I don't know if there are any other fans of the magnificant show, but the last episode of the series was tonight and finished a half hour ago. For those of you that haven't seen the show or haven't gotten into it, I suggest purchasing the first season and giving it a shot, nothing portrays inner city problems better. For the fellow fans, WOW! Everything was wrapped up, no strings left undone. I was really glad to see that Michael is the new Omar, but sad to see that Duquan is the new Bubbles. Plus, Carcetti (Martin O'Malley?) is a real asshole. The young guy under Lester, seems to be the new McNulty, going to the judge like that.
Best show on TV ever in my mind. I've seen every episode, I started late, and I remember going on 8 hour straight benders of episodes. In my mind, 3 and 4 were the best seasons, 5 and 1 the second tier of seasons, the second season obviously the weakest one. But I liked the finale, a lot was resolved, expect I was confused on what would happen to Marlo... I still can't get over the fact that they killed Bode at the end of season 4! But in my mind, The Wire was stronger throughout than the Sopranos, and it's a mystery how they don't have a single Emmy...
SPOILER ALERT: I was waiting for someone to take out Marlo in the finale. He had no muscle, yet he lived. Partlow was in prison and Snoop was dead. I couldn't believe it ended with him on one of his corners...alive. I expected Michael to get revenge. At least Slim Charles killed Cheese AKA Method Man. The Wire is one of the greatest shows ever made.
Going into last night, I didn't think it possible that I would be satisfied with how they would end the show. I thought to myself, there were too many subplots, too many great characters for the writers to leave us off not feeling at least a little cheated. How wrong I was, I think that may have been the best series finale I have ever seen, of any show. It ended exactly as it should have, somber and realistically. I'm just amazed at this shows brilliance, if this show doesn't receive an Emmy for best drama... just wow. Two of best moments of last nights episode, if not the entire series was McNulty confronting that douchebag reporter, the look on his horrified face was priceless, and of course the Irish Wake, which I took to mean the cast getting together to celebrate one of the greatest shows in the history of television. Also can't forget to mention some of the more brilliant twists, Michael the next generation Omar, Dukie the next generation Bubbles, Marlo not done with the streets which will inevitably catch up to him. Cheese getting his head blown off, to which I just couldn't help but laugh to myself at how long overdue it was. Oh and, how did Herc go from being one of the most beloved characters to be such a double crossing douche? Just Beautiful.
What he said. My all-time favorite show. My favorite scene last night: McNulty and Daniels in the elevator, shot from the security camera.
I'm just wondering when Herc was ever anything other then a meathead douche. Kima was the one for me this season that went from being a likeable character to a piece of shit with her going to Daniels. I just didn't buy that she'd send her friends to jail over some wasted manpower on a bullshit case. It was amazing to watch a finale for a long running series and have it reward the people that have been watching from the beginning with neat little tie ins, rather then say "fuck you" to the fans(Hello, David Chase). The "give a fuck when it's not your turn" scene with Bunk and Kima was great and it taking place in the same spot where the maintenance man got killed in episode 1 was pretty cool too. The ending montage with the season 1 intro music was another nice touch, and "Commissioner Valchek" has to be one of the best lines among many from The Wire. I guess Season 5 of The Wire is what happens when you've got a story to tell, and actually have the opportunity to see it through , without either bullshit filler due to popularity or being cut short for one reason or another. I wouldn't hesitate to call The Wire the greatest TV show ever, either. If you look at the first 3 seasons of Deadwood against the first 3 seasons of The Wire I think it's comparable but with these last 2 seasons of The Wire they've just blown the doors off.
I'm a big fan of The Wire. In fact I semi-quote it every time Pigeon speaks. From season 4 when one of the troubled inner-city school kids calls his teacher a "Cheese Face Bitch". It will always be in my heart. I've seen half of this season, so I'm hoping to catch up "On Demand" style next time I visit my parents.
Cheese Face Bitch! It's towards the end of the clip. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enBZtZ-ypE4[/YOUTUBE]
I don't know, I think Kima's decision was meant to provide evidence of her maturation (also shown by her newfound interest in developing a relationship with "her" kid - also a great scene by the way - "goodnight hoppers, goodnight popos" etc.) - and I think they tried to set this up by showing her consulting with Carver over his choice to sell his man down the river in that traffic dispute. She was definitely torn, aware of the likely consequences to her friends but unwilling to compromise her ethics. Its also interesting to compare her decision against Bunk, who made the opposite choice. It also served as a plot device - someone needed to blow the whistle on the scheme to bring the story to its conclusion. Bottom line - if McNulty and Freamon can forgive her, shouldn't we?
