Even though I'm not an HBO enjoyer I've been trying to understand the praise for shows from the peak of cable in the early 2000s. I Heard various people say The Wire and the Sopranos are more based than productions of today so I gave both a try recently. The Wire is pretty decent crime show. I watched the first season and a bit of the second. It has a good flow from episode to episode and none of the episodes I watched felt derivative or misplaced, which is a problem I found with The Sopranos. There are a couple of proto-woke characters including a pretty badly written lesbian detective and a gay black drug dealer; who is written a bit better into the role of an avenging violent anti-hero. In my review of The Sopranos I rated the first 2 seasons 4/5 stars, 1 star higher than the last 3. The Wire is a solid 3 stars in my books, it's good and will hold your attention if you want something mildly exciting with generic HBO dialogue, shoehorned in sex scenes and some sudden twists.