Every Season of The Wire, Ranked (2024)

The Wire is widely considered by many to be one of the greatest TV shows ever made and a high water mark for how stories can be told in the medium. The HBO show, which ran for five seasons between 2002 and 2008, centered on Baltimore. It focused mainly on the drug trade but also looked at the effects of the city's underdevelopment on its characters. It was created by former Baltimore journalist David Simon with help from his partner, former Baltimore homicide detective turned school teacher Ed Burns, who brought a sense of reality to the show.

One of the unique aspects of The Wire is how every season builds out the world of the show, creating an ever more complete image of the city of Baltimore. It may start out as a simple police procedural, but as the show goes on, it follows how the city's industry, politics, education system, and journalism all interact and impact the lives of the central characters. It constantly reminds the viewer that nothing exists in a vacuum and that every action can have unintended consequences.

Updated on July 8, 2024 by Robbie Robinson: While The Wire may be done airing, its fans still live on. This list has been updated to include the best episodes from each season so that fans know which episodes they should rewatch first. This list has also been updated to adhere to current CBR formatting standards.

5 Season 1 Got The Wire off to a Promising Start

First Episode Aired On June 2, 2022

The critical response to The Wire's first season is the lowest of the show's entire run and the only one to fall into the 80s on Rotten Tomatoes. This shows that, although the show got off to a strong start, the building over time and expanding across its seasons proves The Wire's greatest strength. Season one takes a classic cops and criminals approach, introducing two groups of characters, the Baltimore police and the Barksdale crime family. It ends up centering on a special police task force that's set up to take down Barksdale and dismantle his organization to get his drugs off the street.

Season 1 Best-Rated Episodes According to IMDb:

• Episode 10, "The Cost" (9.2)
• Episode 12, "Cleaning Up" (9.1)
• Episode 13, "Sentencing" (9.0)

The Wire sets itself apart in this first season by giving equal weight to both sides of the story. It follows the criminals as closely as it follows the police, going to great lengths to show there are good and bad people on both sides. Season one also sets up how The Wire is a show obsessed with the minutia of detective work and the drug trade, and it clearly inspired many other series. The eponymous wiretap doesn't come in until the sixth episode, and the 13-episode season is built around one case rather than the case-of-the-week format, which was ubiquitous among cop shows at the time. While season 1 jump started the series, it still takes the lowest place.

4 Season 5 Proved a Controversial Conclusion to The Wire

First Episode Aired On January 6, 2008

Although Season 5 was a fitting end to the series, it was widely seen as a step down from what had come before it. This season layered the institution of media onto the story, following the events inside the newsroom of the Baltimore Sun while continuing the stories from the police, city hall, and the Stanfield crime syndicate. The season is notable for pushing McNulty (Dominic West) beyond his limit, forcing the character to take radical action in his continued mission to clean up the streets.

Season 5 Best-Rated Episodes According to IMDB:

• Episode 10, "-30-" (9.6)
• Episode 9, "Late Editions" (9.3)
• Episode 8, "Clarifications" (8.9)

This led to a main storyline that was far more exaggerated than in previous The Wire seasons. While it is filled with a dark sense of irony, it doesn't fit into the deep examination of real-world institutions that characterized past seasons. Focusing on creator Simon's prior place of employment--The Baltimore Sun--while not showing it in the best of lights gave a sense that the show had an axe to grind as much as it had a compelling story to tell. The greatest part of Season 5 is undoubtedly its ending. It delivers a Series Finale that elegantly concludes every character's story in the show and cements the series' complicated worldview.

3 Season 2 Expanded The Wire's Scope

First Episode Aired On June 1, 2003

Season 2 of The Wire offered the first hints of the show's grander ambitions. This season introduced a fresh new batch of characters along with those returning from season one. The new characters mostly came in the form of the workers at the Port of Baltimore. The case the major crimes team ends up investigating starts when a shipping container full of dead bodies is discovered at the port. This leads them to an international crime organization led by a figure known as The Greek, who is connected to bringing drugs into Baltimore. This season also brings back the Barksdale crew, who are dealing with their own problems after the events of Season 1.

