The Wire

Over the weekend I finished the last episode of the last season of HBO's The Wire.  It was an amazing series to say the least.  They did what I always say a series should do and that is kill strong characters.  During Lost I made a strong case that it would show a real commitment to pushing the audience's emotions by getting rid of one of the favorite characters and my friends would give me a hard time.  Lost did it in a sense when they wrote off one of my favorite characters and I think that episode was incredible.  The Wire did this repeatedly as some of my favorite characters were written out, met untimely demises, or had other misfortunes fall upon them.  That was what made the show so amazing.  They were willing to take those risks as writers.  The story I read was that one actor was told they had good and bad news for him when they gave him the role.  They said that your character only gets X number of episodes (the bad news), but the wrote an amazing death for the character (the good news).  In the end there were some happy endings and several sad endings.  One of the sad endings really left me feeling empty as the character was so human and giving, but in the end life doesn't recognize the beauty in people when it gives and takes.  The best part about The Wire was that it told stories about the lives of people.  It did this without sugar coating, without glamorizing, and without protecting us.  The show raises a number of interesting questions and issues.  For example, if there is no violence from drug dealing then is it still bad?  Or how far can one person push a city until they demand answers?  There are so many more, but I don't want to give away too much.  Let me know if you decide to jump into the show.