It's been shown on TG4 in Ireland which is the Irish language channel which will indicate the size of the audience it gets here.

...cos it is black?
Surely BBC 2 could run it. Channel 4 would put the first two episodes on at 10 on a Thursday night and then move the rest around the schedules, making viewers play chasey, just as they did with The Sopranos.
It's better on DVD anyway.

This might have scared them off http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-to.wire24jan24,0,660898...

I cancelled cable TV (I live in Holland) nearly two years ago just before my son was born. Instead we watch DVDs, listen to the radio, read, talk etc etc.

I prefer the option to watch the stuff I want to when I want to. In those nearly two years we have watched all of The West Wing, the first three series of Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and have three episodes left of the fourth series of The Wire having bought the first three series last December. We also watch films on DVD from time to time.

If I want to watch a sporting event, I go to a friend's house or the pub. My other half isn't interested in sport so this is rarely a problem although I do have to be more choosy. No bad thing if you ask me.

Over the past year or so I have begun watching less and less television, to the extent that I cancelled my Sky subscription. (I did not realise that this would result in them writing to me twice a week with their latest offers ever since.)

Apart from the odd news bulletin I now never watch any TV as it is broadcast. A few shows I will record to watch later, but largely it's either downloads or DVD box sets. There is something very satisfying about being able to watch two or three episodes of 'Boston Legal', 'Damages' or 'The Wire' in an evening, knowing that the rest of the nation is watching 'Britain's Clumsiest Dinner Ladies' or a re-re-run of 'Friends'.

Most of my friends have adopted a similar viewing pattern over the same period. It's great to be able to either discover some new series - via The Word or word of mouth - or to be able to recommend something you've enjoyed to someone else, knowing that it can be picked up on DVD.

This is something that the channels are recognizing with online content and iplayer. Someday - possibly next week - all good TV will be watched this way and the rest of the nation will be playing bingo on ITV1 every night at 10.

P.S. I don't like 'Richard & Judy' stickers on MY books either.

...it's better on DVD. If there was ever a TV show that was best seen NOT in weekly instalments, this is it. However, good point. Even the frickin' Mail On Sunday was going on about it yesterday. My personal hope is that BBC2 picks it up, rather than any station that has ad breaks, and runs it at a regular, sociable hour (Seinfeld, anyone?).

Until then it will remain a private pleasure. I've seen tonight's episode already, and I'm still salivating.

But my partner gave up after the second ep of the first series and only got into it on the second series. Two points 1) no way can you follow all the black dialogue in series one without the dvd subtitles 2) the thing about The Wire is that its power is cumulative, so it tends to become completely gripping only in the middle of each season. I didn't have any problem following it over three months though. I like to be able to discuss things as they appear, not months later, but, unlike my sister, I haven't downloaded the fifth season in advance. I prefer my prime time unpixellated...

I'm watching the first series on DVD from the film club - and yeah, it's good. The famous "they only say fuck" scene didn't particularly impress me, but maybe because everyone goes on about how brilliant it is - it's only two guys saying "fuck" in quite a stilted way after all. I'm quite enjoying it though. Whether I think it is as brilliant as "The Sopranos" remains to be seen.

I missed out on the first series of the Wire. Is there any legal way of getting the first series onto an iPod?

... Season1 on eBay for €20 (incl delivery).

Tasty.

I was a big fan of The Sopranos and assumed it could not be surpassed.

I'll get back to you with my verdict in about 6months when I catch up with the rest of you.

There's plenty of software around that converts dvds to iPod friendly formats but the show doesn't appear to be on iTunes. Criminals, can, of course, get it easily at places like http://www.mininova.org/search/wire%20iPod/8 but they have to know how to use bittorrent... while looking for an official version on iTunes, I did find that there's a free podcast series about season 5 - but is it safe to listen to before watching? Not sure I'll risk it.

I have allowed the Jeff household to become criminally behind the times inasmuch as we don't have Sky and have Freeview only. Thus I may be the only reader of the Word who has never seen a single second of 'The Wire' (Somebody get the smelling salts for Mr Hepworth).

I loathe the Murdoch empire with passion and live in rural isolation, hence no cable. So what is my upgrade route? Do I have to swallow my principles in the name of family happiness? Suggestions welcome

...no television channel is broadcast into my house on cable or otherwise. Just get hold of the DVDs and watch them at your own pace like the rest of us.

It's quite funny that when Channel 4 ran one of those appalling list programmes - the 50 "Best Drama" series of all times - The Sopranos came out top.

Debateable like all these things. But what was really entertaining was that C4, having decided that this series was greater than Boys From the Blackstuff, Edge of Darkness and The Singing Detective (#2-#4 in their list), then ran the series at 11.35pm.

