Wire Season 5
Year: 2008
Grade: A-
Country: USA
Director: Simon
Reviewpretty great series overall. the last two seasons are the best. season two is fine, but a relative low point in the series.
this one follows the newspaper people as they cover local politics and the serial killer in the city. along with the lying cops and politicians, the lying media further demonstrates how effed up the whole system is. individuals lying to further their careers or interests. the people who play it straight are mostly not in power and mostly not rewarded for their straight-laced efforts. perhaps a bit cynical, but probably not altogether inaccurate either.
the ending does a good job of bringing together all the different threads and reminding us just how big and complex society can be. it’s like the kurtis blow song – 8 million stories. every individual is another story and the wire does a great job of telling just a few of the ones revolving around the drug trade.
it humanizes many of the institutions and struggles that we are aware of, but perhaps forget (probably out of mental necessity) from time to time.
the series doesn’t pull any punches. people you like and hate will die or disappear. things will go well and not so well. omar, bubbles, bodie, wallace, stringer, barksdale, mcnulty, etc. they all change or die or whatever despite being big characters or you pulling for them. sopranos did this also (and earlier).
well-acted throughout. well-written. pretty damn realistic on the whole. smart. this is one of the best ever. glad i came back to it.
Watched on TV