The Wire finished it’s series out in the states but we haven’t seen hide nor hair of it over here yet. Don’t know if or when we will. But, of course, I’ve seen the whole thing anyway. And in admitting that, I’ve just confessed to an illegal act but what can I do? For my mind The Wire is, by far and away, the best televion drama ever produced and it has greatly informed the way I think about story structure. But because of the way television stations/networks currently operate, where one station apparently refused the show out of fear of insulting it’s audience’s stupidity, I might never get the chance to see it. Or at the very least, I’d have to wait for it to show up on DVD. The Sunday Times recently discussed the success of Heroes in Britain, even though it had never actually been shown on British tv. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone told Reason magazine that they were happy that there shows were being downloaded. There’s some noise about change and alot of talk about not making the same mistakes as the music industry but how much fair warning did they need? How much time did they need to readjust to this new way? The thing is a show, like The Wire, would have been ideal for some sort of pay-per-view web delivery model. It’s niche enough to make television channels hesitate but so good it is bound to find an audience. I hope series 4 does come to television screens over here soon. I will watch it again and when, or if, they ever release a complete The Wire DVD boxset, I’ll buy that too. It’s just I don’t see why I couldn’t do that already. Anyone who gets a chance to watch it, should. No matter what it takes.