I've gone and changed my avatar in honor of a momentous event.

On Sunday HBO will be airing the final episode of The Wire.

The show a social drama set in inner-city Baltimore is a critical coup and in my opinion the best thing on television.

...and I'm not alone.


The Wire
I'll be lined up in front of my TV like an immovable object cause this show is an irresistible force and I've always wondered what happens

So...

Have we any other Wire fans among us?

What do you think of the fact that the show's ending?

What's your impression of the shows message(s)?

Who's your favorite character?

I share your high regard for the series. I do think the final season is weaker than earlier ones. What I liked about it was its realistic and complex representation of big city police, street life, the drug trade, politicians, and newspapers. I find the police scheme to generate a serial killer scare to get funding for continuation of their efforts to get Marlo to be a little far fetched and not in keeping with their earlier theme of stark realism.

Have we any other Wire fans among us?

Oh yes! Unlike The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Shield and Dexter, The Wire hasn't been picked up by an terrestrial channels over here.

So when I got cable about six years ago, I was already behind the curve. And when The Wire was picked up, it was on a minority channel called FX, which is basically a Fox-owned mish-mash of US-only drama and comedy where The Wire was tucked away late in the schedules and not given much profile.

I only really heard of it when the British TV critic Charlie Brooker started enthusing about the show in his columns. When I next saw it in the schedules, it was for the launch of season 4. I watched it and was very impressed, but like any such long-running drama, it didn't go out of it's way to explain who anybody was or why they were in the situations they were in.

Happily, last autumn, after Season 4 finished, FX started re-running the whole of The Wire right from the beginning of season 1, with some hype from Mr Brooker, and I watched and quickly got hoooked.

So much so that I couldn't wait a whole week to watch the next one, so I used some of the gift tokens I got for my 40th birthday last year and invested in DVD box sets of the first 3 seasons and began watching them, two or three episodes at a time. (Season 4 is out on Monday, so you can guess what I'll be doing for the next month or so.)

FX is still running them and are just coming up to halfway through season 3. I think their idea is that they'll run right up to a late summer or autumn start for the final season 5 (is that right) which will end just before Christmas.

I suppose I could do a bit-torrent thing and download the US versions, but I like the show too much to want to steal from the creators.

There seems to be an attitude, though, that most British viewers would be alienated by the Baltimore street patois. Perhaps code for "alienated by seeing so many unstereotypical black characters with depth beyond simple cops & robbers? I know people who thought that about Grand Theft Auto San Andreas; they just couldn't tune their ear to the accents or identify with the (black) lead character. Nobody has said out loud that this might be because of racism.

Whatever the reason - the people who are not watching The Wire (or playing GTA San Andreas, for that matter) are the ones missing out.

What do you think of the fact that the show's ending?

All good things come to an end. I think the edge it has over The Sopranos - which is marginal, as I love that show too, although it's clearly a different style of television show - is that they are planning on ending it at the right time, rather than coming back for more once it becomes clear there's more money to be made from it.

That said, if (like David Chase & co almost managed), if the writing, shooting and acting stays up to the same standard, they can carry on coming back for one last season and/or a movie spin-off indefinitely as far as I'm concerned.

What's your impression of the shows message(s)?

There are so many of them! I suppose the core message is that life - at least in politics, law enforcement, education, and crime - is not a straightforward matter of black and white (racially or morally), but is driven all the way along by the consequences of small actions by individuals every bit as much as it is by big-picture ambitions, policies, and objectives. If we ever do achieve what we set out to achieve, it has as much to do with luck as good judgement, and the path is never one of unalloyed and unopposed success.

We can try to take the credit, but we know in our heart-of-hearts that even with all the effort, we got lucky. And everyone else knows it too, but doesn't say anything because someday they hope to take some credit for some of their lucky breaks too.

Who's your favorite character?

They're all great.

I like Jimmy McNulty and Stringer Bell, but that may be coloured by Dominic West and Idris Elba being Brit boys done good. The episode where Jimmy goes undercover with a ropey British accent was extra hilarious for us over here; it was a Brit playing an American pretending rather badly to be British, and was some kind of revenge for Dick van Dyck in Mary Poppins and Don Cheadle in Ocean's Interminables.

I like Kima Greggs, because I like ballsy women like that (though I prefer straight ones), though this is filtered through the way Sonja Sohn looks from behind in those tight jeans she usually wears.

I like Bubbles because he never gives up trying (despite never giving up drugs either) - Andre Royo plays him with such heart you ca't help but root for him.

I like Omar Little, because he's got something about him - the outsider playing both sides against the middle - that reminds me of spaghetti westerns and ponchos, and also because he (the character and, in Michael K Williams, the actor) shows every sign of having fun on some level in a way no other character - except Jimmy McNulty - comes close to doing.

I could go on about every single character in every season - there isn't a weak link in the show - but before I stop I have to mention Lester Freamon, who despite (very occasionally) straying dangerous close to being a plot device to move the story forward, is given such intelligence, wit and humanity by Clarke Peters that even when he's describing some arcane cellular phone scam, you can't take your eyes off him.

(This might also be some Brit bias - Clarke Peters spent most of his pre-Wire acting career in British TV shows, so he's about the most familiar face to newcomer British eyes, even more than Idris Elba or Dominic West.)

Have we any other Wire fans among us?

I'm not a fan, per se, but I have seen several episodes of the show in a Race/Media Studies class that I took last year.

What do you think of the fact that the show's ending?
Well, like any other show, it probably ran out of steam.


