The Wire - The Complete Fourth Season | 
 enlarge | Director: Daniel Attias
Actors: Dominic West, Wendell Pierce, Sonja Sohn, Lance Reddick, Aidan Gillen
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $38.74
You Save: $21.25 (35%)
New (47) Used (18) Collectible (1) from $30.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  126 reviews
Sales Rank: 1252
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Greek (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 4
Running Time: 780
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.5 x 1.1
MPN: HBOD93927D
UPC: 026359392726
EAN: 0026359392726
ASIN: B000QXDJLI
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Release Date: December 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: brand new, gift quality, still in shrink wrap, in stock, ready for shipment, pay for standard mail and I'll mail it priority mail with delivery confirmation for free!!!
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Product Description
Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 12/04/2007
Amazon.com
Even if you missed the first three seasons (the character guides and thorough episode recaps on HBO's website are recommended), and with only one season left, it's not too late to get in under The Wire. In fact, season 4 is an accessible introduction for those who know The Wire only by its street cred as arguably the very best show on television. For them especially, this season will be, as befitting its theme, a real education. Without resorting to melodramatics that other ratings-challenged series employ to gain that frustratingly elusive audience, The Wire shakes things up this season in a way that is true to the series and its characters. A major character, Dominic West's McNulty, plays a minor role as a contented street cop and family man, while a former supporting player, Jim True-Frost's Roland Pryzbylewski, goes to the head of the class as a new eighth grade teacher at beleaguered Edward Tilghman Middle School. It may take a couple of episodes to orient yourself to the Baltimore backrooms, squad rooms, classrooms, and street corners where The Wire's intense dramas play out, and new viewers may miss something in character nuance, but they will easily grasp the big picture. A politically motivated shake-up sends Major Crimes detectives Freamon (Clarke Peters) and Greggs (Sonja Sohn) to Homicide. The gloves come off in the mayoral race between black incumbent Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman) and idealistic white challenger Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen). Gang leader Marlo (Jamie Hector) quietly and deliberately becomes the city's new drug kingpin, managing to subvert all surveillance efforts. Meanwhile, while "Prez" tries to reach his students, four highly at-risk kids will be drawn into the drug trade. Mere synopsis does not do The Wire justice. The series deftly juggles its myriad storylines and characters, all of whom make an impression, from Marlo's cold-blooded enforcers, Snoop (Felicia Pearson) and Chris (Gbenga Akinnagbe), to boxing instructor "Cutty" (Chad L. Coleman), determined to keep his young charges off the corners. There is not a false note in the performances or the writing. Richard Price (Clockers) and Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) again contributed episodes. That this series has only been nominated for only one Emmy (for writing) is a travesty. As engrossing as the finest novels and in a class by itself, this isn't television; it's The Wire. --Donald Liebenson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 121 more reviews...
Excellent December 28, 2008
The fourth and penultimate season of The Wire sees the show moving into new territory. At the end of Season 3 the Barksdale organisation was finally destroyed for good, McNulty found himself some happiness and Daniels got a promotion. The goals set out in Season 1 had been achieved. So, where next for the Major Crimes Unit and the players of the game?
Season 4 follows several storylines in tandem. The MCU is now chasing down Marlo Stanfield, whose organisation has picked up from where Barksdale left off and now rules over most of the western district of Baltimore. However, their rise to power has apparently been accomplished with virtually no deaths, bemusing Lester Freamon. With the wiretaps also coming up empty, Freamon's attempts to follow the money trail attract the ire of his superiors and pretty soon the MCU is all but shut down and Freamon and Kima end up working in Homicide instead. Elsewhere, McNulty is enjoying the (relatively) easy life as a beat cop, Daniels is heading up his own force and Carver is maturing as an officer, with only Herc apparently resisting any change, at least until he catches the Mayor's eye (in a rather interesting manner) and finds his star rising as a result. But overall the police side of things, at least to start off with, seems pretty quiet.
On the streets Marlo's rise to power has been achieved with the help of his two enforcers, the terrifyingly cold-blooded and ruthless Chris and Snoop, who have come up with a brilliant scheme to hide the resulting bodies from the police. Proposition Joe, who has inherited most of the surviving Barksdale crew, is continuing his efforts to entice Marlo into the cooperative to little avail, so he hatches a scheme to get Marlo on his side by setting up a war between him and the indefatigable Omar. Unfortunately, this leads to a pretty bloody and complicated state of affairs for all concerned.
Elsewhere, Tommy Carcetti is running for the position of mayor, but the race is a difficult three-way contest between him, the incumbent Royce and fellow councilman Tony Gray. Unfortunately, no sooner is the winner in office then they are delivered two massive problems: how to handle the proven incompetence of police commissioner Burrell when they cannot fire him for political reasons, and the discovery that they have a jaw-dropping $54 million budget deficit due to overspending in the schools.
At the same time, Prez, the former MCU member fired from the force in Season 3 after accidentally killing another officer, has started a new life as a maths teacher. His class is noisy, uncooperative, disrespectful and sometimes shockingly violent (one student slashes another's face open with a razor in his first week). However, the primary narrative for Season 4 focuses on four of the students in Prez's class - Randy, Dukie, Namond and Michael. These are all new characters, although with some ties to existing ones: Namond is the son of former Barksdale enforcer Wee-Bey and Michael is a member of Cutty's gym.
