I can't remember the last time I was so emotionally involved in a television show than I have been with The Wire, which ended it's 5 year run on HBO this evening. It seems like the season just started, yet here we are . . . done. But there is something to be said about going out on top. I am going to talk about the finale, so if you haven't seen it . . . SPOILER ALERT.
I don't know what I was expecting with the series finale tonight. The show has defied convention so many times in the past, it seems best just to hit the crest and ride it in. This entire season has been just that - quite a ride. Two weeks ago, I found myself on the verge of tears during the last 5 minutes of the penultimate episode. Has there ever been a more honest depiction in any medium of how we are killing our inner-city children than the story of Michael, Duquan, Randy, and Namond? These four children, watching their childhood, watching their innocence slowly chipped away by their environment, their family, corruption, and above all, The Game - I have read about inner city blight, I have listened to rap albums, I have watched the sordid Boyz in the Hood/Menace II Society gangster flicks. The Wire, however . . . now I feel like I get it. That was an honest, a real depiction. Michael and Dukie, reminiscing about the pranks from childhood, giving up Bug, and then going their separate ways. Both so young, but you just knew neither of them had a chance. Cut to the finale - Dukie shooting up, and Michael finally, completely surrendering to the game, taking on Omar's gun toting, ghetto Robin Hood persona. It was a payoff that could have been contrived, but with the way David Simon and Ed Burns, the show's braintrust, have allowed us into the hearts and minds of these kids, have invested and invested in these lives, it was the only way to end it.
The show's main theme has been gray. Ambiguity. There are no easy answers when dealing with these issues. The rest of the threads wrap up around this theme. Marlo, of course, lands on his feet. Levy and Herc too. McNulty and Lester finally have to pay the piper for their trumped up red ball. Bunk and Kema just keep truckin'. Carcetti's Huey Long-esque descent into corruption shoots him to the Governor's Mansion. But the true Shakespearean tragic hero is Commissioner Cedric Daniels. Throughout the series, he has been the moral compass at the center of the morass. Of course, this is The Wire, so it isn't really that simple - Daniels has a past that is never fully revealed, and despite his valiant efforts to reform the PD, despite his unfailing moral certitude, it is that unrevealed past that comes to bite him and cost him his career. Regardless . . . no matter how many demons you have overcome to become a decent man, if you swim with the sharks you best be sure you aren't bleeding anywhere.
The show was revolutionary because, unlike so much drivel on 99% of the TV spectrum, The Wire asked all the hard questions. Instead of giving us the traditional, prosaic, banal resolutions you see on Law and Order or CSI, it consistently challenged conventional wisdom. It challenged us to take a closer look at what these problems are really about, and inspire us to discard the simple answers the unthinking masses shove down our throat. If only more TV could capture what The Wire has in spades - if only they would stop treating us like we are stupid. I will miss Omar, the Bunk, Mcnulty, Michael, and Daniels dearly.
In honor of The Wire finale, I am launching a new feature here on Aristeia, the MP3 of the day. Actually, two today, both by Tom Waits. The first is Way Down in the Hole, the theme song for the show from Waits' album Frank's Wild Years, released in 1987. This version was Season 1's theme, and each successive season they have gotten different artists to cover it. And just because you can never have enough Tom Waits, I'm also posting my favorite tune of his, Rain Dogs, from the 1985 album of the same name. The interface is a little unwieldy - still working on it. Enjoy!
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