The Wire
Stuck the LandingFinale "-30-" scored 9.6, one of its highest-rated episodes.Rock SolidEvery season landed between 8.4 and 8.8 across 5 seasons.
Social commentaryDeliberate critique of how society works.This show: 10/10Criminal underworldOrganized crime, gangs and the criminal life seen from the inside.This show: 10/10GrittyRaw, unglamorous realism in both look and subject matter.This show: 10/10Ensemble castMany characters carrying equal weight.This show: 10/10NaturalisticUnderstated, lifelike performances and look.This show: 9/10CynicalDeeply distrustful of institutions and human motives.This show: 9/10Morally grayNo clean heroes or villains anywhere in sight.This show: 9/10SerializedContinuous arcs where every episode builds on the last.This show: 9/10
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Starring
Dominic WestLance ReddickSonja SohnWendell PierceJohn DomanDede Lovejoy
Written by
David Simon
Starring
Dominic WestLance ReddickSonja SohnWendell PierceJohn DomanDede Lovejoy
Written by
David Simon
Ratings per Episode
Votes per Episode
The Wire Episode Ratings Heatmap
| Avg | E1 | E2 | E3 | E4 | E5 | E6 | E7 | E8 | E9 | E10 | E11 | E12 | E13 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 8.5 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.7 | 9.2 | 8.8 | 9.1 | 9.0 | |
| S2 | 8.4 | 7.7 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 8.8 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 9.2 | 9.0 | ||
| S3 | 8.7 | 7.9 | 8.3 | 8.3 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 8.9 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 9.6 | 9.3 | ||
| S4 | 8.7 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.6 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 8.9 | 9.3 | 9.6 | |
| S5 | 8.8 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.9 | 9.4 | 9.6 |
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About
"A patient, novelistic autopsy of a dying city"
The Wire follows Baltimore police investigating a drug trafficking crew, but each season peels back another layer of the city: the docks, city hall, the schools, the newsroom. It moves slowly and demands attention, favoring institutional rot over individual heroics or tidy resolutions. Especially in its first hours it can feel dense and unglamorous, but the patience pays off in a novelistic sprawl of characters on both sides of the law who feel entirely real. It plays less like a thriller than a tragedy, carried by patient writing and one of television's deepest ensembles.
Watch it for
the richest, most patient ensemble portrait of a city's slow institutional decay ever filmed.
Maybe skip if
you want fast plotting or clear heroes and villains rather than moral ambiguity.
Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.
All Seasons
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Season 12002
8.5106K1312h 39m
On the drug-infested streets of West Baltimore, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Sometimes you need more than a badge to tell them apart. Season 1 follows a single sprawling drug and murder investigation in Baltimore — one that culminates in a complex series of dangerous wiretaps and surveillance.
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Season 22003
8.477K1211h 44m
McNulty's on harbor patrol. Daniels is in the police-archives dungeon. Prez is chafing in the suburbs. Greggs has a desk job. The detail may be on ice, but corruption marches on . . . and a horrific discovery is about to turn the Baltimore shipping port inside out. Setting up in the wake of the first season's joint homicide/narcotics detail that exposed a major drug operation — and left its members stigmatized and reassigned — the second season expands to include not only familiar drug dealers, but a group of longshoremen and organized crime members who are caught up in a major homicide case.
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Season 32004
8.775K1211h 44m
The heat is on in Baltimore. The drug war is being lost, bodies are piling up, and a desperate mayor wants the tide turned before the election. But the police department hasn't got any answers. Wiretaps haven’t worked. Neither have stakeouts or street busts. With the demolition of the Franklin Terrace towers, Stringer Bell and the Barksdale crew have been forced to improvise. But no matter how hard McNulty and the detail try, the dealers always seem to be one step ahead of the game. It’s time to change the rules.
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Season 42006
8.775K1313h 2m
In the projects. On the docks. In City Hall. And now, in the schools. The places and faces change, but the game remains the same. A new story begins. This year, while expanding on storylines introduced in previous seasons — including the new vocations of several characters, the rise of a new drug empire, and the city's imminent mayoral election — the series expands its focus into Baltimore's school system, providing an inside look at the role of the urban educational system in shaping young people's lives. This storyline is played out through four new young characters, each of whom faces difficult choices amidst the temptation of crime and easy money.
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Season 52008
8.857K1010h 16m
In the projects. On the docks. In City Hall. In the schools. And now, in the media. The places and faces change, but the game remains the same. In the fifth — and final — season, the series expands its focus into the media — specifically the role of newspapers in big-city bureaucracy — as it follows a newspaper staff as they struggle to maintain integrity and meet deadlines in the face of budget cuts and staff reductions.
Full Cast & Crew
Cast
Dominic West Detective James 'Jimmy' McNulty, Officer James 'Jimmy' McNulty
Lance Reddick Lieutenant Cedric Daniels, Major Cedric Daniels, Colonel Cedric Daniels
Sonja Sohn Detective Shakima 'Kima' Greggs
Wendell Pierce Detective William 'Bunk' Moreland
John Doman Deputy Commissioner for Operations William A. Rawls, Major William A. Rawls, Colonel William A. Rawls
Dede Lovejoy A.S.A. Rhonda Pearlman
Seth Gilliam Sergeant Ellis Carver, Detective Ellis Carver
Domenick Lombardozzi Detective Thomas 'Herc' Hauk, Thomas 'Herc' Hauk
Clarke Peters Detective Lester Freamon
Andre Royo Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins
Crew
David Simon
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