* This is merely a tribute to the greatest TV show in the history of TV, and honestly is more for the people who haven’t seen the show or seen every last episode they ever aired. If my greatest accomplishment in life is making EVERYONE watch ” The Wire ” than I will die a happy man. There will be no spoilers in this post for those who have yet to see the finale or those who have never watched it, I hope here I can start to change your mind, as I think every person on earth should watch this show, as it is about much more than you can possibly image, ” The Wire ” is indeed real. *

They did it again. Somehow, someway they managed to outdo themselves yet again. I’ve been a fan of ” The Wire ” since day one, on some let me see what this new show on HBO is all about, type shit. I was a fan of OZ and of course the Soprano’s so obviously HBO is doing something right. I was instantly drawn to what I thought was the concept ( cops vs. drug dealers, and of course the wiretaps, a world I was all too familiar with ) and what it turns out was the real concept/real main character of the show ( The city of Baltimore and it’s struggles, I’ve been there a handful of times and always found it an oddly appealing city, even before the show started. Overshadowed by D.C. but really Philly’s little brother and NYC’s cousin of a city, and more so as creator David Simon has said numerous times, yes the show is about Baltimore but in reality it’s about the American city and all it’s ills, as these stories could of taken place in any of America’s big cities. ) Clearly though I had no idea what I was in for as I watched the first couple of episodes unfold. To label this as a cop show or a show about drug dealers is doing it a great injustice because thats just where the story starts, the show is about the entire city and it’s never ending vicious cycle of problems. I have been talking about the show since those first couple of episodes and was always trying to introduce it to more people but as the series progressed and I started to realize just how great this show is ( the show is about reality plain and simple, the decay of a city and it’s people, as well as who is to blame and who is profiting from it all ) I turned into a monster of free publicity for the show and still to this day get accused of secretly working for the shows advertising department. Honestly though I don’t think I would even accept money for it, this show means too much to me for me to talk about profiting from it.

With each season and each episode I felt more and more connected with the show and at times you forget it is just that, a TV show, because it never felt like one, it felt like real life. ( And not in some scripted ” reality show ” way but like actually real ) No matter who you are, be it po-lice, an innocent young kid, maybe a constant troublemaker/ too hard for your own good young kid, a dock worker, lawyer,teacher, your avg. Joe regular 9-5′er, or just someone trapped in the only world you know, there was always someone you could relate to. There was always a situation or position you could of sworn they took straight from your life story. Maybe you’ve never been to West Baltimore or even the ” hood ” or any place like it, maybe you’ve never sold or even done drugs, but after watching the show you will immediately have a great understanding of that world. Anyone can relate to having bosses and being forced to do things you don’t want to do or in a way you don’t want to and most definitely everyone can relate to having to work your way out of a situation your not even sure how you got into in the first place. Who can’t relate to feeling like your being shafted, used or forgotten about and ignored ? If at least a part of you can’t relate to most if not all of the characters than I would argue you are not human. Whether it’s D’Angelo Barksdale trying to understand why the violence is necessary to sell drugs or his Uncle Avon for doing what needs to be done for the betterment of him and his family. Maybe you relate to the trapped corner boys who know nothing else like Bodie or Wallace and the struggles they go through trying to decipher the lies of the drug game to the cold hard facts of life in the streets. Or perhaps it’s detective McNulty for always thinking he is the smartest person in the room and if he was in charge things would be different, he would make sure of that, and for that matter Mayor Carcetti who started out with good intentions but let his ego and personal goals sell out the city he started out trying to fix. Then theres more po-lice and lawyers caught up in the matrix who have to eat shit on a constant basis and do things their moral compasses don’t agree with, so their bosses don’t look bad. ( Don’t tell me chain of command only exists in police stations ) Like I said before maybe you never sold drugs and never understood why someone would, well watch this show and you will see into a world you never have and you will see a human side of everyone involved and get a better understanding as to how the cycle of the American system is what makes these kids the way they are, and until the system changes these people will be continually born into the only world they know.

