There is a scene in the last season of The Wire when the Mayor of Baltimore is giving a speech & he gets heckled. An aide dismisses the heckler as a nobody, but as the viewer, you not only know that it isn’t true, but what motivated the heckling if you watched the show three years ago. I imagine that watching this show is in some ways how God feels when watching us–not judging people by their status, appearance or deeds, but understanding who they are, what happened to them, how they got there, where they are in relation to the rest of the world & why they make certain decisions. By the end, you find yourself somehow hoping for the best for everyone: the criminals, the drug addicts, the hustlers, the every day people, the cops, the lawyers, etc. Your heart breaks when someone meets the expected bad end even when those people make bad, harmful decisions. You are outraged when cruelty is inflicted on or by the innocent. All these understandable bad acts are magnified and replicated by the institutions that then mercilessly grind those same people who make the institution run into dust. There are no small parts–everyone is a Shakespearean epic hero in their own right. It takes so much for all the players to make and continue making the right decision and not somehow get derailed along the way. When a good result occurs, it is a miracle that it occurred and overcame so many obstacles. At the end, there is no character that isn’t treated like a three-dimensional human being. Not recommended if you can’t stand profanity, violence or the occasional explicit sexual situation (it is a show that aired on HBO).