The Wire winds down

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 by Dave Winer.

Warning: Spoilers follow... 

The best TV show ever, imho, is The Wire on HBO. 

I'm such a fan, I've bought all the DVDs and watched the series in its entirety three times. After the last season, the fifth one, which is winding down in the next couple of weeks, I'll probably go through the whole series again, because now we know how it turns out for many of the characters.  

Unlike The Sopranos, there are several main characters in The Wire. In the early seasons there was Avon Barksdale, Frank Slobotka, McNulty of course, Omar and dozens of supporting characters. When Entourage winds down they won't have to kill off the main characters, but in violent shows like The Sopranos and The Wire, that is the main question. That, and who's left standing after all the killing is over. The Sopronos punted on this question, whether Tony dies or not was not clear. Not so in The Wire. They're killing their main characters decisively and unceremoniously, without rock classics playing in the background. One character dies with a shot to the head, which we see, no imagination needed, delivered by the most unlikely assassin (but if you were paying attention over the years, in retrospect, not so unlikely).  

The big question in The Wire is who is going to be the next Marlo Stanfied, because Marlo is surely going down. And we're getting the answer, with just two episodes to go, it looks like it's Michael. I predict the last scene of The Wire is like the last scene of the first Godfather movie, with the door closing and a new Don holding court with the new lieutennants. Or maybe Michael is meeting with The Greek, like the closing scene in Casablanca, where Bogart says his famous line to the police captain played by Claude Raines after watching Ingrid Bergman leave on the last plane out of town.  

Or maybe the final scene of The Wire will be a reprise of the first scene. McNulty chatting with one of the neighborhood kids, doing a eulogy of another kid, lying dead in the street. This image has been in the opening credits every year of The Wire. It's practically the symbol of the show. It seems fitting somehow that the opening scene would also be the closing scene. 

We'll see, but it's great drama, stories woven together beautifully, wonderful acting, and what appears to be an honest wrap-up, coming in two weeks. I can't wait! 

6/11/07: "In this age of blogs, podcasts, unconferences and level playing fields, it's sometimes nice to just be in the audience. Let someone else do the work. Relax and reach deep inside our emotional being, and yank out something beautiful or horrible, and have a look."