Baltimore: The Wire locations, part one

As The A.V. Club discovered, there's an upside to having much of your perception of Baltimore come from The Wire: The city is a lot nicer than you'd expect. Yes, we understood on a realistic level that Baltimore wasn't just blocks upon blocks of Hamsterdam, but we were a little surprised by how charming Fells Point was when we arrived to meet Wire location scout Eric Bannat. Of course, right in the middle of Fells Point is the run-down building that was the headquarters for Homicide: Life On The Street. (Apparently it's being turned into a hotel.) It has a giant plaque out front to commemorate the show.

For the first of our two-part Pop Pilgrims on The Wire—you didn't think we could cram it all into one episode, did you?—Bannat took us to a bunch of spots that fans of the show should instantly recognize. From the basketball courts to the dog-fighting warehouse, from Marlo's corner to the cops' favorite hangout, everything is right there for any pop pilgrim to check out. (Many of the big interiors, of course, were sets, but you'll still feel like Bodie's sidekick walking around this neighborhood.)

On Wednesday, another whole bunch of locations you can visit in Bodymore, including the spot where—spoiler alert!—Omar got dropped.