The Wire - Complete Fifth Season
In chronicling a multi-generational family business dealing illegal drugs and the efforts of the Baltimore police to curb their trade, this series draws parallels between these organizations and the men and women on either side of the battle. Drawing similarities between those people who society champion as respectable and law-.. Read more
| Starring | Sonja Sohn, Dominic West, Lance Reddick |
|---|---|
| Director | Ernest R. Dickerson, Joe Chappelle |
| Run time | 622 mins |
| Genres | Drama, Television |
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Most helpful member's review
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32 out of 33 people found this review helpful
Sheer Brilliance!
If you are not already an addict, you can believe the hype. The Wire is simply the best TV series ever made. It even trumps other HBO greats such as the Sopranos and Deadwood.
You get believable and morally complex characters, wonderful acting and direction, an epic story arc, superb writing, political and social issues (with no PC-ness), and even a cool soundtrack.
The good news is that you need to start with the First Season. The bad news is that you may not get out of the house for a couple of months. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Sombre conclusion of an epic TV series
If you've never seen The Wire, for heaven's sake start with season one - you won't regret it. If you've already seen the previous four seasons, you will view this with mixed feelings, knowing that every episode you watch of this breathtaking series brings you closer to the end.
Season five continues with, and brings to a close, many of the storylines which started in earlier episodes and there are cameo appearances from almost every character you have ever seen. The city of Baltimore is still a morass of crime and deprivation, Marlo is continuing his rise to to the top (still making Macbeth look like a weed), Mayor Carcetti is trying to navigate his way to the Governorship, the police department is worse than ever, with morale disastrously low.
This series introduces a new crumbling and disesased institution - the Sun newspaper - and though for the first time the conflict within the paper stretches credibility a little (management are bad, humble servants of the word good) it's only because The Wire has set the bar so high that this story seems a little weak.
Why is it sombre? Mainly, I think, because some of the relationships and friendships that relive some of the misery of the storylines - especially between McNulty and others around him - run into serious difficulty. There are happy endings for some of the characters, heart-wrenching ones for others, and in an amazing extended last episode, an incredible number of stories are brought to some sort of conclusion.
Only question is, what are you going to use your DVD now? Trouble is The Wire makes most TV drama seem awfully weak s**t. I'm going back to 'Homicide: Life of the Streets' from David Simon, Ed Burns and many of the other talented writers behind The Wire. -
News and features
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Pride and Glory
- 03 Nov 2008
There’s more pride than glory in this throwback cop drama, a movie so firmly in the tradition of heavyweight thrillers like Serpico, Prince of the City and Q and A that you would think the script must have Sidney Lumet’s fingerprints all over it. In fact it’s written by Gavin O’Connor, who made Tumbleweeds and the hockey movie Miracle, and Joe Carnahan, who made Narc and Smokin’ Aces. O’Connor came up with the story with his twin brother Greg. They’re... Read more
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