The fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed HBO drama "The Wire" started last night. Hailed by many critics as "the best show on television," the program presents a challenging and intricate portrait of the relationship between the Baltimore Police Department and the activities—both legal and illegal— of the city's struggling residents.

Just how good is "The Wire"? Are its complex characters and rich storylines accessible to all viewers? Our 23/6 television critic sat down for his first taste of the show. His minute-by-minute report follows.

9:01: Season five starts off with a bang in an interrogation room in the Baltimore Police Department. Two homicide cops (clearly identified as homicide by their ID lanyards reading "homicide") are interviewing a young suspect. They've taped him to a Xerox machine and are pretending it's a polygraph. The kid doesn't know any better. It's a great scene; funny, yet powerful. I can't wait to dive in to this gripping police drama.

9:05: We're out on the street and some urban toughs are being surveilled by two people in a van and two guys on a roof. I think maybe they're also cops, but it's hard to tell. I don't think anyone's actually said anyone else's name yet, so I'm not sure who the main character is. It's definitely interesting though.

9:06: These black kids are having a conversation about some kind of package, and talking about their "people." It sounds important but it's a little hard to understand what's going on since they're kind of mumbling and possibly using some kind of street slang. I've heard that this show has been praised for its realistic, gritty portrayals of life on the street, but it's hard to know how realistic it actually is when you can't make out what people are saying. Anyway, one of the guys got on a motorcycle and it looks like there's about to be a big chase scene.

9:08: Okay, now we're in a police briefing room, I think. There's another cop at the podium but I don't think it's one of the cops from the first scene. There's also a whole group of guys with badges—some are in uniform, some aren't—and they're all screaming. I'm not sure what happened to the kids on the street. I guess that guy on the motorcycle got away or something. These cops are really angry, but I don't know about what. Maybe I missed the season premiere and this is actually episode three or four. No, I just checked the HBO program guide. It's the season premiere.

9:09: It sounds like the cops are all mad because they aren't getting paid for overtime. Wow, real gritty.

9:10: Okay, cool, we're back to the motorcycle chase. Um, wait a second, now the cop car just stopped to let traffic go by...IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHASE! I'm sorry, but for a minute there I thought I was supposed to be watching "the best show on television." What kind of cop show has a guy stop mid-chase to yield the right of way? Aaaaand, now we're back to the office of some other cop I don't recognize. Great.

9:12: Two cops got in a fight, then something happened with the guy on the motorcycle. Now there's a meeting in a dark room with some guys in suits. I still don't know a single character's name.

9:16: Some guys are out in a field somewhere. Whatever.

9:21: This scene takes place in some dude's apartment where these kids are playing Connect Four. I'm not kidding. I'm starting to think that "The Wire" is "the best show on television where they throw all the footage from the entire season up in the air and then randomly edit it together from whatever they pull off the floor."

9:24: Christ, now some guys who are totally different guys from any of the other guys in this show are talking in the newsroom of a big city newspaper. I thought this was a cop show. So are these, like, cops who work at a newspaper? Not to mention there hasn't even been a single joke since that whole Xerox machine thing.

9:27: Holy crap, the new American Gladiators is friggin' amazing. This gladiator named "Wolf" is super jacked and totally slammed this dude into the wall of this insane half-pipe thing with some crazy silver shield thing. Seriously some gritty-ass stuff, man. This may be the best show on television.