The final season of HBO's amazing drama series, The Wire, begins Sunday night at 9 ET. It's the weekend's best bet, for sure. I've seen seven of the final 10 hours, and I've done what I can to spread the word that this is the sort of series TV WORTH WATCHING is all about.
On the radio, I reviewed this new season of The Wire for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross - a report you can hear here.
In print, I reviewed it for the Boston Phoenix, in an article you can read here.
So when I've been so excited about The Wire already, and so vocal, what's left for my own blog?
Three things - all of which I wanted to say before, but couldn't find a way to work in.
ONE: Lots of critics have described David Simon's The Wire as Dickensian. He once told me he blamed me, and other critics, for that, joking that every time one of us used the word "Dickensian," it cost him thousands of viewers. (At least I think he was joking.)
But now that the series is ending, and its overall scope is in full view, I think it's less Dickensian than Twainian. Specifically, in terms of the way politicians and police and street-level entrepreneurs all come together, The Wire is very much like a modern equivalent of the Mark Twain-Charles Dudley Warner collaboration The Gilded Age. The drugs of the day (the day being post-Civil war) were silver and mining futures and railroad and territorial expansion, but you'll recognize all the players, at least in spirit.
TWO: I love the opening credits to The Wire, which are a visual montage of images that, at first, don't make much sense. But each week, another image or two is infused with meaning - until, by the end of the season, it all makes sense. Just like the show itself.
THREE: I tried not to take it personally, but when The Wire, in an upcoming episode, laments a cost-cutting newsroom approach that values budget reductions more than experienced reporters, all I can say is: been there, done that, couldn't afford the t-shirt.
Watch The Wire, please. And if you're not up to speed, there are few series more rewarding to watch, one hour after another, on DVD, and the previous four sets all are out there.