Customer Reviews
a let down - By: Andrew Ferguson, 09 Nov 2008 
after the 1st 2 series, 1st=4star, 2nd=5 star, this is a let down, so only 3 stars.
the whole "hamsterdam" thing is gargage & the actors know it, they look a bit embarrased at having to do something that is not believable & it shows.
overall, its messy & lacks focus.
have even debated with myself to stop watching it & get on with something else instead, whereas the 1st 2 series were riviting.
after this, i dont know if i'll give series 4 a go.
the best series of all time? - By: sean paul mccann, 05 Nov 2008 
I am going to,for once,write a short review,this series is stunning,the first two series' were superb but this is even better,there may not even be a word for how good this is,at least nothing is springing to mind,this series focuses on the political side of baltimore,the drug trade is still prevelent among many other storylines,all you could ask for is here,this series is probably better than anythingin the sopranos,did i just say that?,i think i did!
Excellent Third Season - By: Mr. Simon J. Lomax, 28 Oct 2008 The third season of the wire is as brilliant as the Two that came before it. if you've seen the first two seasons then you must watch this too.
The best show on TV continues - By: A. Whitehead, 20 Oct 2008 With its third year, The Wire heads back to the streets & unfinished business. As with the second year, the third season opens up another dimension of the city, this time City Hall & the civil & police administration, but the focus is squarely back on the Barksdale organisation & Lt. Daniels' unit trying to bring them down & finish the job begun backin Season 1.
Season 3 opens with Avon Barksdale still inside, but his parole hearing is coming up. His friend & collaborator Stringer Bell has guided the crew through some lean times & formed a 'co-op' with several other gangs which has led to them making some serious money but at the cost of sharing each other's turf. However, a new player, Marlo Stanfield, is on the way up & is not interestedin sharing his territory with anyone else. The stage is set for a series of bloody showdowns & bodies dropping on the streets, to the growing discontent of the police. Lt. Daniels & his unit are forced to drop their investigation into Bell (begun at the end of the second season) to concentrate on the war, unaware that the two are connected. This war is complicated by the re-emergence of Omar Little, who has sworn to bring down Bell for manipulating him into shooting an innocent manin the second season.
At the same time, an ambitious white city councilman, Tommy Carcetti, is planning to run for mayor, although his prospectsin a city with a majority black population seem poor. Connecting these two storylines is a highly controversial initiative launched by police Major Colvin to move the drug dealers off the street corners into three abandoned city blocks where the police will turn a blind eye to their activities so they can concentrate more on murders & crime prevention elsewhere. The 'Hamsterdam' storyline, apparently inspired by the 'legalise drugs' movement, is a stunning & surprisingly even-handed piece of social commentary. There is also an ongoing subplot following the attempts of former Barksdale enforcer Dennis 'Cutty' Wise to go straight after spending fourteen yearsin prison.
Season 3 is tighter than the second season, as it is able to link the storylines together more effectively than the second, where the trials of the Barksdale gang were largely removed & separate from events on the docks. The new characters, both on the streets &in the city hall, are also more directly tied to the storylines that have gone before & are stronger as a result.
Thematically, the idea behind Season 3 appears to be that of failed reform. The failure of the city's drug prevention strategies encourage some radical, out-of-the-box thinking from Major Colvin. Whilst his policy is initially successful, it leads to a whole host of knock-on effects which are beyond his powers to address, & give a rather depressing impression that, indeed, no one man can make a difference to the system. The breathtaking cynicism & corruption of the political wing of the city is depicted, with Carcetti determined to reform the system from the inside, again with apparently little hope of success. Stringer Bell's attempts to reform himself & his friend Avon on his release from prison into respectable businessmen provides the season with its main narrative spine, but again does not have a happy ending. That said, there are moments of hope, with Cutty's attempts to go straight finally garnering some success & McNulty's attempts to straighten out his personal life ending on a positive note.
The ending of the season seems to be a little more definitive than the prior two, but the writers take care to leave enough loose ends untied to be pursued into the fourth year, with the candidates for mayor squaring up, several of the gang leaders still very much at large & the police unit once again finding themselves heading offin separate directions.
The Wire: Season 3 (*****) follows up on the first two by being just as dramatically intense with some superb characterisation, brilliant acting & some finely-judged moments of comedy to balance the darkness elsewhere.
back in the game - By: William Rycroft, 28 Aug 2008 Take a close look at the cover of the season three dvd & you will notice something: Avon & Stringer, togetherin the same car, but lookingin different directions. That tells you all you need to know about these two 'brothers'in season three of The Wire. Whilst Stringer is greasing palms to make the most of the properties they control Avon is glad to be backin the game, keeping control of the corners, & regaining his place on the street. Season three brings us back to the problem of drugsin Baltimore & one man's plan to combat the problem. Major Colvin jokes at one stage that to meet the crime reduction targets he has been set he is going to legalise drugs. But his throwaway comment isn't too far from the truth. By creating zones where a blind eye will be turned on drug dealing & use, he hopes to clean up the corners, concentrate the problemin specific areas & make it easier to target those wrongdoers when the time is right. What it allows the series to explore is the wide web that drugs castin society, how it affects those directly involvedin their production, selling, use & abuse; everyone from the kids used as lookouts to the lone elderly woman who finds herself the only residentin one of these 'free zones'.
Daniels & his now permanent detail have a much harder task to gain any useful information from a wire as the drug crews have become far more cautious about how they use phones, & with their communicationin general. This means that we get to enjoy the complications of the police work again, just asin the first series, but with added layers. In fact layers are being addedin all aspects of the programme allowing the series to show what TV can do better than any other medium. Given the extended time of several hour-long episodes we are seeing characters renderedin the kind of detail which is usually the reserve of the novelist. It isn't simply time that allows this, but the amazingly high standard of writing & performance. Characters aren't given vast speeches to show personality, just the right words; & the actors deliver them perfectly. Relationships within the police team & the implications of the work on their personal lives (and vice versa) create wonderful tensions. These are mirrored on the other side of the legal divide with the drug crews.
On top of all of that we have the character of the city itself. Baltimore is depictedin great detail; the various districts feel very different to one another, requiring differing approaches from the police. The interplay between politics, policing, media & residents is given great prominencein this series. Everyone is checking their back, as an air of intrigue & suspicion worthy of Shakespeare hangs over proceedings. The introduction of Aiden Gillen (another actor from this side of the water) as Tommy Corcetti, a young & ambitious council man, is significant. I just hope he relaxes into his role. His reptilian stare is right but he looks a little nervous at the moment, like he's really concentrating on getting the accent right. He's a fantastic actor though so I'm not too concerned. The skullduggery is also obvious amongst, & indeed within, the drug crews too of course & it is that increasing body count which keeps the heat on the police & the windin the sails of this superlative series. Bring on season four.
