The first episode of the first season of The Wire started on e.tv on Monday night (8 January at 21h00) and I've been looking forward to catching it having missed all seasons of it on M-Net.
I've heard a lot about it but had no clue what to expect, even though when it started it was exactly as I imagined.
It's the strangest thing in that I watched the episode without moving a muscle, wasn't sure whether I was understanding what was going on properly and by the end of it knew everything I thought I didn't know.
The show's set and filmed in Baltimore, Maryland and follows the story of various characters on both sides of the law, as well as those caught up in the middle of it.
It describes itself as gritty and there's no better word for it - everything about it is grimy, rough and hardcore - from the lighting to the architecture to the language to the characters and their volatile relationships.
The episode introduced the main characters at the Baltimore Homicide and Narcotics department as well as the key players in a family drug cartel that rules the city.
The action started with one of the drug dealers, D'Angelo Barksdale, in court on charges of murder. One witness identifies him as the shooter and another, who's previously identified him for the police, says she's never seen him before - which destroys the state's case.
D'Angelo gets released, goes to see his uncle Avon Barksdale - who's the head honcho of the cartel - and Avon tells D'Angelo he needs to keep himself out of trouble to take the heat off their operation.
Avon says that murder costs him money and time ('cos he has to either pay off or kill witnesses) and he demotes D'Angelo to running a smaller drug-ring.
Over on the side of the law Detective McNulty, who sat in on the trial, talks to the judge about the case and explains how D'Angelo's witness lied because of being threatened by Avon Barksdale's thugs.
McNulty makes it clear that he doesn't think the case was handled properly - which has consequences for him with his superiors who warn him that he needs to follow orders and keep his mouth shut or shuffle paperwork.
As things unfold the police department decide that they're going to come down on Avon Barksdale by swooping on him in a raid. McNulty argues that it won't work because they don't have enough evidence to use against him and don't even know what Avon looks like.
McNulty's recently been working with an FBI agent who's used sound and video wires to film a drug ring and bring them down, so he suggests they use the same strategy on Barksdale - but none of the department agree.
In between all this narcotics detective Shakima Greggs establishes herself as a tough no-nonsense chick (with a live-in girlfriend). She outsmarts her manly superior colleagues in a drug bust, goes home to fill in the paperwork and gets called out to a hospital by Bubbles - one of her druggy informants.
Bubbles is at the hospital because just prior to this he and his drug buddy Jonny had a run-in with Barksdale's boys when they tried to buy drugs with fake money and Jonny got beaten to a pulp.
Shakima asks Bubbles if he's still doing drugs and he says he has info for her, suggesting he's willing to get back at Barksdale as revenge for Bobby's beating.
The next morning the police find the body of the witness who testified against D'Angelo and D'Angelo - who played no part in the murder - sees the body and walks off, clearly not sure how he's supposed to feel about the witness dying for him.
This how the episode ended with everything hovering perfectly for what the series is going to be about - which is the police department's attempts to bring down the cartel.
I imagine that next week the stuffed shirts are gonna realise that McNulty's right about their plan to raid Barksdale being flawed and that things will unfold to introduce the use of wires to gather evidence and set the family up.
I absolutely lurve this type of undercover type thing - seeing how people on the other side of the law operate and what conflicts exist between those involved in their world - for both the guilty and those trying to bring them down.
What's so particularly intriguing about the show is that it really does give attention to both sides evenly and shakes up the concepts of good and evil. For instance, many of the characters in the police department look way more unhealthy and use much fouler language than the thugs.
True to form HBO's made a show with loads of swearing, but it's used with much more humour than in
Deadwood and you can actually work out what they're saying around it.
(I've tried getting into Deadwood many times but I honestly don't have one clue what they're talking about.)
I was concerned it was gonna be the same thing with The Wire, but it isn't. I was also panicky that there are so many different characters in it I'll never know who they are, but by the end of the episode they all somehow oddly fell into place and I'm feeling fully in the picture and super-ready for next week's second episode.
I've given it a rating of 90.
PS: I also groove on the show 'cos of how much I want to be detective or agent. I've always kinda joked about it but more and more I've realised that I
seriously do.
PPS: I'd get super-stressed (asthmatic even) on undercover operations though - espesh if I had to look into someone's eyes while pretending to be on their side and not give anything away. I haven't quite worked out how I'd deal with that yet.