Former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon teamed up with former Baltimore Police Department Homicide Detective Ed Burns to create a police procedural series that looks at both police and criminals and everyone caught in between. Simon and Burns also chose to employ former criminals and police detectives who grew up in Baltimore as actors in this series. Of special note: the 4th season breaks with the preceding three to focus on four boys growing up in poverty and each coping with his life’s circumstances somehow differently. This shift in focus from the police versus criminals perspective also takes a hard look at Baltimore politics featuring a Mayoral election and a subplot involving government corruption.
You do not need to have seen the preceding 3 seasons in order to follow what happens in The Fourth Season of The Wire.
(All five seasons of The Wire available in the MI Library on DVD).
Homicide : a year on the killing streets, Simon's book based on the year he spent with the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit, remains the best true crime book I have ever read. This book served as the basis for the television show Homicide's first few seasons. After these incredible seasons based on the book, subsequent seasons of the series deteriorated rapidly.
