as excuses for rotten behavior. (Janice to Svetlana, the housekeeper: "I never should have taken your prosthesis, but it brought me back to the Lord.") Not a week goes by that I don't quote Tony Soprano's post-shooting quip from season six: "They say every day's a gift, but why does it have to be a pair of socks?" Or Livia's hateful but sometimes illuminating kiss-off: "Poor you ." These people are memorable and quotable. They're just words on a page and actors saying lines, but in our minds, they exist . But I have to award this category to The Wire for the sheer breadth of its achievements. Near the end of its run, as it struggled and succeeded at recalling and polishing characters and subplots dating back five seasons, sometimes hauling out people you'd nearly forgotten about and giving them one last lovely grace note, the magnitude of its achievement became undeniable. At its most magisterial, the show felt like the dramatic version of a journalism-school test in which students close their eyes, open up a phone book to a random page, call whatever person their finger randomly landed on, and try to tell their life story in 500 words or less. Simon's crew did this over and over and over for five seasons, with black and white characters, rich and poor people, civilians and cops and criminals, teachers and politicians, state senators and grieving mothers: hell, everybody. Verdict : The Wire Criterion No. 4: Formal daring The Sopranos