Despite me being wall-to-wall busy, Cal and I found time this weekend to finish watching the fifth and final season of ‘The Wire’. Fantastic, urgent, essential television. The flaws in the last season – it had plenty – faded as it built to a pleasing and unexpectedly tight conclusion.
In celebration, then, here are a bunch of links about the greatest TV show of the decade:
Seven minutes of Wire creator David Simon talking about why he loves Baltimore (with cameos from some Wire cast members) (no spoilers)
David Simon on The Wire, talking right at the beginning of season one in 2002
The Guardian interviews Snoop Pearson about how she went from prison to acting (no real spoilers)
Salon on ‘everything you need to know about The WIre’ (no spoilers in the excellent overview in page one, then it describes seasons one and two in detail)
The Atlantic interviews David Simon at the start of season five
Simon writes in the WaPo (which, by the way, gets a hammering in season 5) about his experience of journalism
Simon’s letter to viewers at the end of the series (no spoilers, actually)