HBO's critically-acclaimed drama The Wire premiered on June 2, 2002; a harrowing look the perils of urban decay created by former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and retired Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns. The Wire is revered as one of the best episodic television shows in history and one of HBO's best original series. The New York Times says that The Wire as a drama that contained "Indelible pieces of a crime show with a higher purpose: to provide a damning indictment of the war on drugs, and broader dissection of institutional collapse expanding in scope over five seasons to explore the decline of working-class opportunity and the public education system, among other American civic pillars."
The show featured strong performances from character actors like Michael K. Williams, Wood Harris and Aiden Gillen. And though it was famously under-recognized during its original run, The Wire would nonetheless launch the careers of future Hollywood stars like Idris Elba and Michael B. Jordan, en route to becoming one of the most revered television series of all time.