That's On Point: The Web Site

Episode: -30-
Taglins: "...the life of kings." - H.L. Mencken



Now that, ladies and gentleman, is how you do it. .

Before a mass bloggerhea, rambling post. A thought of context.

It's an outright shame that the best piece of media produced in the history of television has ended it's run. It's a bummer. The show is over. Still, it's we've been blessed to live on borrowed time anyway.

Let's consider it could have been over two seasons ago with Bunny Colvin staring at a pile of rumble that was once Hamsterdam. At the time 'The Wire' was on dicey ground to return, and it took well over a year for the so good it should be illegal season four.

If you watched McNulty merrily strolling his foot patrol, twirling his baton it seemed the show was over.

No, this doesn't fill the void left by tonight's end. But it's some form of solace. The 60 episodes produced will live on in DVD form forever, for new fans to discover and old diehards like me to learn to love again.

And this show deserves that. It's a crime that so few people have ever been exposed to this gem. Not to get on a moral high horse, but the general human condition in America might be better if but a fraction of the people that mindlessly watch 'American Idol' (for example) watched 'The Wire.'

But not just watched it. While it was a great narrative police show, the themes it brought to the forefront make you think how we live our daily lives. How the institutions that we don't even give two thoughts shape and constrict us through ignorance and apathy.

In the brilliant. I mean brilliant closing montage (watched three times) it didn't end with a character. It ended with flashes of people we forget exist in America.

Now it's naive to think a show can change the ills of society, the drug addictions, the homelessness, the violence, etc. But after watching this show, you can't help but walk away wondering why in our country this exists. Sadly, I'm just as guilty, I devour the show, but I don't do anything to change my surroundings.

Perhaps the best kernel we can all glean from five seasons of the show, is why do our elected leaders spend untold millions investigating whether or not Roger Clemens shot steroids in his ass while letting the all-too-real scenarios depicted in David Simons's streets of Baltimore fester across our national landscape.

Okay, enough of the moral wrangling. This is just a television show, right?

So without further adieu, back to the finale.

And really, what's there to say. The ending fit the ethos of the show and was completely satisfying at the same time. (Were Damon Lindelhoff and Carlton Cuse and the rest of the 'Lost' folks paying attention?)

There were a couple little payoffs that once again showed 'the Wire' touch.

* The subtle wink of '-30-' being the finale's name, an old newspaper code affixed to the end of transmissions from an old newspaper man like Simon. Excellent touch.
* McNulty playing the game 'Trouble' with Beadie's kids. (Six, and I'm out.)
* Bubs calling Franz Kaftka, Fonzie. (Did that passage actually exist in Simons's life?)
* McNulty passing some money to a homeless guy outside Kavanaughs.
* Daniels proudly promoting Carver to Lieutenant, which is ironic after the first season. (Those multi-year payoffs, not for mass consumption.)
* In that little montage of the cityscape near the end of the episode, a final shot of the docks with the sun setting in the distance.
* The Stringer/Marlo allusions at the party with Levy.
* The entire closing montage.

The final montage said without saying that, no matter the best efforts of man the system forever remains the system. You can't beat City Hall.

All the ending moments for the key characters felt real. After five years, it felt like a natural progression. There was no hero riding off into the sunset, but that's the way it was supposed to end.

There wasn't a despondent McNulty blowing his head off either, thankfully.

If you want to nitpick, the deranged business card collector was a little too convienient, but did anyone want to see McNulty and Lester in bracelets?

To mention anything specifically would be a disservice to the piece as a whole. Though, the Michael Lee is the next Omar Little was a great touch. Plus who doesn't love a good scene at Vinson's rim shop?

What more is there to say? Let's all just tip our collective hats to Simon and Ed Burns for 50+ hours of the best thing ever to air on television. There's a ton to write, but something as pitch perfect as tonight's finale speaks for itself.

The game is the game.

Best lines:

* "I wish I was still at the newspaper to writer on this mess, it's too fucking good." -- Norman
* "I always wondered if they'd get their shit together, but that's Baltimore." -- Gary DiPascale
* "I wouldn't worry about Bill Rawls, he's about to have his Road to Damascus moment." -- Norman
* "Mother fucker, you were the one that was all Semper Fi for this serial killer, now you're fucking the dog." -- Landsman
* "Shit is like war, easy to start, hell to get out." -- Bunk
* "Why aren't we in bracelets?" -- McNulty
* "What's wrong, cottage cheese for lunch again, Carl?" -- Haynes
* "I'm putting this guy's life out there, I just want to be clean about it." -- Fletcher
* "Man make me out to be a saint for doing the shit I'm supposed to be doing." -- Bubbles
* "It always starts with some kind of truth. ... Maybe you win a Pulitzer, maybe you have to give it back." -- Haynes
* "The lie's so big, people can't live with it." -- McNulty
* "You're not killing them yourselves, McNulty, you can at least assure me that." -- Rawls
* "This is your last real case -- work it." -- Daniels
* "When you come home, I'll buy the first round." -- Pearlman
* "Hey, do you have a card." -- the 'serial killer'
* "You're as full of shit as I am, trapped in the same lie. ... I'm a fucking joke and so are you." -- McNulty
* "Kiddo, you are a gold mine to me." -- Levy
* "Either way they tie his arms and feed him green jello." -- Rawls
* "You lost the money trail when you decided to start coloring outside the lines." -- Pearlman
* "Even from inside here, you can take a slice just from lying in the cut." -- Slim
* "This is, I'm done with this gangsta shit." -- Marlo
* "He was natural po-lice...but Christ, what an asshole." -- Landsman
* "Come on Lester, come and snuggle." -- McNulty
* "If I lying on there dead on some Baltimore street corner I'd want it to be him standing over me to catching the case, because when you were good, you were the best we had." -- Landsman
* "Bend too far and you're already broken." -- Daniels
* "Detective, if you thought it really needed doing, then I guess it did." -- McNulty
* "Aint no nostalgia to this shit here, there's just the street and the game and what happened here today." -- Cheese
* "That was for Joe." -- Slim Charles
* "Look, all I wanted was to see something new everyday and write a story about it." -- Haynes
* "Nigga, you know who I am?" -- Marlo
* "...nah...Omar had this AK..." -- the street
* "Fits like a glove." -- Valchek
* "Larry....let's go home." -- McNulty

Unanswered questions:

* What the hell did Daniels do?
* Rawls? Checking out a chick's ass?
* Why didn't Cutty make the final montage?
* How long did it take Prezbo to grow the beard?
* Where was Avon?
* Who was that dude with Michael? He didn't go 'soft'?
* Marlo? What's the deal?

Answered questions:

* Everything, pretty much
* Spider got the count right.

-30-

Labels: HBO, television, The Wire