The Wire
Hacker ApprovedRanked 5 of 60 TV series by recommenders
Praised as a realistic, honest portrayal of institutions and failure, with memorable characters and strong writing. Critics say it sometimes falls down and feels dated for its time.
Praised as a realistic, honest portrayal of institutions and failure, with memorable characters and strong writing. Critics say it sometimes falls down and feels dated for its time.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 39
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 39 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Honest, realistic portrayal of institutions
“The older I get, the more I think that this TV show is actually the most realistic portrayal of how the real world works there is.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit” “It's easily the best LE show that exists, but not just because of its accuracy; it's incredible in its pure honesty.”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Everything is about to "go dark"” “a brilliant TV show called "The Wire" that shows how the drug problem cannot be traced to a single cause”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “America Has Become a Digital Narco-State” - Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Afroman found not liable in defamation case brought by Ohio cops who raided home”
- Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “New Orleans's Car-Crash Conspiracy”
Among the best TV shows
“It's up there with the Sopranos and the Wire as one of the best TV shows in my lifetime”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Disney Raising Prices Days After Confirming Ads Will Now Show Up on Every Tier” “True Detective, The Wire, Sopranos”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix” “one of my all-time favorite shows”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Europe's new climate in seven charts” - Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix”
Memorable characters and scenes
“I always enjoyed D’Angelo Barksdale’s interpretation from The Wire”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel” “my favourite characters from the later series of The Wire”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “How Charles M Schulz created Charlie Brown and Snoopy (2024)” “one of my favourite scenes from The Wire”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst” Strong cinematography and composition
“made me really appreciate how clever they got while trying to be pretty subdued with the cinematography”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle” “Also a beautiful work of art beyond the realism.”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Everything is about to "go dark"”
Other TV series people recommend
The four most recommended other TV series, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halt and Catch Fire | 166 | 20 | 89% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Babylon 5 | 86 | 21 | 80% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Silicon Valley (TV series) | 52 | 1 | 98% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Andor | 52 | 5 | 91% | 9 | — | Approved |
| The WireThis page | 39 | 7 | 85% | 12 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“which I think captures this transitional period well”
“It's up there with the Sopranos and the Wire as one of the best TV shows in my lifetime”
“good for its time; one of the first 'good shows'”
“If you long for the golden age of television, you can find disc versions of The Wire”
“While it had great writing”
“It's easily the best LE show that exists, but not just because of its accuracy; it's incredible in its pure honesty.”
“Also a beautiful work of art beyond the realism.”
“the issue I've run into is that we'd need a custom client to move push notifications off their infra”
“it is open source (gplv3 or agpl). It's used by a bunch of European governments”
“I can see this becoming much more useful once the docs get heavier”
“one of my all-time favorite shows”
“For difficult US-English full of cultural references, watch The Wire or Treme.”
“there still are a bunch of viable messaging apps/services that work without a phone number”
“Wire deserves to be in there, you are right.”
“I wouldn't recommend Wire to anyone who wants to retain chats for longer durations.”
“Amazing to see it's still going strong”
“better than many alternatives”
“I would probably rather rewatch The Wire”
“The older I get, the more I think that this TV show is actually the most realistic portrayal of how the real world works there is.”
“It's basically all about people in systems”
“a portrayal of institutional failure at virtually every level of American society”
“one of my favourite scenes from The Wire”
“with the only alternative pick being The Wire”
“There is Wire with HQ in Berlin, Germany.”
“The Wire falls down here, sometimes”
“The show itself was pretty good too.”
“I always enjoyed D’Angelo Barksdale’s interpretation from The Wire”
“probably better than 70-80% of the books out there”
“The Wire was very good at showing the police as the villains”
“I think this is why The Wire captivated me.”
“a brilliant TV show called "The Wire" that shows how the drug problem cannot be traced to a single cause”
“Some shows have maintained relatively high quality over multiple seasons.”
“We will never have another The Wire under Netflix”
“HBO has a veritable treasure trove of TV shows like The Sopranos, The Wire”
“True Detective, The Wire, Sopranos”
“it's not exactly hard to keep them around on a hard drive somewhere”
“Some scenes that I remember being beautifully composed in 4:3 lost to the transition”
“made me really appreciate how clever they got while trying to be pretty subdued with the cinematography”
“Wire was able to implement a fully E2E-encrypted messenger with proper multi-device support almost a decade ago”
“my favourite characters from the later series of The Wire”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.