The Wire: Still the Best Show on TV

Critic's darling and TV 'Pleasure of the Boss' The Wire recently kicked off its fourth season, which will focus on the plight of schools and students in the low-income neighborhoods of Baltimore.

Despite what many,including myself, saw as a creative hiccup in the beginning of Season Three, The Wire has returned to form and regained its place as, far and above, the best and most ambitious undertaking on television.

The show was created by former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and erstwhile Baltimore homicide detective and schoolteacher Ed Burns. The pair drew on their experience to create TV's most unapologetically realistic depiction of the intersection of inner-city life and the civic institutions that fail to serve this segment of the citizenry.

The unusually diverse ensemble cast delivers performances of the first water, which is especially impressive considering the large number of younger actors and the many non-professionals culled from the streets of Baltimore. In fact, a former drug kingpin named Melvin Williams, whom Ed Burns arrested as a result of a year-long wiretap like the one conducted in Season One, plays a recurring role as The Deacon, a sage advisor to former police lieutenant Bunny Colvin in the show's current season.

Among the real standouts so far in the Season Four cast are several holdovers from the first three seasons, including British actor Dominic West seamlessly faking a Bal'more accent as Patrolman Jimmy McNulty, JD Williams as corner-running dealer 'Bodie', Michael K. Williams as much-feared stick-up artist Omar Little, Wendell Pierce as homicide detective Bunk Moreland and Irishman Aiden Gillen playing all-too-lily-skinned mayoral hopeful Tommy Carcetti. New additions such as Gbenga Akinnagbe as gang muscle Chris Partlow and Tristan Wilds as reluctant and idealistic 'hopper' Michael Lee help lift the series closer to its Season Two heights.

Maybe this will be the season that the Academy of Television Arts and Whatever finally catches up with the critics and gives this show its due. If not, at least we can celebrate the fact that The Wire has been picked up for a fifth and final season.