What is the best season of The Wire?

Five seasons, five sprawling portraits of one American city — corner drug crews, the dying docks, City Hall, a failing school, a shrinking newsroom. Which chapter cuts deepest?

1. 1
   Season 4

   Widely acclaimed, this season follows four West Baltimore schoolkids as the failing education system shapes their fates.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Season 3

   Reform and city politics collide as a police major quietly experiments with a legalized drug zone nicknamed Hamsterdam.
   555pts
3. 3
   Season 1

   The debut season centers on the Barksdale drug organization and the police detail formed to bring it down through wiretaps.
   89pts
4. 4
   Season 2

   Set on Baltimore's struggling docks, this season follows the stevedores' union and a smuggling ring moving through the port.
   89pts
5. 5
   Season 5

   The final season turns to the newspaper industry and the media as the city's institutions continue to unravel.
   89pts