As a mega-fan of The Wire, I really wanted to like this show. However, I could barely make it through the first episode. I found most of the performances to be either flat, overwrought, or aping previous performances from The Wire. An ironic exception is Trey Chaney, formerly "Poot" on the Wire. However, the overall effect is that this show seems less documentarian and more 'American Crime Story'. Additionally, while the writing is of course significantly tighter than most shows on television, by the standards of Pelecanos and Simon, it's quite evidently phoned in. Between hokey bouts of over-exposition and non-sequitur Trump jokes, there is no room for the quiet realism and humanity of The Wire. Overall, WOTC is decent enough television in an era where decent television is sorely lacking. However, it simply can't overcome the shadow cast by its predecessor, by comparison to which WOTC is sadly trite, flat, and disappointing.

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