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Wire, The
Season 5
SERIES: HBO, Sunday 9:00p (60 minutes)


9.5

based on 24 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?

based on 62 votes
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Starring Dominic West, Clark Johnson, Clark Peters, Aidan Gillen, and Deirdre Lovejoy

The crime drama returns in its final season with the hot seat applied at creator David Simon's previous occupation (journalist).

GENRE(S):	Crime, Drama
CREATED BY:	David Simon
FIRST AIR DATE:	January 6, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New York Post Adam Buckman

This new 10-episode season boasts the same high quality of production that this series has always exhibited.

100

USA Today Robert Bianco

There's humanity in its victims and dark humor in the goal-oriented drive of its villains. With or without a strike, this is a show to treasure.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

In the end, there will likely be a lot of unhappiness, dead bodies, same-as-it-ever-was institutional failure, lack of responsibility and the triumph of self-interest over the greater good. Not exactly a Hallmark card, but one hell of an artistic achievement.

100

Entertainment Weekly Gillian Flynn

The fifth and final season of David Simon's peerlessly acted, stunningly scripted, revolutionary drama of 1,000 moving parts kicks off Jan. 6.

100

San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum

In the end, The Wire is extraordinary television. It has a richness, a depth and an intelligence that transcend the medium and makes it the kind of superb literature that A.O. Scott found lacking in the world of books.

100

Slant Magazine Brian Holcomb

The Wire is as true as television gets.

TV Guide Matt Roush

HBO's brilliant and bleak The Wire may have saved the best for last.

Salon Heather Havrilesky

Every single scene of The Wire is meticulously scripted and dramatically riveting.

Wall Street Journal Amy Finnerty

Local stories can have more poetry than grand ones; that is the genius of The Wire. It's not what happens to the characters, or the societal trends the script explores, that matter so much as the authentic and precise way in which events are represented.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland

The fans, no doubt, will be content with the conclusion of the brutal street politics--usually the best aspect of each season--as we witness a brilliantly stormy resolution of the unrest between Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew), Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector), who continues to expand his power, and the charismatic, elegant brute Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), a murderous thief worth cherishing.

Time James Poniewozik

It's worth the effort, not because The Wire is good for you but because it is fantastic entertainment.

Variety Brian Lowry

Based on the seven episodes previewed, it's every bit as cynical, riveting and brilliant as the four flights that preceded it--a searing look at the decay of a major American city that puts most of what's on television to shame.

Washington Post Tom Shales

The absence of gimmickry and the presence of respect for the story and the audience give The Wire organic advantages over nearly all other TV dramas, whether they deal with cops and crime or birds and bees. Which is to say: If you want to see the television of tomorrow, it's on HBO tonight.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

While I'm thrilled to have something as deep and juicy as The Wire back after so long a break between seasons, I'm afraid that the show's very best years may be behind it.

New York Daily News David Hinckley

The episodes that kick off this last 10-show run don't feel perfect. But they almost always feel intuitively right.

Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman

It's really quite good and oddly entertaining, as cynical as it is.

Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart

As the last of my DVD screeners ended, and I found the story wrapped around me, constrictorlike, I had to agree with old Gus: It feels true. Very true.

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

The fifth and final season may be the most overtly farcical, but only because things in this slightly fictionalized Baltimore have become, if you can imagine, worse than ever.

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

The final season of The Wire is committed to proving him wrong; by leaving nothing out it offers viewers as close a chance as anyone can get to everything.

Newsday Noel Holston

Despite occasionally expressing Simon's concerns about journalism too pedantically, The Wire continues to deserve its accolades as the most remarkable drama series in television history.

New York Magazine John Leonard

In these last innings, as The Wire ties up its gnarled threads, it also makes its most daring departure yet, introducing yet another institution, and a brand-new cast of characters to disappoint us.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

Why watch The Wire if it's such tough-going--so difficult to follow and then, once followed, so pessimistic? Because it offers the kind of earned understanding that leads to progress.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

To watch the show is to be immersed in an interlocking series of utterly realistic worlds, from the street corner to the cop bar to the mayor's office.

Baltimore Sun David Zurawik

While the police story line has never been stronger, the first seven episodes made available for preview contain nothing that matches the emotional power and sociological insight of the show at its best--namely the classroom scenes from Season 4.

The average user rating for this tv show is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 62 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Arnie P. gave it a10:
this is the most brilliant television series ever offered. A sociological powerhouse. breathtaking.

Andrew G gave it a7:
The first four seasons are so mind-blowing that Season 5 has left me disappointed. The cop plot is not believable in the slightest, and while the newsroom characters are very realistic, introducing them all in the final 'tie-everything-in-a-bow' season distracts from the focus on the main characters.

Bennett H. gave it a10:
One of the greatest shows ever created. Characters, Plotlines, Writing, and Directing is flawless.

Fuzzy D. gave it an8:
I'd give every other season an eleven if I could, but not this one. While the ending to Bubbles' story was completely flawless and amazing, the police story line, as someone else pointed out, was way too cheesy. I won't say that what happened was unrealistic or impossible, it was just very, very improbable. Something that I've always loved about The Wire is that not only has it never had impossible, theatrical, or unrealistic moments, it never even had improbable moments. That changed with season five. Oh, and I agree with everything that the Baltimore Sun said about the flaws in the newspaper storyline.

Donald S gave it a10:
Anytime a great show comes to an end u hear all of the negative.

Eric G. gave it a10:
Best show ever on tv completing its tale.

Jason S gave it a10:
The best written and best acted show on TV. I'm really sorry to see it go but I think it ran it's course and reached a natural end.

Wire, The Season 5 SERIES: HBO, Sunday 9:00p (60 minutes)

Wire, The
Season 5
SERIES: HBO, Sunday 9:00p (60 minutes)