Its final season may have been built around a number of Big Lies, but here's the honest truth: HBO's The Wire is TV for the ages. Though it spent much of its acclaimed existence under the pop-culture radar, despite annual appearances on critics' best-of-year lists, this heartbreaking and searing masterpiece of urban decay and corruption will live on as all great literature does. Any self-respecting DVD library would want to include the five seasons of The Wire. It's that good, and that rich.Sunday’s expanded finale wraps up much of the complex story, but as usual, not in a tidy fashion. Ambiguities, moral compromises, deals struck with a variety of devils, all par for the course in David Simon’s bleak version of Baltimore. No cheap sentiment here, although there is a memorable scene involving a surprise wake at the Irish cop bar.The ironies are deep and dark as McNulty (Dominic West) sweats out the consequences of his scheme being exposed, of having created a fictional ser...
read more
Apparently playing one of TV's most challenging characters — The Wire's hard-drinking, corner-cutting Baltimore detective Jimmy McNulty — wasn't challenge enough for Dominic West. "I've been dying to direct," the British actor says. "HBO, thank goodness, took a chance on me." The gamble was worth it: West's episode, "Took," in which McNulty's plot to secure funds for the police department by concocting a serial killer of homeless men spins out of control, debuts this Sunday, Feb. 17 (9 pm/ET, HBO), and it's pitch-perfect. We asked the aspiring auteur to take us through some of its more challenging scenes.
THE SCENE: Show of ForceSquad cars, helicopters and boats swarm the Seaport in search of the "killer." "I can't tell you how exciting that was! It wasn't written that there'd actually be helicopters and stuff. I asked for
read more
During its first four seasons, HBO's The Wire (Sundays, 9 pm/ET, HBO) has tackled some major issues: inner-city crime, labor conflicts, political corruption, the failing public-school system. And as it launches its final 10-week run, the sprawling drama clearly still has a lot of big questions on its mind.
In a jaw-dropping twist at the end of this season's second episode, Baltimore detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) resorts to desperate measures in an attempt to restart a hard-fought case against drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector). Suffice it to say, his tactics would give Gil Grissom conniption fits. "It's not about how the unit tracks Marlo down," West says. "It's about how McNulty goes after him despite the authorities."
Those authorities include the ci
read more
Question: I'm so excited for The Wire to start, I can barely stand it. I'd cancel my own wedding if it conflicted. Any scoop?
Answer: The first four episodes are better than ever (or so TV Guide's Bruce Fretts tells me). Here's some scoop: Dominic West's Jimmy (who is still working as a beat cop) has settled down and is living with Beadie (Amy Ryan) and her two kids. Prez (Jim True-Frost) takes a job teaching at a rough inner-city middle school. Herc (Domenick Lombardozzi) is working as a driver for the mayor and walks in on Hizzoner in a very compromising (and very explicitly depicted) position. And Michael K. Williams (Omar) goes full-frontal in the opening minutes of Episode 3. BTW, if you have yet to jump on The Wire, now's the time. Per Fretts, the new season — beginning Sept. 10 —
read more
Question: When will The Wire return?
Answer: I'm hearing mid-2006 at the earliest. Production got under way at the end of September, right around the time I received an anonymous tip from a reader that "Dominic West is off The Wire." An HBO rep, however, insists he'll be back in some capacity, so I guess we'll find out in mid-2006 who the lyin' dog is.
read more
