The Wire

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

The Wire is the least-watched of HBO's dramatic series, which may have something to do with its sprawling cast of approximately 154 distinct main characters. Created by ex-reporter David Simon, whose accounts of Baltimore crime inspired Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire explores the workings of an organization of cocaine dealers, and the police surveillance operations that endeavor to catch said dealers, with meticulous, aneurysm-inducing detail. It is reportedly cable's highest-rated program among autistic viewers.

Lest the remainder of the audience grow bored with such realism, the show also features the frequent sexual exploits of Detective Jimmy McNulty (played by an actor who isn't Gary Sinise), whose arrest record is matched only by his list of current venereal diseases.