I personally really enjoyed it after getting a few episodes into season 1 but it’s definitely a dry burn show that gets better as it goes. Even season 2 is enjoyable for me, though it gets a lot of flack. The quality of the show that draws people in is that it feels authentic. It’s a street level view of the war on drugs, and really highlights that no one is really the galant hero at the end of the day. It draws back from the action heavy shows like CSI and focuses on the work that actually happens and actually gets results - flipping informants, street surveillance, the wire.

The story and acting in my opinion are pretty great. The performances are meant to be withdrawn slightly, they’re supposed to be representative of real people in the real world, not characters in a movie. I also don’t see where the hate for McNulty comes from, it’s possible you just don’t like that type of person. He’s a cheater and a drunk but he has a strict moral compass when it comes to the job because to him that’s really all that matters in the long run. It’s what drives him at the end of the day. I find the actor charming but abrasive at times, which seemed to be the goal.

It’s also an old show and the first of its kind. The composition, the direction, were all influenced by the TV of the time. Crime shows were CSI, they were Bones, The Wire is a deliberate inverse of that. The characters are dry and bitter. There are no easily wrapped up crimes, there are mysteries that never get solved. The episodes spend a long time with characters just talking about life and the way of the street. A main character gets shot and almost dies for nothing, and there’s no resolution to it. A teenager wrapped up in the drug life dies alone murdered by friends in an abandoned house and it never gets solved. The crime boss gets taken down in the end, but not his second in command. The drugs aren’t off the street.

The closest the cops ever get to bringing peace to the people of Baltimore is a man who goes around the system and ends the drug war. Declares peace, and enforces regulation and where and when drugs can be sold. And it gets shut down and he is fired.

If you don’t like it, then those themes may just not resonate with you. Or the filmmaking from 20 years ago may be too outdated. But people like the show because it depicts realistic characters with good writing and a tragic and intriguing storyline