The Wire: Complete HBO Season 2 | 
 enlarge | Directors: Daniel Attias, Edward Bianchi, Elodie Keene, Ernest R. Dickerson, Rob Bailey
Actors: Dominic West, John Doman, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Deirdre Lovejoy
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £50.99
Buy New: £14.98
You Save: £36.01 (71%)
New (7) Used (3) from £14.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 20
Format: Pal
Languages: Arabic (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Finnish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Greek (Subtitled), Hebrew (Subtitled), Hungarian (Subtitled), Norwegian (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Swedish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Number Of Items: 5
Running Time: 780
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.7
EAN: 7321900725590
ASIN: B000A529ZE
Release Date: October 10, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 10 to 13 days
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Picking up after the dramatic events of its maiden season, the second series of The Wire achieves something really rather special: it even manages to outclass the first.For those fresh to the show, surely the best, most intelligent piece of scripted drama to emerge from America in the last decade, the actual premise is fairly simple. Across the thirteen episodes of its season, it charts one case, and the numerous influences upon it. So it devotes roughly equal time to those committing the crimes as it does to those chasing them. This time, the Baltimore Police Department have twin worries. There's the continuing, festering narrative of events from the season before, along with a new problem when a container of dead bodies turns up at the nearby docks. After initial battles over whose statistics the bodies will be attributed to, a fresh case begins for the embattled officers of the Major Crimes Unit. Yet season two is about much more than the case itself. Bubbling under the surface are characters with real problems, that take their toll on the day-to-day, while at the docks themselves there are union struggles underway, which also have a part to play. Thanks to, frankly, superb scripting, these various narrative threads are woven together quite brilliantly, and the result is perhaps the finest series of The Wire to date. And that's no small feat. If you're one of the many who have let The Wire fly under their radar thus far, then you're urged to rectify that. Clearly season one is the logical starting point, but begin your adventure in the knowledge that this second series is simple exceptional. For the rest of the US television industry, this is the standard to aim for. --Simon Brew
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
Brilliant December 9, 2008
This series is so, so good! I was worried that after really enjoying the first series that this wouldn't be as good but if anything it is better! I think that it is one of the best dramas that I have seen in a long time. It is really gritty without going over top and becoming unrealistic. Excellent.
True Perfection December 8, 2008
Amazing - better than the 1st series. Gritty working life's struggling to make a dollar. A tragic story with complex characters that keeps you guessing. I never wanted it to end.
the wire rocks November 25, 2008
i come accross this series by chance and never looked back,brilliant story line, very entertaining, highly recomended
Can't get better November 23, 2008
I loved the first series and the second kept me equally enthralled - I had to pace myself not to watch too many episodes in one go as you want to know what happens next.
You need to have watched series one first so coming to it new or mid-episde would be impossible - but I think it is the finest Police TV ever.
2nd Season which does that rare thing of topping the 1st November 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
With the 1st season setting the scene and introducing the characters the 2nd season does that rare thing of being even better, Though the story does still contains the continuing Barksdale story with Stringer Bell holding the reins as Avon alongside his nephew are incarcerated due the conclusions of the investigation in season 1. It is the new strand that drives the 2nd series even more. It introduces the tragic tale of the Sobotka's, a family of Batimore Dockers who's head Frank sometimes goes to not exactly legitimate methods to keep the money coming in but is a generous but compromised man. So when he rubs childhood adversary Deputy Commissioner Valchek up the wrong way with a incident that concerns amongst such things as Church stained glass window, Valchek blackmails a returning Frankie Faison from Season 1 as Commisssioner Burrell for political reasons to getting him to launch an investigation into Frank's activities. When after Burrell tries to buy him off some dead beats determined to do nothing, Valchek requests Daniels langishing in the Police Evidence dungeon to put together another Details to lead the investigation including Valchek's son-in-law a returning "Prez" from season 1.
