Requiem for Charm City: A Remembrance for The Wire

I will start out with this statement: I don't know what took me so long. For the past two months, spanning from June to July 2009, the Hamiltons have had ongoing relationship with the Baltimore City Police Department. To say that it is over, well it's hard to say the words. All of what they say is true, it was quite simply the greatest, most compelling series ever seen. Every scene says so much, whether it's rogue Detective McNulty mouthing off to his superiors, or Lt. Daniels seeing what is wrong with his city and choosing his words so carefully, that he picks them one at a time. By spending equal time in police settings and on the streets, you see both the how and the why of the situation and it helps you realize any answers to America's Drug Problem, and in Baltimore specifically, are just as complex as the problems. Also, by showing such detailed portraits of the main characters, the good guys and the bad guys emerge, but not necessarily by their job description. There are cops that are just plain evil and there are dealers with a moral code and plenty that in the grey. As you continue to watch, you realize that there was probably more thought put into this series than any on record. Choosing Tom Waits' "Down in the Hole" as the theme song stands a stroke of genius, especially have the original and covers changing each season. Visually, the creators took full advantage of placement and scenery to convey the actions at hand. As an example the photo attached is from Season 5: Episode 3. Young Marlowe Stanfield, a young buck whose rise to power is too fast for his own good and has to find places to distrubute his new found fortune and sits in a church office with Propostion Joe, another Baltimore mainstay and a minister going over which "charity" to divert his funds. The print of Riviere's "Daniel's Answer to the King" subtly conveys that dangerous den where these men find themselves. I could go on, but one last prop is due, to the late great Omar Little. The walking embodiment of another Waits' creation, "Black Wings", Mr. Little is the most complex, fascinating character in a series ever. An equal opportunity hood, he employed women, loved men, and paid no heed whatsoever to who ruled the corners, because he knew they did not rule him.I will watch other shows, but they all will be weak and small in comparison. My summer just became a little less interesting, but I wouldn't have traded it for all the lake trout in the world.