Thoughts on this series?

Having never watched Breaking Bad and then watching the whole 5 series within a month and loved it, I decided to repeat the trick with The Wire.

I've just seen the final episode of series 2

My favourite, ever US programme. It's very slow, at times, but well worth persevering with. Season 3, is especially superb.

It's brilliant and definitely worth the time; goes off the rails a bit in the series that focuses on the journalists, but that's easy to forgive.

Show me a better scene in any TV series ever than the one where Bunk and McNulty re-enact a shooting with no dialogue other than the word "f**k." Outstanding stuff.

Watched the last episode a couple of days ago

What a fantastic series, I was gripped from the very first episode.

Agree with Bren2K regards the distraction of the newsroom storyline, however apparently the chief writer on whose memories and experience some of the series was written used to work at the Baltimore Sun so that's where that came from.

I don't want to give big plot lines away just in case anyone else wants to do what I've done but the loss of a BIG character at the end of Season3 took a lot of lustre away from the series.

Interesting that so many of the the original Serious Crime team ended up not even working for the force by the end.

The series created two of the best characters I've seen in a series, being 'Omar' and particularly 'Bubbles'

After a bit of research it seems this was as true a representation of real life in the B'more Eastside that you can possibly get without actually being on a corner (if you dared)

Great series

Next....

Boardwalk Empire - terrific stuff; and watch out for Omar!

Best series ever IMO

I thought the last series was huge let down. It all seemed very rushed, and half d.

I'd agree it was the weakest, but I put that down to the need to wrap up loose ends - I certainly wouldn't call it half-d.

Compared to the other seasons it was. It was as bad as the ending to Dexter IMO.

I was half expecting to see Avon being released after serving his full 5 years and going straight back to the low rises to re establish his grip on the street. Kind of sending the message that the daily grind between cops and dealers continues and nothing really changes, the street is the street and it's all a game.

Weeerrd, Dawg

The Shield

So many great stories told from the pits of Baltimore all the way to the top of City Hall. Fantastic show.

If you're a fan of the show you should check out David Simon's books 'Homicide' and 'The Corner'.

I would concur - they're both excellent reads; I believe it's The Corner that has the real life people who were the inspiration for many of the characters in The Wire - am I remembering that correctly?