we have to wait until jan 6th

for the wire

for the LAST season of the wire to begin. that along with john from cincinnati are two of THE best shows on television. of course john has been cancelled (and i know i said i'd do a review of the show and i will, eventually) and the wire will go away too.

the wire was real. the wire was gritty. the wire was down deep. the wire used REAL language. it was hard to tell the bad guys from the good guys.

the stories for each season followed a different path. drug dealers in season one (the dialog of the scene where deangelo teaches chess to some kids is one of THE best written secenes i have ever come across), longshoremen in season two, politics in season three, the school system/school kids in season four. who knows what we'll get in season five. it is bitter sweet for me. i can't wait for it to start, but i don't want it to end.

Down to 'The Wire': It's a Wrap for Gritty TV Series
Real Life and Fiction Jostle for a Final Time As Acclaimed HBO Show Shoots Last Episode


By Teresa Wiltz Washington Post Staff Writer
It was early still -- about 10 p.m. on Friday -- and somewhere in Columbia, David Simon was giving a tour of the sights: There, he said, pointing, was the Baltimore mayor's office. Over there? The city's Western District police headquarters, and there, that little closet of a room, "that can be the visiting room at Jessup." Pause. "Or the jail. Depends. We just redecorate."
As he stood on a platform, taking in his world, it was hard to ignore the irony: For the past two years, a good chunk of "The Wire," the HBO show that critics have praised for the grittiness of its inner-city v?rit?, has been filmed in an anonymous soundstage in the burbs -- a soundstage that reportedly will be turned into a massive Wegmans Food Market...........
............"The Wire" has always struggled in the ratings; last season it averaged 1.6 million viewers per episode. But it's always enjoyed the admiration of critics, who praised it as being the "most authentic epic ever on television." Notwithstanding the giant soundstage, a good 50 percent of the show was shot on location in Baltimore, with real-life characters frequently sprinkled in with the fictional ones. Like former drug kingpin Melvin Williams, whom co-producer and writer Ed Burns, an ex-Baltimore cop, once arrested in a big takedown. Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, who did time as a teenager for killing a 16-year-old girl, made her acting debut last season, playing an assassin. Even Robert Ehrlich, when he was Maryland governor, made a cameo -- as a state trooper in the governor's office last season................