I still haven't stopped thinking about Sunday's finale of The Wire. It wasn't a fade-to-black talker of an ending, Tony Soprano-style, but I did think it was a fitting conclusion to five years of examining the rise and fall of the police, union workers, drug lords, government officials, school teachers, and newspaper reporters of Baltimore. Specifically, I've been playing the show's final Read more

After five relentlessly gritty seasons of exposing the highs and lows of Baltimore and exploring creator David Simon's thesis that people today matter less than ever, HBO's great series The Wire comes to a close tonight. I tore through all the previous seasons on DVD this Fall so I could be here tonight, watching the finale live alongside the show's other fans. But, as I wrote when I asked about Read more

It's hard for me to believe there are just three episodes left before The Wire goes off the air for good. But is the show's March finale really it forever? In a recent interview with the LA Times, Dominic West (Jimmy McNulty) said he and some of the show's other main actors are trying to persuade creator David Simon to continue exploring Baltimore through a Wire movie. He said: There’s just Read more

Here's how much critics love The Wire: The show's Wikipedia page has has a running list of major publications, including Time and Entertainment Weekly, that have called it the best show on television. Yet the show, which kicks off its fifth and final season of exploring the darkest side of Baltimore on Sunday, has been mostly ignored by both awards shows and viewers. As a relatively recent Read more

In preparation for ending The Wire this winter, HBO is telling us more about how the show began. A series of prequels showing the characters earlier in life have hit the Internet, and they'll also be available On Demand starting Dec. 15. Like the Big Love back stories from earlier this year, these prequels don't reveal anything about specific plot lines. Instead, they're just little glimpses Read more