Judy, I not only love TV but I read books about TV (and even wrote a book about TV)--so I take the subject very seriously. :) For years and years I heard about "The Wire" and how great it was and I never really paid attention, because I kind of put it in the class of all the "antihero" shows that were really big that I just couldn't get into--The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men....so I never paid attention.

But one year I thought, hey, let's watch "The Wire."

And I haven't been the same since. There is so much to think about in this show. It's exceptionally well done. But yeah. It's really, really hard to watch. There's violence and more violence and sometimes the violence is so shocking because you can tell it's just standard working day violence, where the kids and the dealers in "the game" (drug dealing) just take it for granted. And it's filmed in Baltimore, which the actors talk about in this book--how they couldn't believe the shells of buildings they were filming in, and yet there were still people living there. Really shocking. And one of the series focuses on kids in school, so it's exceptionally hard to watch these young kids just...being run over by America.

It's hard to watch for so many reasons. But really? I still think I would try it. If you can stand to read a book easier, then I would try David Simon's journalism works "Homicide" or "The Corner"--both also about Baltimore and murders and drugs and how people just live right in the middle of it all. Also disturbing, but maybe easier to take in book form. Personally I believe "The Corner" should be required reading for kids in school. An important book.