As anyone with some sense knows the world is very rarely black and white and the good guys aren’t always so good ( cops, lawyers, politicians, ok so I hope by now everyone realize politicians do not equal good and as ” The Wire ” has showed us time and time again, they are more often than not the real criminal, who profit from all this from far away in the safety of their mansions and public offices ) and the bad guys, quite often aren’t that bad after all. Even the shows most deviant characters didn’t start out bad, they started out with good intentions ( Michael a young boy turned multiple killer, all he wanted to do was take care of his brother, when his junkie Mom couldn’t ) but they were trapped and had to survive the only way they knew how. Not everything in ” The Wire ” turned out the way you wanted it to, in fact most the time it was just the opposite, but thats reality as my Pops always used to tell me ” life isn’t fair ” and this show stuck to that script more than any TV script. What show could ever feel so real, make you root for people you would never root for, make you laugh in situations that would normally make one cry ( one of the most under rated aspects of the show is it’s humor, the show is down right hilarious most of the time even in situations thats hard to make one smile ) and cover such a wide range of people and emotions that no matter who you, if your human, you will relate to it ?

Some people were no doubt immediately turned off on the show because of the violence or culture it depicted, ( sure people loved the mafia from Jersey violence but thugs and drug dealers in Baltimore thats a world most people would rather just assume doesn’t exist ) but those people are cheating themselves and theirselves only because the show is about SO much more than that. In watching the finale a friend of mine started to complain that no one was dead yet, this made me pause the tivo to explain ” The Wire ” doesn’t kill people for the sake of violence or bloodshed but it kills because it’s tied into the story and our emotions and well people get killed in real life especially in the city of Baltimore. So when the first casualty happened I paused the tivo again to point out the purpose behind it and to ask are you happy now ? How much happier are you that a) the violence wasn’t forced, you actually felt rewarded with it and b) that you were genuinely happy to see the demise of said character and even more so to see who pulled the trigger and why ? Everything is connected in ” The Wire ” even things that I and no one else picked up on, some you only notice after re-watching an episode 2 or 3 times, some you don’t notice until you have seen every last episode there was. No show has ever had such a wide range of characters and story lines and no show has come close to weaving them together so perfectly that they actually belong together. Each and every season a new storyline and a whole group of new characters are introduced but never at the expense of any of the old characters or storylines that you have come to know and love. Season one is the cops and drug dealers, season two deals with the dockworkers and their struggle to deal with it’s dying industry, season 3 ups the ante with politicians and chain of command focus and paints a vivid picture of why the city is in a constant state of violence and decay, season 4 introduces you to innocent 8th graders just wanting to be kids and shows you how the life on the streets affects each and every one and season 5 deals with the newspaper and media and their failure to report on the things that actually matter but to chase certain goals or standards to save their own ass instead of doing what their job is, reporting the news. All this is done without sacrificing any of the original characters or storylines as the cops vs. drug dealer theme never runs out, you just see how much further the problem reaches and who really benefits from it all.

In the next couple of days I will be doing posts about the finale and re-visiting some of my favorite moments from the shows history, I will also do breakdowns on most of the main characters and how they became the way they are and how everyone should be able to relate to some of their struggles. This show is much much more than just a TV show to me and to most if not all of it’s loyal fans and I will not consider my job done until damn nigh everyone I know or even e-know has watched the entire series. The finale was one of the best episodes ever because of the way it stayed being true to it’s self, the way it showed in such detail the vicious never ending cycle, the way it drew parallels in characters that never met and or knew of each other and the way it ended with that final shot of McNulty staring at the shows main character, the city of Baltimore, from a far on a highway that is the only place most people feel comfortable viewing Baltimore from.

R.I.P. ” The Wire ” hands down the greatest shows ever made, here’s to hoping it will one day be resurrected either a couple years down the line or in movie form or at the very least let’s hope it inspires others in TV to want to live up to the ridiculous high standards this show has set.