It simply may not be your cuppa. I have a friend who has approximately zero desire to see The Wire because she doesn't like true crime or shows that are so completely morally ambiguous (and The Wire is utterly without a a moral compass in many ways). That's a completely all right, by the way. The show is not to the taste of everyone.

However, the reason why the show is so wildly popular is because each season "reads" (or watches) as it it's a self-contained true crime novel. The entire show is produced and filmed in Baltimore by Baltimorians. Many of the second- and third-tier cast are either former cops or former drug dealers with a felony record for murder (and don't be so sure that those felons actually play felons...because they don't).

In addition, all of the situations shown in the series are based on real-life situations that the writers (which are either former reporters, former cops, or former teachers that have worked in Baltimore) have had to tangle with.

The essential reality behind the fiction is what people are responding to.