the rabbits of the night

it's as good as you've heard it is. better, in fact. it sucks that this show gets lost in the HBO shuffle, with "the sopranos" and "sex in the city" getting all the attention. but this is far and away the most tightly written of the bunch....i'm tempted to say it's HBO's best, but i've only seen season 1, and i'm not jumping any guns. anyway, it's sort of the anti-"law & order" (and i like some of the "law & order" shows)....so instead of a case per show format, you get 13 episodes, all one case. and it's just one of the most ambiguous shows i've ever seen.....yeah, we've all seen shows and movies where "the cops are more dangerous than the criminals"....we've all seen harvey keitel jerk off during a routine traffic stop....right? sorry. but "the wire" just blows all that shit out of the water.....you can't help but like the guys putting the drugs on the street.....because they're pretty likeable guys......d'angelo barksdale, the conflicted nephew of the show's kingpin, avon barksdale, is someone you can't help but root for. you know he's stuck in this life of drugs and murder... he wants out, but you know it's not going to happen. also, much credit to idris elba, who plays stringer bell, avon barksdale's right hand man. i've never been more afraid of a character who's voice barely rises above a conversational tone. plus, they're just turning the myth of the drug dealer on its ear.. this guy is taking business courses, he's smarter than the cops chasing after him, and you begin to feel like these guy's are just too careful to get caught. the cops are equally as charismatic and complex. they're obsessed with the work, they fuck up their personal lives, they're manipulative, back stabbing.....they get violent with suspects, and it's real, and scary, because it's sanctioned by the higher ups...hell, sometimes it's the higher ups doing the beating.....there's this particularly great scene where jimmy mcnulty, the lead cop on the investigation into avon barksdale, has pissed off his ex-wife. see, he's a drunk, she feels like he doesn't take care of his kids when he has them for the weekend, and she's threatening to take away his custody rights. he's in his apartment, shit faced, trying to put together some bedroom furniture for his kids, and it's not going well. cut to later in the episode, he's goes to her house to pick up the kids for the weekend, only she's not there, and neither are his sons. cut to the end of the episode, we see him sitting on a bed.. the camera pulls back, we see he's on the bottom bunk of a really nice bunk-bed set...the camera pans around and we see he's decorated the room with soccer posters, and dinosaur posters....man, it's wrenching. if you have the means, check this out......