Highest Possible Recommendation

So I just finished the fifth and final season of The Wire and I feel compelled to write something.

It's late, I've had a long week, and I am fried, but this show has grabbed me the past two months, and this final season I spent the past few nights watching has actually messed up my sleep (I go to bed and lay there for hours because this show and its characters have hooked me unlike almost anything else I've ever encountered).

I've talked up the show a bit lately, but I'm going to do it again because it's worth it.

Season Three was brilliant. I would say (and have said) it's one of the best seasons of TV I've ever seen, and anyone who's read this blog or knows me knows I watch a shitload of TV, so I know what I'm talking about.

Season Four-- amazingly-- was even better. It not only told a typically wonderful story, but it also laid a very emotional tie to some of the characters.

Season Five took a gigantic chance that paid off. It may not have been as sexy as the previous two seasons, but it wound stories around lies that snowballed until they became avalanches. By the end of the penultimate episode, my jaw was on the floor, and I thought "There is no way this season can end in just a single episode."

But it did. Masterfully. But that wasn't good enough; the finale also ended the series perfectly.

I always have a qualm or three about a series finale. Either the finale has a plot or character that comes out of left field to tie things up with a bow, or the show decides to do its own thing and bites off more than it can chew, or it just decides it really could never deliver what the show or fans would be satisfied with, so it does whatever the Hell it wants.

Not The Wire. It ended its fifth season just as it did the previous four: with a real ending that fit the season. And then it pushed the characters into the next phases of their lives. Some ended up happier, some a little sadder, and one blew my mind as he took on a role I never could have expected and took on the mantle held by another who was killed.

Some finales satisfy me emotionally. Some satisfy me as a fan. Others satisfy me because they remain true to the show. The finale of The Wire satisfied me on all levels.

McNulty, Avon, Stringer, Ronnie, Bunk, Freamon, Prez, Mike, Dukie, Bodie, Marlo, Slim, Cheese, Cutty, Snoop, Chris, Randy, Naymond, WeeBey, D', Carcetti, Daniels, Narese, Bubbles, Herc, Carv, Beadie, Sydnor, Prop Joe, Deacon, Sharron, Johnny, Rawls, Burrell, Clay, Kima, Levy, Bunny, Poot, Bug, Templeton, Valchek, Gus, Omar...

Fuckin' Omar...

Forty-four names I pulled out of my head just now. I didn't need to check imdb.com for a cast list. They are right there; in my head-- in my heart. Some are good guys, some are bad guys, and most of them are a mix of both. Good people who make bad mistakes. Bad people who do the right thing once in a while. Forty-four characters I can just name without reference. And the thing is, there are at least a half-dozen whose faces I see in my head but whose names I can't remember (this show wasn't one for name-checking every character every episode). And because I watched the first two seasons last summer before I really "got" the show, there's probably two dozen more names I can't even remember from those episodes.

Listen, I've written it before, and I'm going to again-- and I probably will at some point even later than now as well-- this is television of the highest quality. This is the type of show that can change your entire perception of what television can be. The DVD sets are priced per standard HBO rates (too high), so borrow them from the library or a rich friend or watch them as they air on HBO OnDemand (you still might catch Season Two). Or put them in your NetFlix queue. Or save your pennies up like I'm going to and try to catch every sale you can until you own them all.

If you like television and look for the best possible shows, you owe it to yourself to watch this series.

Trust me. You will not be disappointed.