Blu-ray comin’! The rumors swirled for months, then finally this winter HBO unveiled its remastered, HD version of The Wire—one of the best shows in the history of television—through a marathon on one of its cable networks. When the marathon was announced, HBO promised a Blu-ray release of the series sometime in 2015. Now we have an official debut date: The Wire Blu-ray will finally be available on June 2nd of this year with a retail price of $199.99.

HBO is releasing The Wire: The Complete Series on Blu-ray for the first time ever, and the box set will also include Digital HD versions of all 60 episodes. Though creator David Simon was always against expanding the frame of The Wire from its original 4:3 aspect ratio to HD’s 16:9, when HBO made clear its intention of remastering the entire series, Simon made sure he consulted on the re-mastering of his show.

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Though I wasn’t entirely thrilled when I learned HBO would be altering the aspect ratio of The Wire, I caught the HD versions of a few of the episodes during the show’s marathon in December and I was pleasantly surprised. This doesn’t look like Seinfeld or Friends reruns on TBS where the frame is simply expanded without any thought given to how it informs the viewing of the show; Simon’s influence is felt throughout, as scenes were expanded and cropped according to their individual intent, rather than a catch-all 16x9 automatic conversion.

The Blu-ray release will include all of the extras from the previous complete series DVD release, plus an all-new cast and crew Q&A from the Paley Center for Media’s The Wire reunion event. If you don’t own the series and would rather have it in widescreen format, this is a very solid purchase.

Read the full press release below (via TVShowsonDVD):

"One of the most daring dramas in the

history of the medium" -The Baltimore Sun

 

"One of the great achievements in television

artistry" -San Francisco Chronicle

 

THE WIRE:

THE COMPLETE SERIES

BLU-RAY WITH DIGITAL HD

 

Acclaimed Series Available for the First Time

on BLU-RAY Disc with Digital HD June 2, 2015

 

Loaded with Bonus Content Just in Time for Father's Day Gift Giving

 

All 60 Episodes Beautifully Re-mastered in 16x9 Full Frame HD

 

New York, NY (March 5, 2015) - In the six years that have passed since the conclusion of the HBO seriesThe Wire, the critically acclaimed drama has turned into a worldwide phenomenon that has been hailed as "the best show in the history of television" by MSNBC. This summer, the series will make its highly anticipated debut on Blu-ray disc for the very first time. The 20-disc box set featuring all 60 episodes of the hit series in a stunningly re-mastered 16x9 full-screen HD format is showcased with newly redesigned box art.The Wire: The Complete Serieson Blu-ray with Digital HD ($199.99) is loaded with an exciting slate of bonus materials, including four behind-the-scenes documentaries, three prequels that explore life beforeThe Wire, and an all-new cast and crew Q&A from the Paley Center for Media'sThe Wirereunion event.The Wire: The Complete Serieson Blu-ray with Digital HD will be in stores June 2, 2015 - just in time for Father's Day and summer binge watching - and is a must-have for all TV connoisseurs!

 

The Wire depicts an American urban dystopia, framed in our time, in which easy distinctions between good and evil and crime and punishment are challenged at every turn. In five successive seasons, the series depicts a Baltimore in which institutional prerogatives, economic inequalities and a brutalizing drug war confound the efforts to advance the city and its people. The series' first season lays out the futility of the drug war, while the second highlights the deindustrialization and the death of the working class. The third season introduces the city's political culture and lays out the forces that stand in the path of actual reform. The fourth season addresses the educational system and the actual opportunities that remain to coming generations. The fifth and final season examines the media culture and its role in perpetuating the status quo. Amid all of this, carefully drawn characters on both sides of the law and from a variety of Baltimore cultures move forward as best they can, human to a flaw, struggling against a system that seems weighted against civic progress.