2006: Top Honors

I named Apocalypto the best movie of the year, but the best filmmaking I saw in 2006 wasn’t at the movie theater. It was on television—specifically, on HBO. The Wire is the best dramatic series ever to grace the (increasingly larger) small screens of our nation’s homes, and the fourth season was the best so far. I’ve written about my love for the show before, but I’ll say it again: No other filmed fiction matches its intricate narratives, its sprawling cast of carefully drawn characters, its masterful dialog, its thematic depth and complexity. And, certainly this year, nothing else matches its pathos. It’s quite simply the best thing on a screen of any size, and it deserves every bit of the accolades it's received, as well as any others the various proprietors of awards and critical judgments can throw at it.