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| Actors: Dominic West, Idris Elba, Michael K. Williams, Sonja Sohn
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £14.98
You Save: £25.01 (63%)
Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 33
Format: Pal
Languages: Dutch (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Danish (Subtitled), Finnish (Subtitled), Greek (Subtitled), Hungarian (Subtitled), Norwegian (Subtitled), Swedish (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region: 2
Number Of Discs: 5
Running Time: 780 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.7
EAN: 7321904825692
ASIN: B000KGGP0S
Release Date: February 5, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Another Great Season February 13, 2007
E. Sinick
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Another season of police drama intertwined with a complex and gritty examination of the political workings of grand old Baltimore. As with previous seasons, The Wire's writers combine urban documentary and crime drama to give us a fix of gritty action and Civics 101. The complex plots are complimented by continually twisting portraits of the main characters--none of whom are portrayed in a binary light of good and evil. In an America where the current popular debate is so often given over to reductivist thinking and simple platitudes, this show is great fodder for the thinking couch potato.
"This look like the dawn of a new day to you?" March 26, 2008
Sam Anders (Scotland)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
After watching the frst two seasons of The Wire (which is essential to understanding the third) I was prepared for a further excellent season with the third, what I wasn't prepared for was that this season is not only the best of the three but that it's by far the greatest season of any cop show I've ever seen.
All the series' staple characters are here, with lots more screen time for Omar and Bubbles (both sadly absent for much of season 2) as well as a more McNulty-centred plotline which grounds the season well while still managing to keep track of an extraordinary number of characters all of whom are given a great deal of depth normally so missing in modern TV police drama.
Season three concerns itself primarily with two things; firstly with an exploration of the political structure which has previously been little more than a looming malevolent presence in the background as well as the upper ranks of the police force, secondly with trying to round off some of the series' long-standing conflicts. That second point makes this by far the most dramatic season of The Wire so far.
The new characters this season are absolutely brilliant, particularly Major Colvin and ex-con Dennis. They lend an enourmous amount to the show and are magnificently acted, written with a great deal more depth than was given to the dockyard workers in season two.
Season Three of The Wire is not just the best season of the show, but is the most incredibly dramatic and powerful cop show ever made. I've yet to see season four, but if it's even half as good as this one then it should be absolutely brilliant.
If anything is better than this please let me know April 9, 2007
A. Verma (Slough, England)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
The Wire is quite possibly the most engrossing and addictive TV show ever made. With Series 3 being the best season yet.
It can at times be a very challenging show to watch. Firstly because some of the slang used is incomprehensible. Secondly because story lines are rarely spelt out for you. And finally because nothing is sugar coated.
These however are some of the things that make it so good. The Wire is a work of genius and I can not recommend it more highly.
Keeps on getting better June 7, 2007
Chessman (Malta)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Series 3 has improved on an already superlative format. The writing team should be applauded for their integrity and vision. The development of competing characters and sub plots are a marvel, comparable to an unfolding novel in terms of pace and familiarity with environment and genre. This is the hallmark of HBO productions.
'The Wire' skillfully depicts the police, gangster, drug dealer, politician with balance and individual motives. No overt judgments are made; the viewer decides whether the struggle to live predominates or a baser instinct governs a questionable action. There are no absolutes of good or evil.
Watch and enjoy.
The best show on TV continues October 20, 2008
A. Whitehead (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
With its third year, The Wire heads back to the streets and unfinished business. As with the second year, the third season opens up another dimension of the city, this time City Hall and the civil and police administration, but the focus is squarely back on the Barksdale organisation and Lt. Daniels' unit trying to bring them down and finish the job begun back in Season 1.
Season 3 opens with Avon Barksdale still inside, but his parole hearing is coming up. His friend and collaborator Stringer Bell has guided the crew through some lean times and formed a 'co-op' with several other gangs which has led to them making some serious money but at the cost of sharing each other's turf. However, a new player, Marlo Stanfield, is on the way up and is not interested in sharing his territory with anyone else. The stage is set for a series of bloody showdowns and bodies dropping on the streets, to the growing discontent of the police. Lt. Daniels and his unit are forced to drop their investigation into Bell (begun at the end of the second season) to concentrate on the war, unaware that the two are connected. This war is complicated by the re-emergence of Omar Little, who has sworn to bring down Bell for manipulating him into shooting an innocent man in the second season.
At the same time, an ambitious white city councilman, Tommy Carcetti, is planning to run for mayor, although his prospects in a city with a majority black population seem poor. Connecting these two storylines is a highly controversial initiative launched by police Major Colvin to move the drug dealers off the street corners into three abandoned city blocks where the police will turn a blind eye to their activities so they can concentrate more on murders and crime prevention elsewhere. The 'Hamsterdam' storyline, apparently inspired by the 'legalise drugs' movement, is a stunning and surprisingly even-handed piece of social commentary. There is also an ongoing subplot following the attempts of former Barksdale enforcer Dennis 'Cutty' Wise to go straight after spending fourteen years in prison.
Season 3 is tighter than the second season, as it is able to link the storylines together more effectively than the second, where the trials of the Barksdale gang were largely removed and separate from events on the docks. The new characters, both on the streets and in the city hall, are also more directly tied to the storylines that have gone before and are stronger as a result.
Thematically, the idea behind Season 3 appears to be that of failed reform. The failure of the city's drug prevention strategies encourage some radical, out-of-the-box thinking from Major Colvin. Whilst his policy is initially successful, it leads to a whole host of knock-on effects which are beyond his powers to address, and give a rather depressing impression that, indeed, no one man can make a difference to the system. The breathtaking cynicism and corruption of the political wing of the city is depicted, with Carcetti determined to reform the system from the inside, again with apparently little hope of success. Stringer Bell's attempts to reform himself and his friend Avon on his release from prison into respectable businessmen provides the season with its main narrative spine, but again does not have a happy ending. That said, there are moments of hope, with Cutty's attempts to go straight finally garnering some success and McNulty's attempts to straighten out his personal life ending on a positive note.
The ending of the season seems to be a little more definitive than the prior two, but the writers take care to leave enough loose ends untied to be pursued into the fourth year, with the candidates for mayor squaring up, several of the gang leaders still very much at large and the police unit once again finding themselves heading off in separate directions.
The Wire: Season 3 (*****) follows up on the first two by being just as dramatically intense with some superb characterisation, brilliant acting and some finely-judged moments of comedy to balance the darkness elsewhere.
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