The scaling back of the other characters in favour of following these four youngsters around may seem like an odd move, but it pays off brilliantly. Having tackled the police, criminals, politicians, and dockworkers, Season 4 is about teachers, students and the role of education in shaping the lives of the young. Early in the season a divide is identified between those kids who could make something for themselves and the corner kids who don't want to do anything other than stand on the streets and sell drugs to make money, and where the four main characters fall on that divide and how they swap sides and change over the course of the season is fascinating to watch. At first glance Michael seems to be the most positive and promising of the four, but his interest in sports and growing cooperation in class hides a bitter and painful home life that soon leads him into Marlo's circle, whilst happy-go-lucky Randy makes a series of mistakes that prove costly. In fact it's Namond, who is selling drugs from the start and being schooled for a life of crime by his father from behind bars, who undergoes the most interesting and seismic shifts in character, all depicted through the brilliant-as-usual writing and some fine performances from the young actors involved.
Andre Royo as Bubs also has to be singled out for mention, as Bubs hits rock-bottom in this season and Royo's depiction of a man whose already crappy life disintegrates completely is absolutely stunning. At the same time, Dominic West's low availability for the season means that McNulty doesn't appear very much, meaning more screen time for Freamon (Clarke Peters) and Bunk (Wendell Pierce), which is a very welcome move. McNulty does return to prominence in the last two episodes, which set up the direction of the final season pretty well.
The Wire: Season 4 (*****) is as superbly-written, brilliantly funny, expertly-acted and stomach-churningly tragic as ever, except possibly even moreso than the first three seasons. If there is a negative point, it's that Season 4 is the most epic and sprawling season to date, and it takes a while for all the disparate storylines to start pulling together. But when they do, the result is the most powerful and gripping final run of episodes yet.
Maybe the best season of any television show ever. November 29, 2008
I assume if you're reading this review you own, or at least have seen, seasons 1 through 3 of the critically acclaimed program The Wire. If not what are you doing; go out and buy or rent or try to borrow from someone the previous seasons, and start from Season 1. Do not, I repeat do not, skip a single episode much less a season. That might be fine for some TV shows, but not The Wire. The Wire unfolds like a great novel, building on itself piece by piece, and with a scope beyond anything done in television beforehand. It's a show that requires dedication, and with that dedication you will absorb some of the most satisfying experiences you have ever felt from a TV show.
For those that have seen seasons 1 through 3, rest assured that Season 4 isn't only on par with those first three season; in my opinion it suprasses them. Every Wire season ads a new layer to the Baltimore culture, and this season it's the school. For me, as someone who went to inner city schools though not in Baltimore, it was aghast how much I could relate my experiences to those of the kids on the show. There are four major characters--Michael, Namond, Randy, and Dukie--and all are performed by the young actors very well.
I'm not going to give much away. The first episode, like the first episode of the other seasons, purposely frustrates the viewer with many new characters brand new plotlines not always clear, and it's hard to make total sense of it even by the third episode. The more the season progresses the more you appreciate that they did confuse you in the beginning because there always is a payoff. This is the first season that doesn't rely much on the Barksdale crew, but it picks up at the street very well, as it does with the Law, and at the Hall. Along with the School all four aspects of the Wire connect in a way so seamless you're amazed television is capable of something so grand.
Special features include six Audio commentaries, and two nice documentaries on the show. One of the commentaries includes all four actors playing the kids I mentioned above, along with the actor who plays Prop Joe, and it's one of the more memorable commentaries I have seen.
The 1st time N my life I've ever been glued 2 a TV November 20, 2008
Short & Sweet. Didn't watch this series before it was taken off the air. Heard all the rave reviews. Did my research and ordered Season 4 (to start with).
Easily the most dynamic TV series of my lifetime. Incredible acting (and from such young kids), brilliant writing and great storylines.
Powerful, engaging, thought-provoking, eye-popping, emotional, deep, inspiring, gripping, maddening.
There aren't enough words 2 describe this show.
I think what makes this season so real is the fact you'll look at the four boys and easily place them in your own lives as people you'd know. So to see them face real world problems and make life/death decisions at such young ages and with relatively little information, it hits home hard.
This is what I call "Reality Television." What makes this show all the more impactful is the fact that, sadly, most of these scenarios and portrayals are at least loosely based on real events that went down (and continue 2 go down) in the streets of Baltimore.
I believe a stat from the Special Features Documentary says that 80% of the characters depicted were based on real people! If that doesn't draw viewers in, I don't know what else will?
This DVD series is a must have.
Period.
Great stuff October 19, 2008
Great stuff. I feel like I know the whole g'dam town of Baltimore, from top to bottom. Seriously, it's like these people aren't even actors. In fact, you can't even imagine them as actors, being away from the set, that's how good they are. It doesn't even seem possible that they're acting. There's probably not too much higher praise you can give an actor than this. This is like going to see a great movie at the Cineplex, only the effing thing is 100 hours long, and you get to watch it go on and on, and the quality never goes down-- just stays at the same high level. Thanks guys. Great work.
Larry W. Phillips
"Life" isn't fair...it's "life"... October 17, 2008
Just finished the set...3 days. I find irony in the fact that one of the most beautiful things ever created was born of ugliness. If aliens were to come down to Earth, curious about what it meant to be human, I would show them "The Wire". I don't feel much hope, day to day. It's tough to be positive. Erosion. Winners and losers. You can't win in this life without being a little evil it seems. No good deed and all of that...just watch the show. It's a gift in a world that eats corporate s^%t and begs for more. Embrace the truth, do what you can...subtract from the evil, don't add. All you can do...maybe you'll make it...
..but probably not.
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