John’s Blog

Well, that’s it for The Wire — best show on television. Last night’s finale was great, I thought — gave a bunch of closure, a bunch of provocative ideas, and, more than anything else, a sense that it’s a new day, but the same old stuff is going to happen.  It’s been hard to watch the series without despairing about the prevalence of corruption — so many of our institutions are so broken. This last season was probably the weakest of the 5 seasons — but I’ll take bad episodes of The Wire over just about anything else on TV. So many memorable characters, so much wonderful dialog, and so many clear and compelling messages.

I’m impatient to see what David Simon and Ed Burns come with next, not to mention actor/director Clark Johnson, who always seems to be involved with my favorite shows — especially his direction, and the unbelievable cast of other writers who include Dennis Lehand and George Pelecanos. But I’m not optimistic that they’ll be able to do something like this again — not in a Sorkin/Studio 60 sorta way — but in the sense that The Wire seems to be a singular achievement. No doubt.