Movies - TV
Ranking Every Season Of The Wire From Worst To Best
By VALERIE ETTENHOFER
Spoiler Warning!
This story contains spoilers for "The Wire."
5. Season 5
Season 5 of "The Wire" features a newsroom-set plotline that never reaches the emotional highs or executes the impressive storytelling tricks that past seasons did.
More importantly, the plot is goofy, as much of it revolves around Detective McNulty's invention of a fake serial killer. The season's thorny, hopeful finale is its high point.
4. Season 2
Season 2 suffers from inevitable comparisons to the first season, and it focuses largely on three people who are not as compelling as the first season’s characters.
"The Wire" season 2 still has great moments, such as the engrossing case about the deaths of several trafficked women, but it often leans too far into its own dense world-building.
3. Season 3
Season 3 focused back on the criminals Stringer Bell, Omar Little, and Avon Barksdale, making them more beloved than the police in a subversion of most police shows.
The final two episodes are riveting, thick with ambitious ideas about capitalism, and set up a new, better era for the series. There's a painfully bittersweet feeling to it all.