The Wire, 23 years on, remains the greatest summer rewatch

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For two summers in the early aughts, Sunday nights were reserved for The Wire . It premiered in June 2002, a little over a week before American Idol would forever debunk the long-held notion that the Memorial to Labor Day period was a viewership wasteland. It was up against a ratings landscape that still held CSI reruns in the highest regard, but maybe the lack of competition for attention made the slow, methodical plot even more appealing. An hour of prestige drama savored at the end of a long, sweaty week, living rent-free in your head in the time between each episode aired.