COMPELLING THIRD SEASON OF 'WIRE' GOES INSIDE CITY HALL

Critics' Picks: New DVDs

The Wire: The Complete Third Season // HBO // $99.98

HBO's The Wire is a TV series that seems tailor-made for DVDs. Story
lines and emotions in this compelling meditation on urban life are
not artificially reduced to provide closure and a reassuring
worldview at the end of each hour as many television dramas do.
(Think Law & Order.)

Quite the contrary, creator David Simon and his highly talented team
of writers and producers have instead aimed for a far more literary
form of storytelling in which episodes play like chapters in a book
- -- referring back and building on moments that came before, even as
they leave viewers wanting to immediately see what's next when the
hour comes to a close.

This DVD scheduled for release Tuesday covers the most recent season,
which ended in December 2004 with two drug addicts picking through
the rubble of a failed experiment to create a decriminalized drug
zone. The inner-city Baltimore terrain that they navigate looks like
a war zone after the bombs have fallen -- with buildings, hopes and
lives destroyed.

The final overhead shot of the two junkies shuffling off this bitter
stage evokes a cosmic sense of sadness for the path they tread. It is
one of the most poignant moments that I have encountered in 25 years
of writing about television. The third season of The Wire is chock
full of such dark and soul-stirring poetry as it examines the role
that the politics of City Hall have played in shaping the urban
landscape today.

Ultimately, nothing is more important than the storytelling on The
Wire, but Season 3 also offers some outstanding performances from
Idris Elba as drug dealer Stringer Bell, Andre Royo as drug addict
Bubbles and Wendell Pierce as Detective Bunk Moreland.

Simon and several cast members will be at the Sound Garden in Fells
Point at 7 p.m. Tuesday to sign DVDs. A portion of the proceeds will
be donated to the Ella Thompson Fund. Details on the event and the
charity are available at ellafund.org.

Special features: The Museum of Television & Radio in New York
brought the creative team and much of the cast together for an
illuminating exploration of the series in 2004. That symposium is
included, along with several audio commentaries. Hearing Simon and
director Karen L. Thorson explaining a drug war in their drama as a
"microcosm" of the war in Iraq makes the viewing experience that much richer.