Note: This site is currently "Under construction". I'm migrating to a new version of my site building software. Lots of things are in a state of disrepair as a result (for example, footnote links aren't working). It's all part of the process of building in public. Most things should still be readable though.

Farewell McNulty Bubbles Lester Omar Kima Bunk

... and the rest of the crew on The Wire. I'm bad about doing the "What's your favorite Movie/Song/Album/Show" game, but the Wire would easily be in the top list of shows. If you haven't watched it go rent the DVDs starting with season 1. It's paced and told differently and has a more amorphous scope than most shows. So, if you don't like it at first, give it at least 5-6 episodes before you bail. A key element that drives my liking of the show is that there the line between good and bad can get really fuzzy. In the fifth and last season, there were several times I was worried that they were taking this a little too far. That they were getting so far out there, that they wouldn't be able to get back. I'm happy to report that, for the most part, this wasn't the case. While by no means at the top, the final episode was pretty high up there on the awesome scale. There were some thing in the story line that I didn't like in terms of where they ended up, but they all kept to the tone of the show. It was more about the characters and feeling like you wished that things turned out better for them. So, empathy for the characters inside the story and not feeling short changed by the creators of the story. That's a tough thing to pull off. I didn't notice the title of the episode till I was looking up the spelling of a name on the HBO web site. The last one was called "—30—" which is a great node to the newspaper industry (which the last season has a heavy focu on) where articles and press releases often end with that string. Here's a fun little page about ending with that. Apparently no one is sure where the origin is, but the one I heard was alway to signify the end of a story over a transmission. In that light, it's a perfect title for a damn fine ending.

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P.S. one thing that I really didn't like about the last season was the episode count. - Season 1 - 13 Episodes - Season 2 - 12 Episodes - Season 3 - 12 Episodes - Season 4 - 13 Episodes - Season 5 - 10 Episodes

Not cool with the shorter. Might have been the writer's strike, but I don't care. I want those 2-3 episodes back.