Let's go home
Let's assume you won't be reading a review of the final episode of a TV series if you fear SPOILERS.It is what it is, as McNulty said. The Wire is over. Ep 60 was a feature-length reward for all our hard work. It paid pretty much everything off, and how unlike The Wire that is. No Sopranos mystery endings here. No internet chatter required. It was what it was. It felt like two episodes stuck together (and how like the connoisseur's preferred method of watching The Wire that is), albeit the second didn't have an awful lot of drama in it. All the big stuff happened in the first half, the stuff that had been brewing all season: the spectral serial killer and Templeton Vs The Truth. The former - and the illegal wiretap that threatened to undo all the good work - blew up in everybody's face: the mayor's, the upper echelons of the BPD, McNulty and Freamon's, even - almost - the Teflon-plated Levy's. But it was too big to come out, so they buried it in the back channels, and those seekers after justice had to be content with Chris Partlow getting life, with no parole, for the vacants. (Wasn't it sweet when he met up with Wee-Bey in the exercise yard in the final montage?) What did we learn? That politics and ambition win in the end, and all else must fall into line. Even at the Sun, truth was sidelined by prestige and prizegiving. Bubs became a local hero and was allowed upstairs. Cheese got shot "for Joe". Michael, for as long as he could remember, always wanted to be a gangster. Marlo tasted legitimacy but didn't like it. Daniels became a lawyer, Pearlman became a judge, Carcetti became governor, Nerese became mayoress, Dukie became a junkie in a junkyard. Prez grew a beard. Valchek got his spurs. Rawls got a comedy hat. Herc got away with it. Levy got away with it. As far as we could tell, Clay Davis got away with it. Sydnor offered hope that the case was not yet closed. Freamon went back to his minature furniture. McNulty took Mr Bobbles home, having made his peace with Beadie. And yes, that was David Simon in the newsroom, enjoying his Hitchockian cameo. Best part: surely the fake wake at Kavanagh's bar! Jay's "elegiac words", another blast of the Pogues, and black and white united by green! It was a fitting send-off for 60 hours of "natural police". The world keeps turning: corners will change hands, the "connect" will be sold on, stats will be duked, files will be worked, bodies will pile up, backs will be scratched, hats will be exchanged, caps will be popped, chess will be played, wires will be tapped, warrants will be signed, Jameson's will be drunk, backs will be watched, gardens will be walked through, Baltimore will endure. See you back at Season One, Ep 1 ...
posted by Andrew Collins @ 12:08 AM
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I'm going to have to watch all of this, my curiosity has now been piqued to a peak (?) and it's all your fault.
I hope you feel bad.
sorry, now for someone that as seen it...
I don't think I need a TV anymore aside from Mad Men. What a fitting ending to a great show though. Wish I'd taken the day off to go Oxford St. It's all there though, Syndor as the next McNulty, Michael as the next Omar and Dukie as the next Bubbles.
Life goes on, The Wire does not.
Having evilly downloaded the final season when it was on in the US, I saw it all a while ago. Has been great reading your summaries though. I will indeed be watching it again, as I have done with The Sopranos, Twin Peaks, and, err, 24 (the McDonalds' of TV).
As for the episode itself, it was a fitting end. Didn't give everyone a happy ending, nor did it try a Sopranos-style screen-kicking finish. Favourite bit had to be Cheese's little speach being cut short. Thoroughly deserved.
The Wire has been awesome for four seasons and, like a team 3-0 with 10 minutes to go, it is perhaps acceptable for it not to be at its best at the end - and nor was it. Season 5 hasn't been the greatest, mainly due to the base of the serial killer thing.
Last night's was a fitting end which, I suppose, we all should have seen coming because it is what the show has always told us - those in power will do whatever to stay there, those below them will focus on supporting that and staying close to them, the guys who genuinely want to make a change either leave or stay plugging away in lowly jobs. Meanwhile on the street children are lost to drugs and crime with only death or prison ahead of them.
