Gritty crime drama The Wire, which started its fourth season on M-Net last night, has been purchased by e.tv and will commence with Season 1 on the free-to-air from 8 January, 2007.
Described as "the best show on television" by TIME, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, the Chicago Tribune, Slate, and the Philadelphia Daily News, The Wire is an HBO original drama set in Baltimore, Maryland.
The show focuses on the ongoing struggles between police units and drug-dealing gangs in the city's west side and is told from both points of view.
As with other quality HBO dramas, The Wire does not have a cast of well-known actors. The actors are selected based on how natural they are in their roles, with the aim of exploring ultra-realism.
The show's title is derived from the central theme of police surveillance technology, primarily wire tapping.
Creators of the show, David Simon and Robert F. Colesberry, have both said that they wanted to create a sense of realism about the show. They utilise shots taken directly from surveillance equipment and sound taken directly from wire taps.
They also realistically portray the inner workings of the police department, the motivation of the police officers in the department as well as the inner workings of organised crime syndicates and the motivations of the criminals in these syndicates.
Simon makes the point that even the best police of The Wire are motivated not by a desire to protect and serve, but by the intellectual vanity of believing they are smarter than the criminal they are chasing.
Many officers portrayed on the show are incompetent, brutal, self-aggrandizing, or hamstrung by bureaucracy and politics. The criminals are not always motivated by profit or a desire to harm others; many are trapped in their existence and all have human qualities.
Even so, The Wire does not minimize or gloss over the horrific effects of their actions.
This is the official series synopsis:
On the deadly, drug-infested streets of West Baltimore, Maryland, a drug ring's leader's use of intimidation to clear one of his young dealers of a murder charge disgusts homicide detective Jimmy McNulty, a member of a joint homicide/narcotics unit created to investigate a single drug-dealing operation.
Venting his frustration that the gang is responsible for as many as 10 unsolved murders, McNulty gets reassigned to a detail nobody wants.
While his superiors and co-workers just want the heat to die down so they can drop the investigation, McNulty and an unlikely ally, narcotics detective Shakima Greggs, commit themselves to use any means necessary, including heightened surveillance and sophisticated wiretaps, to bust the gang and its elusive leader in this gritty police drama.
e.tv is no stranger to HBO dramas - they've already aired mortuary drama Six Feet Under and mobster drama The Sopranos. The only wonder is that they let M-Net get three seasons ahead of them with The Wire.
At least all South Africans have the opportunity to watch the show now.
The first season of The Wire premieres on e.tv on Monday 8 January 2007, at 21h00. The 4th season premiered on M-Net last night (Monday 19 December).
TVSA Show Pages: Season 1 |
Season 4