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shannon_aThe wife and I finished watching the fifth and final season of The Wire today. I must say, that was some damned fine television of the sort that really makes you rethink your view of the world.
The show, if you haven't seen it, primarily address the drug trade in Baltimore, Maryland, but it does it by showing all sides of the issue. So we have the police, but also the dealers, and in the later seasons some of the younger kids who are inevitably drawn into the trade. Some of the most heart-wrenching scenes are in the last two seasons where you really realize that a lot of these people have no other option and that they're only going to get out of it by an Act of God.
The show is also beautifully presented with a decompressed plotline that nonetheless remains intriguing and with a highly diverse cast that even changes from season to season as different characters take main stage.
When the last words were spoken in the last episode, when one of the characters said, "Let's go home," I had a feeling of inexplicable but real sadness. It wasn't that I was going to miss these characters whose lives that we saw presented over several years (though I will), and it wasn't that I was going to miss David Simon's wonderful writing (though I have hope he'll continue to write other things). It was that I was never again going to see his very realistic vision of Baltimore again.
Despite its gangs and its drugs, despite its corruption and its rough edges, I'm going to miss the Baltimore which I met in The Wire (and to a lesser extent in Homicide: Life on the Streets, though that show was more about the characters and less about the city). Sadly, I won't ever get to go home to it again.
If you haven't seen The Wire, go rent the first DVD right now; it's TV that you must watch before you die.
The show, if you haven't seen it, primarily address the drug trade in Baltimore, Maryland, but it does it by showing all sides of the issue. So we have the police, but also the dealers, and in the later seasons some of the younger kids who are inevitably drawn into the trade. Some of the most heart-wrenching scenes are in the last two seasons where you really realize that a lot of these people have no other option and that they're only going to get out of it by an Act of God.
The show is also beautifully presented with a decompressed plotline that nonetheless remains intriguing and with a highly diverse cast that even changes from season to season as different characters take main stage.
When the last words were spoken in the last episode, when one of the characters said, "Let's go home," I had a feeling of inexplicable but real sadness. It wasn't that I was going to miss these characters whose lives that we saw presented over several years (though I will), and it wasn't that I was going to miss David Simon's wonderful writing (though I have hope he'll continue to write other things). It was that I was never again going to see his very realistic vision of Baltimore again.
Despite its gangs and its drugs, despite its corruption and its rough edges, I'm going to miss the Baltimore which I met in The Wire (and to a lesser extent in Homicide: Life on the Streets, though that show was more about the characters and less about the city). Sadly, I won't ever get to go home to it again.
If you haven't seen The Wire, go rent the first DVD right now; it's TV that you must watch before you die.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-27 04:57 pm (UTC)