The Wire - Season 5

[Danny Hogan]

i had our club championships this weekend, played a lax game ate drank and had a 4.5 hour car ride. fell asleep for the middle 45 min.

thought it was cool how everything came full cirlce...younger characters replacing older character's niches.

will comment more when i get off work tonight....

[laxfan25]

I thought it was interesting that the cynicism and hypocrisy of real life came through loud and clear - in the police dept., the mayor's office and at the Sun. Everybody got their payoff for keeping quiet, except a few that tried to do the right thing got the typical reward - losing their job.

Right on cue, the real-life modern day Elliot Ness - Elliot Spitzer - gets taken off his pedestal in an oh-so-typical sex scandal. It's such an everyday occurrence you wonder if he'll actually have to resign.

After tuning in for this final season - I'll miss The Wire.

[WyoPoke]

I've got mixed emotions about the finale. It definitely was better than the Sopranos finale, but I was a little disappointed. But to be honest, I'm not sure much of anything would have pleased me.

It was very interesting seeing things come full circle and younger characters replacing older ones:
1.) Michael becoming the new Omar.
2.) Sidnor becoming the new McNulty.
3.) Dukie becoming the new Bubbles.

I also thought it was interesting seeing Chris and Wee-Bay chatting each other up in the yard, Bubbles having dinner with his sister, Prez's father-in-law being named police commissioner, that Marlo seems to be have been too smart to let Levy bleed money out of him on a development project like Clay Davis did to Stringer Bell and that Templeton was kept on at The Sun and ended up winning that Pulitzer.

There's probably a lot more, but those are the things that really stuck out to me from that final montage.

[Zeuslax]

I'm just happy they finally busted that little punk kid. The one that shot Omar. The full circle stuff was interesting, but this season just didn't have the same "pop" that others had. Dookie was disappointing to say the least. Michael as Omar was something I didn't see coming. The dichotomy showing nothing ever changes is something that's tough to swallow. Especially when they’re showing your neighborhood and town in the montage.

[Danny Hogan]

also the scene where Kima and Bunk have the "you're giving a #$& when it aint your turn to give a *#*#" about picking up the phone when it wasn't her turn conversation.

The victim is laid out in almost the exact spot on the concrete that the state's witness was in the 2nd episode of the first season. Right by those two awful statues...

Bunk used to always say the same thing to McNulty back then...

[Ravaging Beast]

No one has mentioned Cheese getting killed. A hated that guy. One of the few people I was happy to see go. It's seems like the writers kill the good guys and send the bad guys to prison.

[Zeuslax]

No one has mentioned Cheese getting killed.

Good call, that was a good one too. I always liked tall man.

[Danny Hogan]

i dislike cheese so much that i don't even like method man anymore.

[WyoPoke]

One of the things I really liked about this season was that I wasn't left wondering what happened to certain characters.

Namond seems to be doing pretty well with Bunny Colvin and Randy is as bitter as you'd expect him to be after being branded a snitch and having the police fail to deliver the protection they promised.

I didn't pick up on it until Sunday evening, but Cheese and Randy share the Wagstaff last name. Did I miss a mention of them being related in any way?

[Ravaging Beast]

Does anyone remember the hitmen were looking for Omar in the gay bar. The camera scanned the bar and Rawls was there. I don't know why that didn't get any more play than it did. They need to do another season.

[Danny Hogan]

Does anyone remember the hitmen were looking for Omar in the gay bar. The camera scanned the bar and Rawls was there. I don't know why that didn't get any more play than it did. They need to do another season.

i thought that was what Dierendorsten or whatever Carcetti's evil left hand man was gonna bring up when he asked to see Rawls in the hall when they were discussing how to handle the fallout of the homeless thing.

[WyoPoke]

Does anyone remember the hitmen were looking for Omar in the gay bar. The camera scanned the bar and Rawls was there. I don't know why that didn't get any more play than it did. They need to do another season.

I noticed him in there, but had completely forgotten about that until you mentioned it. I too am surprised it didn't come up again.

[StrykerFSU]

This morning I was thinking about the moment when I discovered that The Wire was not just another entertaining cops and gangsters show. The Sports Guy points to the scene when Kima gets shot in Season 1 as his turning point but mine was less overt.

I got to thinking about the scene when Wallace wakes up on his dirty mattress in a decrepit row house that relies on electricity pirated from a neighboring house via an extension cord. He rises all bleary eyed like a normal teenager and goes about brushing his teeth. Then he starts waking up his housemates. There must have been 4 or 5 (I can't quite remember) little kids living in that hovel with him. He gets them all up and makes sure they are ready for school. They all grab their bookbags and get set to head out the door in the clothes that they slept in the night before. Wallace won't let them leave without giving them each something to eat. I remember juice boxes, potato chips, and the like. Then he sends them off to school. Wallace then heads down to the low rises for another day of slinging with Bodie, Poot, and D'Angelo.

This scene struck me because for the first time on television that I can remember a drug dealer was shown in a different light. This was no gun toting banger, this was a kid trying to get by in a world without hope or the possibility for escape all while trying to look after a group of younger children without any parental figures what so ever. Of course in true Wire fashion, Wallace gets killed by Bodie and Poot for snitching.

Best show on television...ever.

[Zeuslax]

We just had this conversation at lunch, but I'm the only one at work that watches the show. Of course it's always the same comments about Baltimore and the high crime and all that jazz. There’s this utter blindness to the amount of black-on-black crime that is almost always directly related to drugs. I rounded everyone up to show them a Balto Sun Google map where they track crime with push-pins. Had to prove some points about safety and inner city living....even in America's most dangerous cities. Note: Pittsburgh is a much different animal than most cities. It has tons of big and very nice neighborhoods. There’s very low crime here.

I initially watched the show because it was about my home town and I grew up in the city. After 2 episodes I was hooked. There's always an added touch when they show places your very familiar with. This last season didn't hit the mark, but even those just tuning in think the show is amazing. The ones that have been watching think its well below par. The bar was set soooooooo high going into this season. I think all of the pieces were there; they just tried to do too much and tie too many plot lines together.

Hands down, best show ever! Omar is the best character in TV history. Hopefully there's a hiatus and they do another season a few years from now.

[FlockOfSeagulls]

[quote="WyoPoke"]

Namond seems to be doing pretty well with Bunny Colvin and Randy is as bitter as you'd expect him to be after being branded a snitch and having the police fail to deliver the protection they promised.

[quote]

Where was Randy?? I never saw him at all (I don't think)...

And am I the only one that thought Marlo was a better character than Omar all along? The 'my name is my name' speech might have been my favorite tv scene ever.