The Wire is entering its final chapter!
By fred | September 4, 2007
“It was great while it lasted.” This is probably what all fans of HBO The Wire will say soon. The Washington Post is reporting that creator David Simon has pulled the plug on the show. A long planned decision, made as soon as when the show started it seems.
Because Simon knew it from the moment he talked HBO into the show, he knew this is when and how it would come to a end. Ever since it started he had the whole thing planned ahead in his mind. Ever since in 2002, when the show debuted, Simon saw The Wire as a novel, a novel told as a TV series. This novel had chapters, or seasons as they’re called in the world of television.
Each season exploring a distinct aspect of the inner-city life, in Baltimore. The first season examined the drug trade ; the second focused on Baltimore’s longshoremen ; the third grappled with politics and the notion of reform ; the fourth dug into education and the lives of the city’s children ; and the final one, the upcoming fifth season explores the media, featuring a morally challenged reporter played by Tom McCarthy, who wrote and directed the indie film The Station Agent.
This might be news to you, but it wasn’t to the people working on the show. Even cast member knew, even though he didn’t share this information with them right the way, he did, as Wendell Pierce, who plays Detective William “Bunk” Moreland, said : “He told us from day one, “It’s a novel.” He had the novel in his head, and he wouldn’t share with us.”
There are two things important to get out of this story :
1. There’s only one season left of The Wire, and while the show always struggled in ratings - last season averaged 1.6 millions viewers per episode - it never failed to captivate and delight its regular viewers, starting with critics who never stopped admiring the show, praising it as being no less than the “most authentic epic ever on television”.
It also means that next season will be the very last chance for the Emmy to get it right.
2. From the start they knew they were not to push it beyond what Simon had in mind. Despite recent mocking by various people, HBO is still another thing in the world of television, a rare and unique place where things like this can happen : television as art. As Pierce told, “We showed the possibility of television used as an art“.
Just like HBO let Chase go with his vision of an ending for The Sopranos, they didn’t interfere with Simon’s vision for his show.
This is an amazing thing to make great television, and it’s always a pleasure to see not everyone acts as they do in the big networks, like Fox.
The fifth and final season of The Wire will begin January 6 on HBO.