Season 2 Best-Rated Episodes According to IMDb:

• Episode 11, "Bad Dreams" (9.1)
• Episode 12, "Port in a Storm" (9.0)
• Episode 10, "Storm Warnings" (9.0)

Season 2 follows largely the same structure as Season 1 but now begins to make a wider case for the systemic failures of the city's institution. Instead of street-level gangsters, who become easy to dismiss, the main criminals of season two are union dock workers who've become complicit in smuggling as it becomes harder and harder to keep up legitimate work. The season has a slow start, and it can be jarring to suddenly have an entirely new group of characters to follow, but it's all in service of The Wire's larger story. By the end of this season, it's clear the show is about more than drugs and cops; it's about how a whole city works together.

2 Season 3 of The Wire was a Near Perfect Season of Television

First Episode Aired On September 19, 2004

Season 3 kicks off an incredible mid-series run for The Wire that cemented its reputation as one of the best shows on television. Whereas Season 2 took time to get going, Season 3 hit the ground running. Right from the start of the season, all the returning characters are in place, and the show jumps right into the action, with the major crimes unit already building another case against the Barksdale crew. The dockworkers from Season 2 are basically gone, and the institution that replaces them is City Hall, following the rise of Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), an ambitious city councilman.

Season 3 Best-Rated Episodes According to IMDb:

• Episode 11, "Middle Ground" (9.6)
• Episode 12, "Mission Accomplished" (9.3)
• Episode 8, "Moral Midgetry" (8.9)

A returned focus on the Baltimore drug trade sees Season 3 eager to avoid retreading any of the same ground from Season 1. At the start of the season, the details already have a wiretap, and a new set of challenges emerges for them to overcome. Perhaps the most memorable storyline for season three is Hamsterdam: a drug-enforcement-free zone in the western district. It's unilaterally implemented by the district commander, Colvin (Robert Wisdom), who is tired of being hand-tied and unable to implement real change. It acts as a microcosm of the whole series, with people acting with the best intentions but ultimately being let down by the cycle of the system.

1 Season 4 of The Wire Showed How all the Systems Connect

First Episode Aired On September 10, 2006

Both Season 3 and Season 4 have perfect critic ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and it can be hard to pick between them. Four carries on directly from Season 3, evolving all the major characters and plot lines and not dropping anything to the same extent that happened between Seasons 2 and 3. The new institution introduced this season is the Baltimore school district, seen through the eyes of two returning characters. Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost) was part of the Baltimore police in the first three seasons but has now taken up a job teaching middle school math, while Hamsterdam mastermind Colvin assists in a study of Baltimore's at-risk youth.

Season 4 Best-Rated Episodes According to IMDb:

• Episode 13, "Final Grades" (9.5)
• Episode 12, "That's Got His Own" (9.3)
• Episode 11, "A New Day" (8.9)

Season 4 most exemplifies The Wire's ideas, showing how broken systems perpetually feed into each other, always leaving another generation behind. As the characters in Power climb the ladder, hoping to do more good, they face the realities and compromises the system imposes on them. Those on the front lines are limited by the tools and the targets they're given to work within, which are often unreflective of the situation they're working in. It is a season of television that shows every decision a character makes matters and leaves ripples that impact, both good and bad, all the other people in the series, which is why this season is rated the highest.

The Wire

TV-MA

Crime

Drama

Where to Watch

*Availability in US

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The Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.

Release Date

June 2, 2002

Cast

Dominic West , John Doman , Idris Elba , Michael K. Williams , Seth Gilliam , Domenick Lombardozzi , Robert Wisdom , Deirdre Lovejoy , Wendell Pierce

Main Genre

Crime

Seasons

5

Creator

David Simon

Number of Episodes

60

Network

HBO Max

Streaming Service(s)

HBO Max