What's your impression of the shows message(s)?
Hmmmmm Subversion of racial stereotypes.

Who's your favorite character?

The bi-racial lesbian.

I really hate the fact that the show's ending. It is head and shoulders above The Sopranos in terms of quality and yet it's a little too real to catch an audience to match.

It's such an show too

Anyway I think the show is much more than just overcoming stereotypes though that's certainly new to TV.

It's a picture of how the world works, it reminds us of how we are all interconnected and that city hall and the housing projects aren't very far away in spirit or in concrete.

Omar is the truth!

I'm gonna miss hearing fa sho' and the Farmer in the Dell and knowing life was about to get just a little more magical.

Freamon of course is far too cool to be real.

Michael, Bunk, Bodie, and Prop Joe are on my good list too.

I hated Stringer. He came off as a real snake to me.

I'm not so sure. You have to remember that Tony, Carmela et al opened the way for long-haul, nuanced dramas (for want of a better description) that allowed all the other shows to happen. I think that without The Sopranos, there would be no Wire.



You were supposed to hate him; that's the way the character was written and played. That's one of the reasons I like Stringer so much - in a show where every other character is given depth and meaning, Stringer's depth was that he was snake all the way down. He was a gangster who'd done a couple of business courses, thought he was legit, but couldn't stay away from his gang-banger urges. And he didn't have anything much in the way of justification for that view or any other redeeming features - he wasn't likeable or true to himself in the way that Avon was or Omar is. And, especially over a long few seasons, that's a really hard acting job - even playng bad guys, it's easier if you can latch onto something about the character that you like.

That's just as much a real world person as a cop who drinks too much and can't be bothered to focus on anything off the job, including relationships and friendships (Jimmy & Kima?).

Okay, maybe it's my amateur acting showing, and maybe I admire the construct more than I really engaged with the character of Stringer Bell, but it's still been built with all the precision and skill of a Swiss watch - more than you can say about pretty much any equally supporitng character in any other show.

Which brings me on to what's really unique about The Wire.

It's about the only true ensemble playing on television or anywhere else for that matter. There are no lead characters; it's almost like a soap in that regard (though a bazillion times better, since it also has a plot and an arc, and when did soaps ever bother with such fripperies?). If we were talking about any other tv show, the list of MAJOR characters from which to draw a favourite would run to maybe ten, tops.

Sopranos? I count 9 or 10 that were in all seasons as major characters. The Shield? 8 or so. The West Wing had a core of six or seven. And so on.

But The Wire? There are at least that many just among the police, but then you've got the council, the street gangs, the non-gang street people, the kids and their teachers, and so on. A minimum of 20 or 30 characters that are central to plot and story, and that's before you count the major characters that come in and out of any long-running show.

I think that's key to it's appeal, and is also probably why it's not seen as being very accessible.

Oh don't get me wrong I've seen every episode of The Sopranos and loved it. It was definitely a groundbreaking show, but I stand by what I said.

The Wire was just plain better written and more interesting, entertaining, and relevant.

The Shield is a pretty cute crime drama that's not even in the same league as The Wire and I've seen most of it too.

Have we any other Wire fans among us?

For sure...

What do you think of the fact that the show's ending?
After this season I see the necessity. The season is only ten episodes long, and even then they ae not crammed with meaningful plots but what seems to be a lot of filler.


What's your impression of the shows message(s)?
Moral relevency. There are good and honorable drug dealers and murderers. There are crooked and decadent law enforcement officials. And truth be told that is what makes it so real for me.. though this last season is stretching reality for me

Who's your favorite character?

They keep dying.... Mike is my favorite now. Loved Omar, Stringer, the Police Major that legalized drugs in a contained area.

I think ratings have far more to do with the show's ending than running out of good ideas.

The Wire has gotten better nearly every season, unlike The Sopranos which rose and fell in quality. The high water mark was fifth season in my view.

Every show is entitled to a step backwards. The fifth season is weaker likely because Simon et al. didn't expect it to end so soon. In fact they had ideas fro expanding the shows focus to show more of the demographic changes in Baltimore.

The show had lots of life in it I suspect and lots to teach but I suppose there's no accounting for taste in the audience numbers.

I don't have HBO and haven't had it since Oz disappeared from the airwaves. I've heard a lot about The Wire, but there's been so much gushing over it by critics that I'm almost certain the expectations have been raised unrealistically high. Maybe I'll have to rent the first few seasons on DVD and check 'em out.

However, I take umbrage at the description of The Shield as a "pretty cute crime drama." Cute? CUTE???

The Shield is only the best *&%#@!# show on television of the last seven years and has never "jumped the shark." If it wasn't for The Shield, I'd only need a television for the news and pro football.

Dr. Grady: What's in the bag?
[From a brown paper bag, Mackey pulls a bottle of booze, a phone book, keys, a lighter and box cutter. He then lays them on the table in front of Grady.]
Dr. Grady: What's that stuff for?
Vic: It's what I'm gonna use to get you to tell me where Jenny Reeborg is.
Dr. Grady: Your turn to play bad cop?
Vic: Nah, good cop and bad cop left for the day, I'm a different kinda cop.

I thought season five was a little weak.

In any case The Wire is by far the superior show. It beats The Shield up and takes its lunch money.

Though I'll admit planting a gun on the dog at the season four opener was the funniest thing I'd seen in a while.

You should check out The Wire. If you like Mackey and the Gnag (and I do too) as well as understand complex sociological themes then it's a natural fit.

After seeing The Wire you'll see why The Shield is cute....

...quaint even.