Corruption is rife throughout The Wire: The Complete Third Season, which picks up the further adventures of the Baltimore Major Crimes Unit as they continue to wage war on drugs. Only as this is The Wire, that???s just the beginnings of their problems. Once again, the show that???s rightly being acclaimed as one of America???s finest and most intelligent dramas covers the story from all areas. There???s the investigating cops on one hand, their targets on the other, and the small matter of heavy political influence both with the Police Department itself, and from the Mayor???s Office too.

Cleverly sowing the seeds for the series that???ll follow, while lacing the narrative with a wealth of challenging ideas to deal with there and then, season three isn???t perhaps the finest of The Wire to date, but it sure does run things close. From its willingness to explore a solution of tolerance to the problem in hand, through to the political ambitions of one man determined to make a name for himself, and the small matter of a drugs operation riddled with in-fighting, it???s compelling drama.

It???s also unequalled in recent times, courtesy of its outstanding writing, measured performances and willingness to take some bold gambles. Put bluntly, The Wire: The Complete Third Season is a quite brilliant piece of television drama, and easily rewards a purchase. --Simon Brew

I bought the first two series of the wire on the basis of comments on the amazon web site. Could it really be that good?. To my eternal shame it was several months before I finally got around to watching it. You should be in absolutely no doubt that this is landmark television. If you never watch another TV series for the rest of your life, you must watch this. The downside is that it is so good that it makes it difficult to watch virtually anything else without feeling that you have been short-changed.

after the 1st 2 series, 1st=4star, 2nd=5 star, this is a let down, so only 3 stars.
the whole "hamsterdam" thing is gargage and the actors know it, they look a bit embarrased at having to do something that is not believable and it shows.
overall, its messy and lacks focus.
have even debated with myself to stop watching it and get on with something else instead, whereas the 1st 2 series were riviting.
after this, i dont know if i'll give series 4 a go.

I am going to,for once,write a short review,this series is stunning,the first two series' were superb but this is even better,there may not even be a word for how good this is,at least nothing is springing to mind,this series focuses on the political side of baltimore,the drug trade is still prevelent among many other storylines,all you could ask for is here,this series is probably better than anything in the sopranos,did i just say that?,i think i did!

The third season of the wire is as brilliant as the Two that came before it. if you've seen the first two seasons then you must watch this too.

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.