Blogging The Wire: "-30-" Season 5, Episode 10.

Our recap of the very last episode of HBO’s critically acclaimed drama, The Wire.

If The Wire‘s finale was all over the place and doing a little bit too much and a little too neat, it was pretty consistent with the entire final season, where points and details that used to be made subtly were now made over and over again, and pointed out explicitly in case anyone still might have missed them.

But as uneven as this show was in season five, it was still leaps and bounds funnier and smarter and moving than anything else we’ve ever seen on TV, and even that wasn’t enough to help it win over audiences.

Writes Matthew Yglesias: “Here, though, in a somewhat Wire-like irony, the show’s very success may be television’s downfall. After all, it’s hard to imagine any future show securing substantially more free publicity in the form of critical and media attention – and yet the show was a commercial failure anyway. The very same show that taught us that, yes, episodic television can be great drama also teaches that there’s no business sense in bothering to try. This is television, where greatness will not save you.”

Finales are usually uneven affairs. How do writers stay true to a show’s tone without eschewing the sentiment everyone’s feeling — or letting that sentiment overwhelm everything else? (How many people have gotten a finale right? The Cosby Show? Buffy/Angel?)

The Wire, for all its constitutional bleakness, actually does sentiment pretty well. It initially felt like Prez’s conversation with Dukie ‘about getting his G.E.D.’ was a bit much, an excuse to bring Prez in for a final bow. And it was a little bit. (I didn’t think Dukie’s fellow A-rabber needed to say they were going to get testers, for instance. Hell, I think after the way last week’s episode ended, the intimation of what was gonna happen to Dukie was more affecting than actually showing it happening.) But the way the vice principal didn’t recognize him? The look of resignation on Prez’s face when he dropped Dukie off? Very nice touches.

Contrast that with Bubbles sitting down for dinner at his sister’s kitchen table. A very hard-won victory, told in one shot. Dopeness. (McNulty’s ‘funeral’? Not subtle at all. But it was still a pretty dope moment. I’m not mad.)

Okay. We have to deal with the newspaper stuff, though I’d really rather not. There were so many ways to really dig into how and why issues don’t get covered, and the show’s writers went with journalistic fabulism and prize-hungry top editors instead of, say, not covering something because of the threat of petty recriminations by powerful people. Templeton was an effigy for Simon to mollywhop and wasn’t given any personality trait besides weasely-ness, and that scene where Jimmy tells him off was way too much. Likewise, we never understand why the top editors are so enthralled with dude; they just are. But they’re supposed to be villains, too. In the end, Scott wins a Pulitzer and both Gus and Alma get demoted for calling his credibility into question. Corny. Just…ugh.

In this episode, so much seemed a little too neat — Michael becomes Omar, Sydnor becomes McNulty, Dukie becomes Bubbles.

What were your thoughts?

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • I wonder if we’ll get another “Wire” in our lifetime? You know, something as real.

  • Steve

    I agree with most of this but I do think one thing the finale did was make sure you knew that the star of the show really was/is Baltimore. There were atleast three visual montages that covered ALL aspects of the city…and especially the final scene…was really done to show that beyond all of it Baltimore is the soul of the show. I think they copped out in terms of the whole “cycle continues” situation, and the newspaper storyline official was garbage. I guess Fletcher becomes Gus though, too.

  • Aisha

    Overall I was satisfied with the ending. The only thing that got me was showing too closely who becomes who. It didn’t have to be an exact parallel. When knew Mike was on the run, Dukie’s life would be hard etc. But I clapped when Cheese was shot by Slim Charles.

    What I found to be the most revealing were the poltical deals made. We all know they made deals but I never knew what exactly kinds of trades they were making. I now have concrete examples.

    But at the end the story goes on.

  • quadmoniker

    Even at its worst, the Wire is the best show on television. Finales are hard, and no one seems willing to just let them go without a bang. People cannot resist wrapping up lose ends.

    I didn’t really like it when Slim Charles shot Cheese. I think Cheese had to die because he was way too aggressive. But shooting him in front of a bunch of other dealers and then saying, “That was for Joe?” It was a little much for me.

    I also thought they showed us way too much. Had they left the Dukie and Michael storyline alone after the last episode, it would have been way more powerful. I also am not sure I imagine him becoming Omar. Omar was too singular.

    I hated the newspaper storyline this entire season. It was too black and white and was just an excuse for Simon to tell the Sun off. And I don’t think Fletcher, a relatively young reporter, would want to become or would make the leap to editor so quickly. Templeton fabricating to such an insane degree, and the top editors refusing to believe it in the face of hard evidence, just would not happen in a post-Blair world. When these accusations are made, people listen, because they don’t want to get caught with their pants down. I’ve wondered more than once, including when Alma went to the press to get a physical copy of her front-page story instead of just going online, whether Simon has been in a newsroom since 1995.

  • quadmoniker

    I think the best part about it is the title. I’m pretty sure “-30-” is an old copy-editing or typesetting code for the end of a story.

  • Steve

    I mean the newsroom was so strangely outdated and trapped in early 90s, even someone like me whose never been in a news room was confused. I mean perhaps Alma wanted her own paper copy but I’d THINK she woulda been on her wireless in her house like any normal person checking for the update. It felt like way too much of a personal vendetta against the paper than for Simon actually capturing a news room.

  • GVG

    Just for ref a very good friend recently got the cover story at her major publication, it had not been her 1st, 2nd, or even 10th time pulling the cover story, but she still hit her circle up and told us to pick up the issue. Which was available on their site, but it just feels different/better to hold it in your hands (both for her and us), especially if it’s a story that you really worked hard on. Alma just wanted to feel it and get it EARLY! Anticipation is a powerful aphrodisiac

  • quadmoniker

    No, you’re right, Alma would definitely get the paper copy. But she would wait to get it from work, where it’s free, after reading it online. I think so, anyway. A lot of major papers even give you a plate of the front page, if it was your first. And she would definitely tell people to pick it up. But getting up in the middle of the night and going all the way to the plant? I don’t think so. Not any more.

  • Big Word

    “think the best part about it is the title. I’m pretty sure “-30-” is an old copy-editing or typesetting code for the end of a story.”

    Personally, I liked the quote; which read simply “the life of kings” if I’m remembering correctly. It seemed to me that for the people on top “of the game” in all it’s aspects were all doing pretty damned good for themselves.

  • K.

    I thoroughly enjoyed the finale. I do think they overdid it at some points with all the ‘splaining. I was like dude, we get it, we know how the Wire gets down. I agree with whomever commented that they could’ve left Dukie & Mike out of the final episode — we already knew where they were headed.

    I loved Marlo’s last scene — that gangster shyt is addictive to guys like him…after he scared those youngins off he looked like he’d just taken a hit of some powerful drug.

  • Pingback: Is Anyone Else Going Through ‘Wire’ Withdrawal? « PostBourgie()