My main man Kevin turned us onto The Wire recently and the wife and I proceeded to tear through the first four seasons in fairly short order. I can’t say enough good things about this TV show because it is several levels above anything else on television. It is not just “good art” but it is serious history – the five seasons will comprise a document that will be studied by students of Western civilization for generations.

As a newbie to the medium, I might not have much authority to speak at this point. I think maybe I need to watch the first season, at least, again. But it is in the final phases: The first show of season five is On Demand now, and there are only nine after it. Maybe this would be something to discuss in the coming weeks?

Here’s a good story by the local paper of record on the current season. Soon I plan to start compiling additional commentary.

If you don’t have HBO – well, don’t bother getting it now because the show uniquely makes absolutely no sense unless you have watched every single previous episode carefully from the beginning. If you are interested, start buying and watching the first four seasons on DVD, and then catch up to the current (final) one at whatever stage you can.

Do yourself a favor right now and go to Amazon or wherever and buy season one and just start watching it. You will not regret it, and you will likely tell all your friends then keep coming back to this blog for all of the other great ideas I will pass along in the future. Win-win.

Again, there is nothing else like The Wire. I think the downfall, or one of the downfalls, is that it is too intelligent or too demanding in requiring absolute fealty from the viewers: You are not ALLOWED to miss a single episode across the years or you WILL lose the thread of the narrative. It’s a novel idea for TV, and for those of us who have become completely jaded to the possibility of any semblance of quality from TV it’s an absolute brainstorm.

If you are one of those idealistic sorts who has abandoned television, The Wire is reason enough to go out to the trash heap and see if that baby still functions. Or just go buy a new one: You will not regret it.