Last night, late, too late, I finished it… the last page of The Wire. Yes I said page, because that’s what The Wire was a big sprawling, messy, entwined novel… that just happened to be shown on HBO, that just happened to be on film, and that for all it’s faults, and it had a few, was damn near the most perfect thing that has ever been on TV.
IT was the last episode of season five, and it was as real, as human, and as flawed as the world that it was depicting. It wrapped up the story of Detectives Jimmy McNulty and Freeman, of Cedric Daniels, and the rest…. But not always in the way that you would have thought…. Or wanted, it played out the strings, and it left the viewer with the start of the next round in the game, where the children become the adults, where the once young have inherited the mantel of leadership and fallen into the roles that they once simply looked up to. There was heart break, there was forgiveness, there was lies and there was dangling threads, but that’s life… as they said so many times in the show… Yo, it’s all in the game.
I will be revisiting the series I am sure, over the years, marveling at it’s truth, at is breadth, at it’s honest snapshot of our world, of our time at the moment that it arrived. I know that there are other shows that I will love, other’s that will aspire, but to me, until I see it, this was the best that TV, even if it was cable, ever had to offer, and I trust that years from now, others will discover it and understand.
The Body of an Americanby The Pouges
The Cadillac stood by the house
And the yanks they were within
And the tinker boys they hissed advicehot-wire her with a pin
We turned and shook as we had a look
In the room where the dead men lay
So big Jim Dwyer made his last trip
To the home where his fathers laid
Fifteen minutes laterWe had our first taste of whiskey
There was uncles giving lectures
On ancient Irish history
The men all started telling jokes
And the women they got frisky
By five o’clock in the evening - correction this line
Starts with by not atEvery bastard there was piskey
Fare thee well going away
There’s nothing left to say
Farewell to new York city boys
To Boston and pa
He took them out
With a well-aimed clout
He was often heard to say
I’m a free born man of the USA
He fought the champ in Pittsburgh
And he slashed him to the ground
He took on tiny tarantella
And it only went one round
He never had no time for reds
For drink or dice or whores
And he never threw a fight
Unless the fight was right
So they sent him to the war
Fare the well gone away
There’s nothing left to say
With a slainte Joe and Erin go
My loves in America
The calling of the rosary
Spanish wind from far awayI
’m a free born man of the USA
This morning on the harbor
When I said goodbye to you
I remember how I swore
That Id come back to you one day
And as the sunset came to meet
The evening on the hill
I told you Id always love
I always did and I always will
Fare thee well gone away
There’s nothing left to say
cept to say adieu
To your eyes as blue
As the water in the bay
And to big Jim Dwyer
The man of wire
Who was often heard to say
I’m a free born man of the USA
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