First Impressions of "The Wire"

A couple of my friends really like this show, so I thought I would give it a whirl. It's HBO, so it ought to be good. I LOVE "The Sopranos" and "Sex in the City," so it seemed a safe bet. Now, I've watched the first three episodes.
My verdict: yeah, it's good, but it doesn't hold a candle to "The Sopranos." Sorry guys. The English major has spoken.
The very first episode of "The Sopranos" had me totally psyched. I wanted to write an essay about it. There was so much going on, the characters were so complex, there was just so much symbolism, so much psychology, I thought I would explode. I talked to my friends about it. I talked to my New Jersey-native English professor about it. The soundtrack was always so good. The juxtaposition of old world versus pop culture, Mafia family versus wife and kids was fascinating. I was hooked.
"The Wire" keeps me entertained. It lives up to its gritty description. But I don't feel instantly invested in the characters the way I did with "The Sopranos." Maybe they will develop more as the show goes on. But with Tony, Carmella, etc, it was instantaneous.
But maybe it's me. I've always had a Mafia fascination. While yes, "The Wire" deals with organized crime, it's of a different, very non-glamorous sort. Rather, it's the sort that I went to middle and high school with. The poor kind of organized crime. Poverty isn't glamorous: my sixth grade locker partner got pregnant and dropped out of middle school by eighth grade. No glamor there. Just poverty and desperation. So maybe I prefer watching criminals who live in expensive, gaudy homes rather than the projects.
But "The Wire" has some nice touches: at the beginning of the third episode, D'Angelo teaches his cronies how to play chess, using street comparisons. No medieval kings and queens here. These pieces are now streetwise muthafuckas. D'Angelo appears to be the most complex character so far: he's a criminal, but there's something in his face that looks so innocent, like he wants to be good, that makes me interested.
But there are a couple of things that just don't make sense to me. First of all, the typewriter. Yes, I understand that the point is that the Baltimore police lack funds, but come on, a manual typewriter? I went to public school my whole life, and always used computers. You would think that they could at least spring for an electric typewriter.
Second, in the third episode, McNulty beds down the attorney. Nope. I don't think that would happen. McNulty is WAY better looking than her. In my experience, people usually end up with people of an equivalent level of attractiveness (unless something weird or scammy is going on). Nines do eight-to-tens, twos do other twos, etc. McNulty, in my opinion, is approximately a seven, but the attorney is a two or three at best. No way. But I guess people do get desperate sometimes.
So I will keep watching, I have to find out what happens, don't I? Maybe it will flesh out more, and I will care more about what happens to the characters.
Oh, and a request: don't talk about the end of "The Sopranos." I haven't finished watching the final season yet.