What starts out as a childhood spat gone out of control becomes much bigger when Mcnulty (now Harbour Patrol for his sins) dredges up a Jane Doe in the docks and then connects it to a cargo hold full of 13 dead immigrant girls which Jimmy makes rather maliciously fall in to the jurisdiction of his old boss Major Rawls and ends up being put in the laps of a rather unimpressed Lester & Bunk who base their investigation from Daniels Detail but when their investiagtions become connected end up becoming part of Daniels Detail and after a number of episodes, Daniels agrees to take the case off Rawl's hands in exchange for his co-operation including the one thing Rawls is loathed to grant due to his axe to gring with a certain Detective that used to be part of his squad.
This season also looks into Mcnulty's home life and is flawed personality concerning his family life and coming to terms with his demotion and his borderline alcoholism and is just about pulled from the brink when Rawls allows Daniels to get his own way in exchange for taking the 13 jane does off his roster after being convinced by Bunk & Lester that they are connected to Valchek's Sorbotka case. Also Port Cop Officier Beatrice Russell (Amy Ryan) who is initially left with the immigrant girls case till Mcnulty's intervention is a new addition and makes for an interesting a solid but more wet behind the ears member of the team who lacks experience but has connections with the Dockers including Frank himself which assists in the case and becomes a fine a valuable memeber of the Detail. Kima returns after a stint behind a desk due to receovering from her shooting from season 1 much to her now pregnant girlfriends dismay. Herc & now Sergeant Carver also return to complete the Team
Season 2 improves on the standard of 1st season by making the storytelling even more compelling, where it's Avon's nephew D'Angelo that was the concience and one of the main drives of the story in season 1, it is Chris Bauer's Frank which is the concern of series 2. Frank is loyal to his workers but is involved in what he thinks his petty smuggling and theft but becomes deeper involved with a dangerous group ran by a man simply named "The Greek".
Frank's nephew and son become embroiled in "The Greek's" operation and result in events and actions which will be life changing and tragic for them all. Pablo Schrieber as Frank's nephew Nicky gets deeper in with "The Greek's" right hand Spiros (Paul Ben Victor) who after going behind his Uncle with some scams gets offered the chance of payment in Heroin.
Nicky then see's the oppurtunity that Ziggy, Frank's son had tried to intice him into but was reluctant due to Ziggy's firebrand personality and unexperience in dealing. Nicky being a more shrewd, clever and adept at turning his hand to new oppurtunities excepts the heroin and starts dealing in his neighberhood through the local connections, cutting out Ziggy of the scheme which sows the seeds of startling actions later in the season.
Daniels and the team concentrate on tracking the drugs, Herc & Carver doing the surveilance and gathering vital info as well as the scams with the stealing of Cargo holds which connect them to Lester & Bunk's Jane Does case. After setting up wire taps and cloning the computer system the dockers use to discover the deceptions they start to zero on in on the Sorbotka's schemes, with Nicky becoming more embroiled and Frank not being aware how deep his Nephew is involved and how unpredictable is son Ziggy is becoming.
The story of the port aces' the Barkdale angle of the 1st season by presenting Bauer's tragic but decent Frank and the fate of his families involvement with "The Greek" who seems to have friends in high places who start to throw huge spanners in the Details operation. When the FBI come involved due to Valchek's thirst to bring down Frank the information starts to leak and "The Greek" becomes aware of the operation.
The strands of the Barksdale empire become embroiled in the port story as Stringer has to strike a deal with the competition "Propostion Joe's " (Robert F Chew) crew due to lack of product which see's Stringer's grip on Avon's territory slipping made more awkward by Joe's people in a particular "Cheese", (Hip Hop star Wu Tang Clan's "Method Man") as Joe has dealing with Spiros as they are providing him with a steady supply of heroin bought through on the docks.
Regulars from series 1 make an apperance, Bubbles continues to thieve to fund his habit and Omar continues to taunt Stringer as well as assisting Mcnulty in putting away a Barksdale soldier arrested due to incidents covered in season 1. Like Soprano's the characters aren't always likeable but compelling and make each episode fly by, the detail in the storytelling is astonishing and is truly masterful.
An With 3 more seasons to go I'm practically salivating for some more of this stunning piece of TV.
Yes! The Wire really is that Good!
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