Holy crap! “The Wire: The Complete Series” box set is only $82 today on Amazon.

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I can say without the slightest hesitation that if I were still living in the Baltimore vicinity, I would be spending the rest of my day figuring out where this is and then getting my ass over there to liberate some “Wire” memorabilia. I’m almost nauseous right now at the thought of the building being demolished with this stuff inside.

Full photoset here.

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No sense in waiting for a mythical Blu-Ray release of “The Wire,” since it was never broadcast or shot in hi def in the first place, so you may as well add it to your Christmas list now. Hell, I already have 4 of the 5 seasons on DVD and I can’t help looking at this with lust in my heart and one hand on my credit card…

Edit: I was just reminded (and I really did know this! I swear!) that since it was shot on film, “The Wire” could easily be fancified up for a hi-def Blu-Ray edition if HBO ever decided they wanted to go that route.

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“The Wire” was around for 5 short seasons, but every episode gave us multiple scenes that will remain emblazoned in our memory forever. The following list of clips is by no means definitive – just a handful of scenes that both stand out in our minds and were able to be found online to share. I wasn’t able to find Bubs’ final N.A. speech, for example, or Randy’s angry outburst at Carver, or any number of other moments I wanted to include, but that’s probably a good thing or you’d spend a full hour playing through them.

Lots of spoilers in these, of course – watch at your own risk.

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HBO has posted an open letter from “Wire” creator, David Simon,which not only thanks fans of the series for their support, but also serves as a call to action for real-life social change. As one might expect, the letter is heartfelt, eloquent and every bit as good as the show was.

We tried to be entertaining, but in no way did we want to be mistaken for entertainment. We tried to provoke, to critique and debate and rant a bit. We wanted an argument. We think a few good arguments are needed still, that there is much more to be said and it is entirely likely that there are better ideas than the ones we offered. But nothing happens unless the shit is stirred. That, for us, was job one.

If you followed us for sixty hours, and you find yourself caring about these issues more than you thought you would, then perhaps the next step is to engage and to demand, where possible, a more sophisticated and meaningful response from authority when it comes to such things as the drug war, educational reform or responsible political leadership. The Wire is about the America we pay for and tolerate. Perhaps it is possible to pay for, and demand, something more.

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We just can’t let it go.

Check these out but be very wary of spoilers:

- NY Magazine’s Top 10 Questions Left Unanswered By The Finale

- the LA Times talks, somewhat shockingly, not to David Simon, but to Dominic West

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While David Simon has never been shy about talking about his work or giving interviews, this is by far the most comprehensive and interesting one I’ve read to date. Obviously, a lot of it has to do with the fact that with the series over at the time of it’s publication, he had a lot less to hide when discussing storylines and plot developments, making this essential reading for any Wire fan.

Spoilers below and in the link above.

I was talking more about more stories with these particular characters. There’s clearly, at least based on the last names and the bios on the HBO website, a connection between Randy and Cheese (NOTE: the bios essentially state that Cheese is Randy’s dad, a fact Simon would publicly confirm a few days after we spoke), and that’s something you never really got into on the show.

Actually, that is something that we were going to play a little bit of that and reference that in season five if we had had a little bit more room. But ultimately it would have been incremental. It would not have added to the overall theme or to either of those characterizations of Cheese or Randy. It would not have resolved in any unique way that would have revealed anything more about the character than we otherwise revealed. It would have just been more story and more scenes. So at a certain point, on a practical basis, you have to ask what you’re accomplishing if you go further.

Did we lay other groundwork? We did. We could have cannibalized Rawls’ moment in the gay bar and advanced that moment, but I’m not sure we would have created any more theme, and on some level it was very satisfying just to grant the notion of a closeted gay man’s sexuality a moment on screen and then move on. There was something very compelling and real about just acknowledging that but not making it into grist for a storyline that didn’t add anything to our portrayal of Rawls. We were always laying pipe that could be picked up later. It doesn’t mean that you should pick it up.

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Note: This post contains spoilers about S5 of The Wire.

One of the things that seems to impress folks about “The Wire” is how genuine and realistic everything is, especially the relationships between the characters, the different worlds they live in and the dialogue they speak. What made this even more impressive is the fact that a show written by and directed by a bunch of middle aged white men was so popular with with the people whose lives were, to an extent, being portrayed on screen. Police officers, for example, apparently loved the show for it’s realistic portrayal of the day to day red tape and bureaucracy they deal with, and the communities where the show was filmed reportedly loved the series and were constantly impressed with the accuracy with which it portrayed their day to day living experiences.

But the most interesting reaction, for my money, is in this series of articles which kept track of the thoughts and reactions to the final season of the series of a group of genuine street-level players. For the most part, the dealers and street muscle participating in the experiment loved the show, even getting into it so much that they started betting on storyline outcomes. Serious betting, too – thousands of dollars a pop!

“Pay up fools!� Shine cried as Marlo entered Prop Joe’s kitchen. After the first episode, Shine predicted that the upstart “street nigga� would kill the “schoolhouse Negro.� He was predictably gleeful after pocketing several thousand dollars in rolled-up bills. “Chicken wings and mac and cheese on me,� he offered the losers.

This was not the only thing the self-described thugs got right about the final season of The Wire. They correctly surmised that Bunk and McNulty would split up and that our Irish detective would start down the corrupt path of a bad cop.

Much to my surprise, there was little empathy shown for Prop Joe. “It’s no one’s fault if you’re that stupid,� Orlando explained. “You can’t let that young buck [Marlo] run around like that without responding. Prop Joe screwed up, got sloppy. You never, I mean you never believe in co-ops. You got to be out for yourself … But, hey, I screwed up too. I put up $5,000 that Prop Joe would come back and kill Marlo. Just goes to show: never bet with your heart.�

The complete list of articles is here. As of this time, nothing’s shown up about the finale, but I’m sure it’s on it’s way.

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