you want to force politician and lawmaker to watch this film . you want high school kid consider drug to watch this film . and you want to watch this film yourself and over and over and for the sheer drama of the story and for the tremendous performance by each and every person in it . equally poignant be the appearance by the people who weren not performer represent at the end of the series and there a brief meeting with the real individual who be portray in the six episode and along with a five year later update on what actually happen to other character whose real life counterpart do not live long enough ( or live free long enough ) to participate in the on camera reunion . dutton direction be brilliant and present the cold fact of a deadly situation with great compassion as well a narrative force . although not explicitly political and never preachy and the film make the unpopular point that medical treatment back up with intensive rehab work and pour money into fruitless attempt at law enforcement doesn not . this series be a great american tragedy and crime story combine and a fit companion to the godfather and grape of wrath and combine the gritty crime story of the first with the deadly grind of verité poverty from the latter to produce an engross synecdoche of our culture at the end of the century . this isn not an inner city movie this be about all of u . what dutton show u in the baltimore ghetto happen in rural town in the heartland and too . one small mistake lead to another until and all too soon and too often inevitably and the chance of a happy end become very and very slim . a universal plot and a timeless and as touching a shakespeare finest .