Wow. I am really going to miss this show. To be honest, I had been turned on to The Wire two years ago by a friend of mine. Season 4 and the following of the youth of Baltimore, really had a grittiness that felt so real. This 94 min conclusion wraps up the series nicely, putting all the characters you know, hero & villain, to rest in one way or another.
If you haven't seen the show, now is the time, I would suggest getting caught up from S1. Though like many series that had initial sleep-like success you'll have to suffer through about four slow epi's before the show really starts to take off. However, those with the weak stomachs and clean ears should approach this series an epi at a time, The Wire is simply too straight a shooter for some.
-Spoiler-
If there is one complaint I have about S5 it's the segments of the show that featured the newspaper. This part of The Wire features a beat writer trying to make it big at, or out of, The Baltimore Sun. As the season hits it's stride, this writer slowly erodes into a plagiarist and a fraud, and he starts to manufacture news to stay the top dog, similar to Stephen Glass of the New Republican.
Unfortunately this character never gets exposed and as the series ends we see him receiving a Pulitzer for the work he created. While I realize that The Wire tries to emulate life as much as possible, this really bothered me. I guess it's the writers way of showing that how much murder, crime, and dirty politics erode at a cities heart, we all allow some form of "crime" in all industries, whether that be to succeed or merely stay afloat.
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