Wire (Complete Third Season) (2004)

Ultimate DVD
"As challenging social commentary, compelling character study and magnificently detailed drama, THE WIRE is peerless." 09/01/2006 p.194

Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "The WIRE cooks up a detailed and compelling look at the frontline troops on both sides of Boston's drug wars." 10/01/2006 p.129

Sight and Sound
"THE WIRE eschews the structural playfulness of BOOMTOWN in favour of a less flamboyant but no less powerful approach." 10/01/2006 p.90

Movieline's Hollywood Life
"THE WIRE is so magnificently executed, so fascinating in its evolution, so frequently bracingly profound that it does no less than elevate the medium of television itself." 11/01/2006 p.110

Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "Season 3 examines the corrosive, corrupting power of institutions....This is a very modern vision of hell." 03/01/2007 p.120

Salon.com 7 of 10
For starters, the cops on "The Wire" don't investigate crimes out of the pureness of their hearts, working tirelessly to get to the truth. When Officer Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) finds a body in the Baltimore harbor, he looks into it because he's bored with his new assignment and wants to stick it to his former bosses in Homicide...this is not television crafted to bring cheap satisfaction. Once you start to understand that the street thug may be more of an idealist than the cop pursuing him, or start to wonder whether the dockworker whose bribes have led to a horrifying pileup of deaths is an honorable guy or a juvenile idiot, things get increasingly uncomfortable. - Heather Havrilesky
 
San Francisco Chronicle 9 of 10
...it's this simple: "The Wire" is the best show on HBO, which means it's the best show on television, period. If you want in on it, even if you missed the first go-around, you'll find a way to make sense of it all. If someone wants to document the decline of the American working class while still juggling story lines about poverty and crime, the failed drug war, stagnating corruption, failed marriages, alcohol as a shield against unrealized dreams, race relations, Catholic guilt, revenge and good sex -- listen closely now -- you find a way to watch. - Tim Goodman