I know this has been discussed before, and it's raised it's head on the main board as well, but with series 5 about to start I think it deserves a thread of it's own.

The best thing on TV, by a huge distance. Can't believe it's the final series.....

If you haven't seen it, buy the boxset and prepare to lose a good chunk of your life to it.

Easily the best show in the history of television, IMO. After watching this show, cop/crime shows on network TV are just so awful. They're so slick, tidy, unrealistic, and insulting to the audience.

But as much as I love this show, I think ending after season five will be a good thing. David Simon had envisioned this as a five season show from the start. And it's getting to the point where story keeps getting richer and broader and soon they won't be able to keep up with everyone without going the route of Lost (i.e. completely ignoring the fact that characters exist when it becomes convenient).

I admit to being completely obsessed with it.

It is absolutely the best tv show ever. Four seasons of mesmerising genius with so many fantastic characters and story arcs it makes you wonder why so few people have watched it?!!?

I read an interview with David Simon where he said that after season five he would have covered all aspects of his experiences in Baltimore and that the only possible thing to base season six on would be the increasing numbers of Latin Americans coming into the city. Plus he and Ed Burns have their Iraq War mini-series, Generation Kill, scheduled to air on HBO next year so I think this will definitely be the final season.

Its still amazing though that a show like this lasted as long as five seasons.

Slim Charles: "Game's the same, just got more fierce."

I'm gonna check this out, based on you guys oppinions

Love Love Love this show. Just finished Season 4 on DVD and there were just so many highlights. The nicest little touch was having Steve Earle show up just at the to help Bubbles.

It is so addictive....

Very glad to hear. A writer for The Wire described the show this way

"You know how, in a Russian novel, the reader does the work for the first hundred pages, and then it turns and you’re lost in it?"

and I think it's perfect. It applies to all four seasons but especially the first. So if you don't fall in love with the show immediately, press on, as it's only a matter of time.

The novel comparison is very valid. It doesn't have a cliffhanger at the end of each episode/chapter, but the longer pay-off is far more rewarding. I know a couple of people who gave up after two episodes because they weren't 'getting it' - fools.

Check out Charlie Brooker (UK TV critic)'s review of it:

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