The Wire

I think I found the best show on TV - it's called The Wire by HBO.

It's about crime and corruption in Baltimore: it's rough and gritty and pulls no punches. The show revolves around the daily goings on of violent gangs, corrupt politicians, effective police depart and apathetic reporters. If you haven't noticed, it's the four pillars of urban living. The focus is on the little guy at the bottom of the heap trying to carve out a living doing his job and the big bosses on top, backstabbing - in some case shooting each other - to climb higher while dealing with budgetary setbacks and upstarts. This applies to the folk on both side of the law, except that the gang's major issue with money is how to launder it.

The Wire refers to the first season which was all about a wire tap that the police had put on a major high profile corruption deal. One of the seasons is about the Newspaper in Baltimore... it's West Wing on the East side: exceptionally well written and shot.
The cast is also stellar and diverse. It's almost exclusively African Amercian actors and almost exclusively male. But what acting! They're also all speaking in the urban dialects that takes a while to understand, can't imagine what it's like to act.