fun interviews on a great show. some of the material hasn't aged as well, since this was written before omar died, and also the part about obama has not aged well ( )

Required reading, just as The Wire is required watching. There is a lot of scholarly work on The Wire, a TV show that was not honored in its lifetime. It debuted in 2002 and ran 5 seasons, ending in 2008. This book is a well-written oral history of the series that roughly follows the season chronology interleaving HBO politics and financial struggles. As I read I kept thinking that HBO should rebroadcast The Wire now so we can see how little we have progressed. ( )

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book. Needless to say, if you are a fan of the television showThe Wire, you MUST read this book. Period. THe Wire is one of the greatest, some say THE greatest, television shows in history. I don't think anyone would argue with either selection. If you have not seen the show, I strongly advise you to do so before reading this book. Or better yet, read along while you watch each season. I wouldn't skip ahead in the book because you want to watch the stories and characters develop as you wade through each respective season; all of which have a different and specific focus and narrative. The book provides insight, behind the scenes type tales as well as a deconstruction of the characters and stories for each of the seasons. ( )

The Wire is one of my top five favorite shows of all time. I loved reading this book of interviews about the making of this show. ( )

this is a good companion to the HBO series... i would suggest not reading this before watching the show. there are a lot of big spoilers in abrams' book.

the bulk of this book is commentary from the actors who starred on the show, along with the writers, directors, and producers. it was pretty cool to read their thoughts and feelings about the show, and how precarious production was each season. the wire really took on a life after the series ended, with more viewers discovering it post-production, in the years to follow. i am certainly one of those viewers. when it originally aired, HBO was not a channel i had access to. so although i was really interested in it - i kept hearing such amazing things about how smart and real and raw the writing and acting were - but just wasn't able to appreciate it as it originally aired. finally i got to watch it in late-2018 and it BLEW MY MIND! i am sure i will go to my grave with the still strongly held belief that bubbles and omar are the best characters ever written for and performed on television. sheeeeeeeeet!

i think the book could have benefited from including the histories of east and west baltimore, and more about the background stories on how the show came to be, and how the story lines were related to reality. there is a bit of this, but i think that could have elevated the book from good, to excellent. the show opened up so many eyes and minds; sharing even more factual information with the interviews/commentary would have been amazing to take in. (sorry!!)

for the devoted fan of the wire, this book should be really appreciated. ( )