'' The Wire'', a

television drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

created by David Simon, premiered on June 2, 2002 on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

in the

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and ended on March 9, 2008. 60 episodes aired over the show's five seasons, plus three additional

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

shorts. Each episode has a running time of 55–60 minutes. ''The Wire'' is set in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

; each season of the series expands its focus on a different part of the city. The show features a large ensemble cast; many characters are only featured prominently in a single season. A group of characters, mainly in the

Baltimore Police Department The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering of land and of waterway ...

, appear in every season. The show is available on DVD in

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1, 2 and 4.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (2002)

Season 2 (2003)

Season 3 (2004)

Season 4 (2006)

Season 5 (2008)

Prequel shorts

Three

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

vignettes set prior to the series events were filmed during the fifth season's production. They were made available via HBO On Demand during broadcast of the final season, and included as extras on the complete series DVD box set. *"When Bunk Met McNulty" *"Young Omar" *"Young Prop Joe"

References

External links

* * {{The Wire episodes Wire, The