final season of The Wire, the show was essentially painting a portrait of Baltimore as a whole. Just about every character who didn't die in the first four seasons makes some sort of appearance in the fifth and final season, even if for just a moment or two. The final episode itself runs for longer than some movies (at 93 minutes), which demonstrates just how many storylines needed to be concluded as the show came to a close.

Season 5 undoubtedly gives The Wire a satisfying conclusion, with its final three to four episodes being particularly memorable. The show's primary storyline isn't quite as beloved, though, as the main institution introduced in the fifth season was The Baltimore Sun, with a new storyline exploring the role the media played in the city, and how it influenced street crime and the police department. While focusing on the Sun and the media as a whole wasn't quite as popular with fans of the show, Simon and his writing team did a tremendous job showcasing how budget cuts were degrading the newspaper, with the remaining newsroom employees being urged to "do more with less." The Sun also was the setting for, arguably, the series' most underrated conflict between Metro Desk Editor Gus Haynes (Clark Johnson) and General Assignment Reporter Scott Tempelton (Tom McCarthy), the latter of which resorted to fabricating his stories in order to grow his reputation, and would serve to tie everything together in the season's final episode. Season 5 was still compelling television, but perhaps not on the same level as the storylines other seasons focused on. Still, since Season 5 also serves as a pitch-perfect conclusion to the show's other narrative threads, it does ultimately stand as a great season of television.

3 Season 2 (2003)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%

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The Wire's second season may alarm some viewers who've just gotten used to the Season 1 status quo. Newcomers expecting the storyline from Season 1 to remain the focus will be taken aback by the introduction of the Port of Baltimore storyline, which revolves around dockworkers and how they're impacted by another criminal organization, this one run by a man known only as "The Greek." Beyond importing drugs into the city of Baltimore, he also imports stolen goods and sex trade workers, the latter of which is what initially gets the attention of the city's police (some newly introduced officers, and some who were introduced in Season 1).

The Barksdale crew (the street-level gang focused on in Season 1) take a backseat here, though they remain important to the show. Numerous members of the once-powerful gang have been imprisoned following Season 1, but their attempts to rebuild are given a good deal of attention, with this storyline regaining more of a central focus in Season 3. If there's one complaint to be made about Season 2, it's that most of the new characters introduced here only play small roles in the subsequent seasons, which makes Season 2 feel comparatively disconnected. However, like any season of The Wire, it's still amazingly well written, acted, and filmed, making for tense and very engaging TV.

2 Season 3 (2004)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%

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It's fitting that Season 3 of The Wire has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, because it's honestly hard to fault. After a season spent licking their wounds, the Barksdale gang bounces back, getting the same sort of screen time they had in Season 1. The gang has to contend with a new street gang led by the ruthless Marlo Stanfield, which makes for an engaging (and tragic) turf war narrative. While battling the Stanfield crew for control of the corners of West Baltimore, infighting within the Barksdale crew between Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell led to a dramatic, memorable, and maybe even stomach-churning conclusion.

Season 3 also has a storyline revolving around Hamsterdam, which is a new (and small) area within Baltimore where drugs are made legal, to explore whether legalization rather than criminalization could be a solution to the city's concerns around drug-taking and drug-related violence. Furthermore, Season 3 also introduces viewers to the world of Baltimore politics, following a young politician named Tommy Carcetti who aspires to become the city's mayor. The scale is much greater than what was seen in Seasons 1 and 2, but it's all incredibly well-balanced, and makes for a superb season of television that's nearly impossible to fault on any level.

1 Season 4 (2006)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%

Image via HBO

Season 4 of The Wire sees the show at its absolute peak, which is saying something, considering the other four seasons are all pretty close to perfect, if not themselves arguably flawless. The police continue to play a pivotal role, conflicts between street gangs keep playing out, and the political side of the show becomes more high-stakes, with a season-long narrative about Baltimore's mayoral election taking up a major part of the season. Yet the most emotionally devastating and compelling storyline comes from the new area of the city, which is focused on during the show's fourth season: that of an underfunded inner-city school.

The young characters introduced in Season 4 play limited roles in the final season, but it's the penultimate season where they really shine. Introducing children into a show like this might not seem like a great idea on paper, but the young cast members are remarkably naturalistic and fit in with the rest of the cast perfectly. It also might feel so emotional and grounded because a storyline set in a school is something most viewers can personally relate to, or are at least more likely to relate to, than storylines set around police departments, street gangs, or political institutions. There's a near-universal relatability to the part of Baltimore introduced in season four that makes this batch of episodes so remarkably powerful, ultimately giving Season 4 the edge and making it The Wire's greatest season.

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The Wire

TV-MA

Crime

Drama

Release Date

2002 - 2008-00-00

Network

HBO

Showrunner

David Simon

Directors

Ernest R. Dickerson, Ed Bianchi, Steve Shill, Clark Johnson, Daniel Attias, Agnieszka Holland, Tim Van Patten, Alex Zakrzewski, Anthony Hemingway, Brad Anderson, Clement Virgo, Elodie Keene, Peter Medak, Rob Bailey, Seith Mann, Christine Moore, David Platt, Dominic West, Gloria Muzio, Jim McKay, Leslie Libman, Milcho Manchevski, Robert F. Colesberry, Thomas J. Wright

Cast

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• 
  Dominic West

  Jimmy McNulty
• 
  Lance Reddick

  Cedric Daniels

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