"The Wire continues to deserve its accolades as the most remarkable drama series in television history," writes Noel Holston in Newsday. The show, says Holston, "engages with cold, hard realities of modern life in a way that other admirable dramatic series address only thematically or metaphorically—and in ways that neither print nor electronic journalists are likely to deliver as viscerally. It is arguably a genre unique unto itself. Think of it as 'investigative fiction.'"

For all the seriousness of the subject matters it tackles—drugs, violence, corruption—The Wire "can be a rowdy Deadwood or as mordantly humorous as Six Feet Under," writes Holston, even pointing to one set-up at the start of the season's opener this coming Sunday as "a gag worthy of The Honeymooners or Pee-wee's Playhouse."

Holston points to The Wire's opening theme as another example of the series' doing things differently. Each season, a different artist performs the Tom Waits song "Way Down in the Hole," including Waits himself in the second season. The soundtrack, due out on Tuesday, includes that and the three other versions from the first four seasons.

To read Holston's article, visit newsday.com.