The Wire - The Complete Third Season DVD Review

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DVD Release Date - August 8, 2006
Description:

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.

Review

This season is intense. Season 3 gets back to what we liked in season 1, and amps it up.

Season 3 brings it back down to the streets and away from the docks of season 2. Season 3 brings us the up and coming gangster Marlo, who is taking terroritory with force from the Barksdales. Avon gets out of jail, and struggles to get back his corners, while Stringer Bell is focused on turning the drug game into a business, using his marketing skills to create supply and demand, trying to keep the streets happy.

The drug problem is getting out of hand this season, and as such Major “Bunny” Colvin, is under pressure to reduce the crime rate, and comes up with the idea of creating “the free zone”, an area where drug slanging will not be proscuected, bascially legalizing drug trafficing. The free zone gets a new name, Hampsterdam, and people are constantly selling drugs, whoreing, and everything with the exception of violence. To make sure this happens, Colvin places patrols in Hampsterdam to keep people in check. To make sure “The Corner Boys” come to Hampsterdam and stop slinging on the corners, they enforce “indictments” on each corner, if your caught slinging, you will be arrested and harassed daily. This starts out as a good thing, less violence in the city, but soon, it starts getting bad, real bad.

The question would be, what’s the best way to win the war on drugs, and how exactly can you win the war on drugs, what is required.

The thing about the wire is, there are no stars, if there is a star, it would be the city itself, not a certain actor. Its an ensemble show, showcasing many different actors, each with their own stories, none overpowering any others, while they all somehow weave into the main storyline providing closure. I love how they keep bringing people back, this season is really good, I enjoyed it alot, and I think you will too.

Favorite Quotes -

Video - 5/5

Full Frame, but beautiful none the less.

Audio - 5/5

Great sound, and I love the music.

Supplements - 4/5

Great, inlcudes 2 videos, one clocking in at over an hour, and another thats about 30 minutes showcasing many of the inner goings behind the show. There are also a few audio commentaries.

Overall - 5/5

This season gets the show back where I think it belongs, the streets. This show is very realistic, everything from the slang, the dialogue, how everything works, I cant say enough good about this show.

Overall Rating - 5/5 Stars

Video - 5/5
Audio - 5/5
Bonus - 4/5
Story - 5/5

Brings it back to the streets, I highly recommend it

Bottom Line?
Buy it, watch it. Remember, this is a show for people who love TV, those who can put in the time to get the most out of a series. This is not the kind of show you leave running in the background while you are doing other things, it requires full focus, and rewards your attention and focus with a story that is unlike anything you have ever seen before.

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