OK - it might have already aired on E4/More 4, but that's not the way to treat the "Best Drama" of all time is it? All those other series went out before 10pm when first aired.

Sadly I can't see a terrestrial station now bothering to pick up The Wire, and it'll just live on with its cult/DVD status.

It seems now that the best imports are always going to end up hidden away on digital with, at best, a late night terrestrial showing. That's very sad, but it's just happened with Mad Men (dozens of Emmy nominations and a few TCA awards just in the last week). Damages airs at 10.35pm on BBC1, and Rescue Me is hidden away on Sky. Has anybody at all bothered buying recent HBO mini-series John Adams and the Iraq war set Generation Kill? I suspect that they won't be troubling BBC1/ITV1 Sunday nights anytime soon for sure. What about Gabriel Byrne in In Treatment?

Are UK stations being priced out, or are they simply not interested in quality fare anymore? Gossip Girl gets snapped up quickly along with Bionic Woman but not these. Hmmm.

... on the "main" channels (at reasonable times) is aimed at people that don't want to think too much when watching tv.

Isn't that David Simon's follow up to 'The Wire'? Don't tell me it's already been shown here....

My favourite TV series of the last few years have been,

Rescue Me....(New Series not shown by Sky and previous series moved around the schedule).

Battlestar Galactica the re imagined series is just one of the best things I've seen broadcast for years.

The Wire, The Sopranos, West Wing, Ditto.

Then there are Alias, Smallville etc.

Common denominator ........DVD Box sets.

I wonder how I fit it all in.

The 2nd episode was shown in the US last Night.It's been very good so far,don't ask how i know i just do.
Rescue Me is fantastic but am i the only one who's seen BROTHERHOOD. Don't know if it's available on DVD yet. But check it out it's Brilliant.

I love Brotherhood too. It's really hidden away even by the standards of FX which shows it. You really have to hunt it down, but Jason Isaacs is wonderful in it.

Generation Kill is indeed the new David Simon mini-series. I'd have thought it would be a good buy for BBC2 although I haven't yet seen an episode (not that I could have, of course, it airing only in the US and me living in the UK).

The Corner is also worth hunting out, also by David Simon. It sits happily between Homicide: Life on the Streets (criminally ditched by C4 mid-series - had to wait for Hallmark of all channels to catch the last couple of series) and The Wire. E4 showed it when they had vaguely challenging material. I'd have thought it could fit easily on More4 these days. Just saying that it's from the makers of The Wire would get it a certain audience.

Are under £20 at Amazon currently.

I have The Wire Series One but in the year that I've had it have only watched episode 1. But I have enjoyed BSG, Deadwood, Heroes, Damages, Terminator Sarah Connor, Rescue me, Sopranos all on the V+ or DVD or ahem, downloads. Meanwhile a pile of NYPD Blues (More4 threw them away by showing them late every night), The Shield, Firefly remain unwatched. USA tv rules OK.

I hardly ever watch 'live' tv anymore , I usually buy the DVD box set of a show from UK/ US and watch the whole series in one go. Mind you I live in New Zealand and TV here is shite!

The Wire is on HBO, so is on a paid channel - you pay for a monthly package, not individually to watch shows. However it has not been a big ratings hit for them, and while they have stuck by it, it has now finished its run, and the final series was 10 episodes rather than 13.

I've also asked the question why The Wire is not on terrestrial on my blog (pardon the pluggage) here: http://digital-examples.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-isnt-wire-on-bbc.html , and I suspect that it is a combination of it not having great ratings in the US when it was first up for grabs and also possibly FX out-bidding the others to show it as a high profile show. We can't see what ratings it gets in the UK because FX does not subscribe to BARB to measure its audience.

Overall though many critically acclaimed shows don't get a large audience here and prove hard for schedulers to justify. Curb was relegated to increasingly late night slots on More4, and they didn't even bother to promote the excellent Steve Coogan episode in the last run.

Does this matter? Yes, I think so. The Wire is excellent, and more people watch shows when they are shown on terrestrial rather than digital only, in the way that more people watch shows (the same shows) when they are shown on BBC1 compared to BBC2.

The most recent series started well, but then lost it in my opinion.

... what a hero.

It's alright, it's not from The Wire.

But still available at the click of a button, like all the others, yes? Given the amount of frenzied press and blog coverage, surely there aren't many people who aren't aware that it's on, or does everyone just scan the first twenty channels on their freeview menu and give up and go to the pub/PC? I can't understand the "We wanted to put it out on BBC2" comments regarding new series that need to 'build' for instance. Mind you, I've only got five on my TV so I may be missing something. Well, quite a lot of things, actually.

Interesting to read how many people used subtitles on The Wire. I never did that, but found it much easier to catch all the dialogue when I started watching it with headphones.