Al, I'm close. Got Mel interested, so can't watch three episodes every night to complete, but holiday weekend coming up.
You know, it's difficult to compare to The Sopranos. Whether they knew it at the beginning or not, in the end The Sopranos was about something comparatively small - family. No individual episode of The Wire is as good as a dozen (yes, episodic) episodes of the Sopranos, but this scope is so large - an American city - and so unerringly told*, it's without a doubt a grander achievement. It's really something special. I'm not much of a TV watcher, and don't expect to love more than one or two shows a decade, and suspect this is the best I'm going to see for a while. Should anyone out there in Ohio or wherever only get through... say the first two seasons, they really should take a second look.
*Well, besides gender, which they have a few interestingly things to say, but there's little doubt the creative team is entirely male and write the characters as such. Also the early seasons main character, McNulty, is such a fictional cop stereotype he sticks out when everyone else is so carefully juggled.
Okay, as I was typing that note, you have me interested in my most disliked character.