Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0026359277627
Format: AC-3
Label: HBO Home Video
Manufacturer: HBO Home Video
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: HBO Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-08-08
Running Time: 720
Studio: HBO Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2004-06-02

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: One of the best TV series ever
Comment: Every time I watch another season of The Wire, I am surprised again that this show did not dominate the writing, directing and acting categories of the Emmys and Golden Globes. It is head and shoulders above most other dramatic series.

Season 3 brings the team back to the drug dealers with a different twist than in the first season and some shocking developments. The last two episodes left me with my jaw hanging in surprise.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Sustained Greatness
Comment: Another great season from the Wire. I think I actually enjoyed season 2 a bit more, but season 3 really comes on strong about half-way through.

Customer Rating:

Summary: You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
Comment: HBO's The Wire is the best television I've ever seen. Creator David Simon and writer Ed Burns have crafted something that's utterly unique among contemporary TV dramas - a complex, gripping and believable portrait of a city (Baltimore) and its struggle to rise above the poverty, corruption and violence that seeks to bleed the life out of it.

More akin to a novel in its thorough exploration of character and motive, social and historical context, each season of The Wire unfolds in a series of chapters which must be taken as a whole. Seen through the eyes of both the Baltimore PD surveillance team, and the drug's gangs that control the inner-city housing projects, this is the American dream gone bad - an unapologetically political insight into why the largely black underclass have been failed by the machinery of government.

Season 3 takes us back to season 1's plot arc, as Stringer Bell holds temporary control of the `business' in Avon Barksdale's enforced absence. The times they are a changing as the towers are pulled down, and rival gangs fight for control of the corners. The tension between the two main men once Avon is released from prison, as each strives to impose his own vision (Stringer's to create a legitimate business empire, Avon's to let the street know who is king), leads to an unforgettable outcome. This leaves the door open for other crews to muscle in on their former territory, resulting in a bloodbath in West Baltimore. The Mayor and the Police Commissioner are desperate to keep the bodycount down as the election looms, leading to Major Colvin adopting his own eye-opening solution to the problem.

Meanwhile McNulty continues to p**s off anyone who doesn't agree with his methods, Prez makes a fatal error of judgement and Omar carries on wielding his own unique brand of vigilante justice against Barksdale's crew.

New characters Cutty, an ex-con fresh out of jail and fighting against the pull of the gang life, Tommy Carcetti, the ambitious councilman looking to run for mayor, and Marlo, the ambitious young gang leader looking to establish a foothold on the street, join the other established characters in a season that first matches, and then exceeds the dizzying standard that The Wire had set itself in previous seasons.

It's almost unheard of for television to achieve the artistic integrity of film or literature, and the Wire stands alone as an example of what is possible when a brilliant and passionate writer is allowed to realise his vision unfettered by the commercial constraints imposed by most networks. Let's hope that, once Season 5 (the final season) is over, others will take up the challenge that The Wire has set in creating ground-breaking drama that resonates with us long after the final credits have stopped rolling.

Customer Rating:

Summary: The 3rd Season of The Wire is just as good as Seasons 1 & 2
Comment: Some TV series start to get old after the first season or two, but that's not the case with the third season of The Wire.

The most interesting part of this season is what happens after Avon Barksdale gets out of prison. You just knew that after being #1 while Avon was in jail, Stringer Bell wasn't going to take kindly to being #2 again. But the ultimate "showdown" was not what I expected and was really interesting! (I won't give it away by saying what happened, but you've got to see this season!)

The whole "Amsterdam" situation that carries throughout the season is interesting, too. You'll see how one man came up with a solution (albeit temporary) to drug-related murders.

Anyway, this is another great season of The Wire that you won't want to miss!

Customer Rating:

Summary: The Wire - A better look at our streets
Comment: The Wire should be watched by most people because it's a show talking about everyone. This is a show about cops, true cops who are dedicated to their job and to what it truly means. It's a show about people trying to make a living. People who try to live in a city called Baltimore where it seems everybody can end up being shot. A city where everyone seems to end up dealing with drugs. The Wire is, in a way, like Oz, a microcosm of how a city breaths and how people interact even though violence is always at the next corner, waiting to blow your life in a new direction. The Wire is a show about life on the killing streets of Baltimore, just like Homicide was, but where the city is the main character. If you've watched the first and second season, be prepared for an even better third season. If you've never tried this show, what are you waiting for ?

More Reviews

Editorial Reviews:

With volatile issues of Baltimore city political reform as its narrative focus, the third season of The Wire superbly maintains the series' astonishingly consistent status as the greatest "novel for television" ever created. While the Baltimore police department's wire-tapping investigations continue to monitor the intricate and now legitimately fronted drug ring of Russell "Stringer" Bell (Idris Elba, smooth as ever), detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) continues his loutish ways, navigating through a series of shallow sexual conquests while doing some of the best cop-work of his career. Stringer's ex-convict partner Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) is back in the picture and bent on eliminating a drug-dealing competitor named Marlo (Jamie Hector), and Baltimore P.D. Major Howard "Bunny" Colvin (Robert Wisdom) tries his own defiantly independent brand of street justice by essentially legalizing drugs in "Hamsterdam," where isolated sections of the city are established as open drug-dealing zones, utterly without the knowledge or approval of Colvin's superiors. As city councilman Tommy Carcetti (Aiden Gillen) plots his own ruthlessly ambitious strategy for the mayor's seat, Baltimore officials, McNulty's wire unit, and the entire Baltimore P.D. stand poised for the inevitable fallout from street-level and executive-level manipulations of power.

Of course, this is just the tip of a very large iceberg, as The Wire continues its labyrinthine yet tightly controlled chronicle of over 50 characters, major and minor, who are all flawlessly woven into the fabric of these 12 remarkable episodes. For season 3, series creator David Simon continued to recruit a top-drawer lineup of reputable writers (including novelists Richard Price, Dennis Lehane, and George Pelecanos) and directors (including Ernest Dickerson, Tim Van Patten, and Agnieszka Holland), and by the time a major character is killed in the season's penultimate episode (arguably the series' finest yet), it's clear that The Wire has earned its crown as the most ambitious and intelligent crime drama in the history of American television. DVD extras are excellent, as usual, including five illuminating episode commentaries (an absolute must for devoted fans of the series), a Q&A session with cast & crew moderated by renowned TV critic and author Ken Tucker, and a classroom conversation with Simon that delves deeper into the creative process of the series. Having deservedly earned its renewal for a fourth season (out of a projected five, according to Simon), The Wire delivers surprises aplenty (keep a close watch for startling revelations) while proving, yet again, that cable-TV is the place to be for anyone seeking respite from the relative mediocrity of mainstream network programming. --Jeff Shannon