I liked the cyclic nature of it - how yet again nothing changes even if we get closure for our characters but I was surprised by how clumsy it was even at the end. Did I need Sydnor talking to the same Judge to tell me that his frustrations were turning him into McNulty of past? Or Michael holding a shotgun and talking like Omar to tell me he was going to be Omar (a rubbish conclusion to his thread from last week)? Or Marlo going onto a corner to pick a fight to tell me he wasn't cut out for the business life (although it did give a nice juxtaposition between his name and Omar's name as he interrupts the telling of Omar's death, told with plenty of colour by guys who don't know or care who Marlo is).
The answer is "no"; things that have previously been conveyed with intelligence and subtlety were just whacked down on the table.
That said (and before I am struck down by God for criticism of The Wire), it was very good and The Wire misfiring is still better than much else on television and the episode had everything that makes the show great:
- McNulty's fake wake, which was a nice farewell for us as well
- The pain of Dukie selling his only adult "out" in exchange for money to get high (the first time we KNOW he is using)
- The wonderful stutter-editing of the opening scene as the Mayor tries and make sense of it all
- McNulty putting down a murder in minutes with the good police work that he has always effortlessly pulled out when not drunk or angry.
- and so on
I don't agree with the unquestioning loyality that some show to this, because compared to the other seasons this was a "40 degree day"; however it is weird and sad* to think it is over and I lay awake for about 2 hours afterwards thinking back over the endless characters, plots and detail and wondered where on earth I am going to find something this good again..........
Like you say - see you back at Season 1, Episode 1 and I'll continue to push my boxsets on anyone who'll borrow them.
(* and to make things worse, I finished season 3 of Arrested Development on the weekend - now what will I kill myself laughing at?)
JESUS CHRIST! It's just a bloody tv show. Get lives people!
I wish people would spend as much time on 'real' life than some ficticious one and before you tell me it is based on real life, what on earth as some 'isshoos' in baltmiore got to do with anything at all in the UK?
At least the Mitfords were 'real'. Good god. ENOUGH ALREADY!
I have always personally hated the phrase, "Get a life." To use that old chestnut here seems to suggest that watching a television programme that you think is good is somehow not a life. Quite what level of superiority it takes to judge what "a life" constitutes, I don't know. And since we are currently going through economic turmoil in this country specifically because of American "ishoos", and since we've spent the last five years fighting two foreign wars because of Amerian "ishoos", it hardly seems a dereliction of duty to take an interest in the way Americans live their lives.
Perhaps in your case the best "life" to get would be one where you don't read about The Wire? It's really not worth getting wound up about. It's a brilliant TV drama. People who like it to feel compelled to a) share their feelings with others who like it, and b) evangelise about it to those who have not seen it. I love that about it. We're not exactly knocking on doors, Angry Person.
The finale runs better without half an hour of adverts, honest. I have to admit, when I first watched season five in isolation, I wasn’t totally impressed by it, but when I watched it again straight after the previous four it made perfect sense and works brilliantly. Just as the police aren’t officially following up on the murders and Marlo, so the newspaper is ignoring what is actually happening on the streets in favour of sensationalism.
The wake for McNulty was brilliant, with Bunk coming up with the old line that he is “dead” to them. And it had a nice tip of the hat to the late Robert Colesberry who played Detective Ray Cole as well as being Executive Producer of the first few seasons.
The ending showed that the game continues even if the players change. I don’t think it was a case of Sydnor simply being the new McNulty. More a combination of McNulty and Freamon. (And it was nice to see Shardene still with Freamon). Great that Marlo was offered exactly what Stringer Bell wanted and turned his back on it, Rawls got stuck out in the countryside in charge of the Staties, and Valchek becomes Commissioner because there’s no one else left.
Shame that there was no way to shoehorn in whether Valchek was still getting photos of the missing surveillance van that is probably still making its way around the world in the cans. But we did get to see that the Citywatch cameras on the streets are harder to bust than the tower camera Bodie smashed with a rock.
