If you have deprived yourself of the The Wire over the last 5 years, it’s not too late to start today. The premiere of fifth and final season of The Wire is available for free right now on iTunes under The Wire Podcast. Also available are half hour segments where former Baltimore Sun Writer David Simon, former Baltimore Detective Ed Burns discuss how “The Game is Real”, and “It’s All Connected”. If you have HBO all of this is available on demand, and I also recommend “The Last Word” that highlights the backdrop for the fifth and final season.
Use this link to subscribe to the podcast or if it does not work you can subscribe to the Podcast feed manually. Open iTunes, search for The Wire, click the Subscribe button and a teaser will download to your computer. Then go to the Podcasts section of iTunes and click on the arrow next to the The Wire to list the shows that are available. Just click the Get button next whichever you decide to see.
Here is what you can expect from the final season.
One of television’s most critically acclaimed programs, the Peabody Award-winning drama series ‘The Wire’ continues to challenge viewers with a “cop show” unlike anything on air.
The fifth and final season of ‘The Wire’ centers on the media’s role in addressing – or failing to address – the fundamental political, economic and social realities depicted over the course of the series, while also resolving storylines of the numerous characters woven throughout the narrative arc of the show.
Explains series creator David Simon, “It made sense to finish ‘The Wire’ with this reflection on the state of the media, as all the other attendant problems of the American city depicted in the previous four seasons will not be solved until the depth and range of those problems is first acknowledged. And that won’t happen without an intelligent, aggressive and well-funded press.”
This season of ‘The Wire’ is based in large part on Simon’s experiences in 13 years at The Baltimore Sun. Simon decries recent trends in the newspaper industry that have conspired to make high-end journalism vulnerable: out-of-town chain ownership, an economic climate in which the share price of media companies matters more to industry leaders than the product itself, and a newsroom culture in which prizes, personal ambition and the cult of the “impact” story has replaced consistent and detailed coverage of complex issues as the primary goal.
The first season of ‘The Wire’ (2002) concentrated on the often-futile efforts of police to infiltrate a West Baltimore drug ring headed by Avon Barksdale and his lieutenant, Stringer Bell. In Seasons Two and Three, as the Barksdale investigation escalated, new storylines involving pressures on the working class and the city’s political leadership were introduced. Season Four focused on the stories of several young boys in the public school system, struggling with problems at home and the lure of the corner – set against the rise of a new drug empire in West Baltimore and a new Mayor in City Hall.