"The Wire"

Set in Baltimore, with story lines of crime and law intertwined with each other. The show mainly follows Jimmy McNulty (West) and his fellow detectives and superiors; as well as street level drug dealers of the Barksdale Organization, led by Avon Barksdale (Harris). Corruption becomes a subplot and seasonal theme including: the city port (Season 2), the political scene (Season 3), the school system (Season 4) and the media (Season 5). Praised for its realism, which includes some slow spots as well as the killing off of its most well-developed characters at random points in the series. While things slow down and speed up at many points of the series, there ceases to be anything remotely uninteresting. The amount of characters that come and go become very overwhelming to the point that you stop becoming shocked when a character is written off. It's lack of a main character and it's predictable finale are flaws, but easily overlooked by intriguing story lines.