Season 4 of The Wire is the greatest season in television history, TV peaked right here.

Hot Take: I like season 2 the most. 1 and 3 are more or less about the inner city turf war and drug epidemic, 4 is brilliant from a societal perspective but 2 is where All the pieces literally matter. Season 2 shows beyond any doubt why a few city police officers with a warrant to tap a few calls will not even make the slightest dent on the drug trade. It's just too big to be tamed.

Also, Frank Sobotka is my favorite tragic character of The Wire. His lofty intentions of putting his organisation ahead of himself and tragedy falling on him via the smallest and pettiest personal differences with Valchek is pure Shakesperean kino. In many ways he's the anti-McNulty. Where McNulty would put too many good people knowingly in harm's way for the greater good of catching criminals (Kima in S1 to the phantom serial killer story) Frank would placate too many bad people for the greater good of the American blue collar industry.