The real winner of the drama was Bubs. Back in season one, after his “white boy” is beaten senseless by the kids from the pit, it’s Bubs who puts Kima onto the Barksdale crew and identifies them with the red hat. After reaching rock bottom at the end of season four (which is what Walon said he would have to do as far back as season one), it was great that he finally got it together.
Oh, and the murder scene Kima is investigating is right outside the building where William Gant was shot back at the end of the very first episode. That was a nice touch.
And, if you didn’t know, Gary D'Addario, who played Gary DiPasquale, the Grand Jury Prosecutor with the gambling problem that Freamon outs is a former BPD Lieutenant who headed up the Homicide squad when David Simon spent a year with the department, gathering material for Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.
I have a life. Lucky for me The Wire is a part of it. And I’m glad about that.
Well I am personally devastated that it's all over, whether this means I have a life or not!
What makes it doubly painful is coming in to work knowing that there won't be the "water cooler moment" that the ending of The Wire thoroughly deserves. I still asked "Did anybody watch The Wire last night?", even though the answer has been "no" for the last 60 weeks.
I'm getting to the point where I may be forced to go out and buy all the DVDs so I can force them on people.
damn, good dog beat me to the D'Addario reference, which made it great for him to be the leak considering he was the inspiration for Dee in the aforementioned book, played QRT leader Lt Jasper in Homicide, had a role as a clerk when Fran was picking up DeAndre from jail in The Corner and served as Technical Advisor on both those shows. Not to mention the real Jay Landsman was Dennis Mello. Love how he gives nods and winks to the readers of his books.
machine levine
There was no Season five. Just episodes 51 to 60?
I shall give Generation Kill a go. I’m not expecting another epic like The Wire but David Simon is now my TV corner kid and I’m after another hit and I need it fast.
Top episode.
Everything neatly wrapped up.
I thought Norman was great in the mayors meeting at the beginning, laughing and wishing he was back at the newspaper.
I had a feeling Cheese would get it and what a moment when it happeded.
As for Scott and Gus, I kind of thought the paper would back Gus. However I made a slight error, I think I heard that Gus was only the Copy Editor. Tuff break as the Editor guy wanted to share the glory of the Pulitzer prize with Scott.
I thought it a bit sad and sudden for Dookie to find himself on the streets last week and suddenly be taking drugs. Who knows he may have been on them before Prez straightened him out Prez looked a lot older with his teacher beard, I prefered season 4 Prez.
I am gonna try and have a rest before I start watching Season 1 with my brother and getting him hooked on The Wire.
I must admit I was disappointed by the last episode precisely because everything was neatly wrapped up.
I felt they could have bailed out after an hour, with a few loose ends dangling, and left a bit of mystery there.
As it was the last half hour just felt tagged on.
I liked the wrapped up ending.
It just showed the circle of life.
Looks like I'll be putting the DVDs on my Christmas wish list
Richard Harris
I thought I had lost it, but thanks to youtube I found it again:
the US trailer for season 4 which I thought was about the best trailer I had ever seen at that point:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XnaIejRDWIo
Then the Season 5 US trailer came along and yes:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-jZJSEdn53Q&feature=related
machine levine
How is it possible that I disagree with The Moo but don't care, and genuinely love the fact he has a totally contrasting opinion to mine?
The only element of the finale I disliked was the fake wake... but I loved Michael becoming a drug-pirate, filling that role. All the focus shifting but, as someone pointed out, the game remains the same.
I've loved every moment of these five brilliant seasons, as has everyone here. They've enriched the lives that we definitely have. We do have lives, right?
One pithy point, I think David Simon made a cameo in Season 3 or 4, as a photographer. Very easy to miss.
And, before I forget, did anyone notice Rawls in the background of the gay bar when Brother Whatsisface (bow tie man) sent his heavy in looking for Omar. Heavy character development in one split-second shot.
Generation Kill is downloading as we speak... I promise to buy it when it comes out on DVD, to put alongside my five seasons of Baltimore box sets.
A feel a Wire dissertation coming on over at WWM...
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