The only time Kima has shown the kind of ethics that would make it unbearable for her to live with what McNulty and Freamon were doing was when she would've had to perjure herself. She's looked the other way on alot of foul shit in the past including encouraging McNulty to backdoor Daniels in Season 3. As far as plot device I was expecting they would've had one of the shitheel cops rat on McNulty because he wasn't giving him enough OT or allowing him to take a paid vacation. I had a completely different take on the Carver situation. He said to her something like I had no choice, he was around the bend. While McNulty by the time she rats on him not only knows that he fucked up and is remorseful but is actively trying to shut the thing down. Not to mention that she only knows because McNulty thought enough of her to keep her from wasting her time on the bullshit. It would take a certain type of character to be able to pull off stabbing your friends in the back because your conscience couldn't live with the lie, and Kima sure isn't that type of character. As far as Freamon and McNulty forgiving her, that's only because of the "happy ending". Lester had his 30 and McNulty needed to get out of the police department anyway. I imagine that conversation would've been a bit different if they had ended up indicted however.
What?!? C'mon man, Herc and Carver, the dynamic duo. He's always been amongst the best characters on the show, at least for me he has. Yeah he's always been a meathead douche, but that was part of his charm, him and Carver always butting heads with Bodie, Poot and the rest of the corner boys. How many memorable lines has he had over the years? More than I can count. This year he completely turned into a double crossing rat bastard though. Yeah he sold Colvin out a few years back, but you could somewhat sympathize with him, he was a foot solider, he couldn't see the bigger picture. But going to work for Levy, and actively trying to get known murderers off the hook by selling out his supposed friends? Inexcusable. By the way, I was never a big Kima fan, but I do agree with you that ratting out McNulty and Freemon was a huge reach for her character.
Best show on tv by far. It shows how life in these kinds of cities really works. The backroom politics, development deals, COMPSTAT juking, media bias, and many other issues. If you look at any front page of the star ledger you'd see that these problems affect urban zones all over. Look at Sharpe James in Newark. My family has members in the FD and they've said these things about James for years. He's a crook, dealings, political clout etc. Does anyone here see the similarities between him and Clay Davis? By far the most accurate and compelling view of the problems that plague many of our cities. It brings to light the lunacy and errors of many policies and how we've let our cities fail and slip away from the people. It shows how institutions crush the human spirit and take away discretion in daily dealings from talented people. Teachers, Police, Political Reformers, Newspeople, they all have talented people who CAN take care of the problems if the institutions would just let them do their jobs. However, they are all powerful entities and cannot be beaten as we've seen THE WIRE illustrate through its five seasons.
I dunno, I never really liked him. He had his moments I guess but the only time we ever saw him act like a decent human being was back in Season 1 with Bodie's grandmother. He was pretty funny when he got to go undercover in Season 2. Besides the newspaper thing with Colvin we saw him fuck over Bubbles and ruin Randy's life last season so I guess it didn't really come as much of a suprise to me. I think I actually liked him more this season then any of the others. The "stone stupid" scene with Prop Joe was great and watching Levy play his dumb ass this season was pretty funny too. I don't know what Herc was doing telling Levy that he suspected a wire tap, since he was the one that gave the police the number in the first place.
Late to the party, as always. Never saw an episode before this past August but netflixed the whole series and just finished the last episode of Season 5. It was the BEST SHOW EVER! Ever, ever, ever. And Omar might be the most original tv character ever created. There really is nothing else that can compare with it. There are so many shows I've loved over "recent" years - The Shield, Deadwood, Lost, The Sorpranos, Six Feet Under, Nip/Tuck - but this knocked them all into a 2nd tier. (Well, maybe not Deadwood - that's still top shelf). All the hype I listened to over the years was still an understatement compared to the experience of watching it all unfold. Brilliant is an overused criticism, but not for this show.
Best to worst seasons. Let's have at it. My order from best to worst is 4 (the school season) 2 (the docks) 1 (first season - Barksdale case) 5 (the newspaper) 3 (Carcetti runs for mayor, intro of the boxing coach, Stringer Bell dies) Discuss.
