The Wire, Season Four

J.C. and I watched the final episode of Season Four of The Wire last night on HBO-on-Demand. If you haven't yet seen this show, go and rent Season One now, or put it on your Netflix queue, however you want to go about it. Quite simply, it's the best show on television. The writing, the acting, it's all superb, and if you like good television and aren't watching this show, you're missing out.

J.C. and I were both a little sad to see Season Four end, as we agreed it was the best season so far. Here's what I'm going to miss about it:

1) The boys--Namond, Duquon, Randy, and Michael. Each of these kids reminded me of the guys I used to work with when I was a juvenile probation officer, and each one was brilliant from the first episode right through the last. I don't know how much actual screen time these guys got, but in a pretty short amount of space, they each had a terrific story arc over the course of the season, and by the end, my heart was aching for each of them.

2) Snoop--Felicia Pearson plays the coolest hitwoman ever. Whenever she came on screen, I would turn up the volume and turn on the closed-captions, because she's hard to understand, but man, I love the way she talks. She's kind of scary and sexy at the same time.

3) Prezbo--If I were to guess, I'd say that Prezbo is the alter-ego of one of the show's creators. He got a little beat up over the course of the first three seasons in a way that made me think, anyway, there was something semi-autobiographical about his character. I didn't always like the way he reacted to what was going on, but this season, Prezbo really came into his own.

4) Marlo--He's smart and ruthless, the new regime. And Jamie Hector's acting, in a show filled with great acting, really stands out.

5) Omar--In my opinion, Omar is the best-written character in the history of television. And like Jamie Hector, Michael K. Williams deserves, at the very least, some kind of award nomination. I was a little concerned for Omar's safety, though, at the end of last night's episode. SPOILER ALERT: Once he decided to sell the "hair-on" back to Prop Joe, it seemed to me Omar was a little proud and thus breaking his own code in some way, and I thought for sure hubris was going to pounce his ass. It didn't though, and I'm glad, because The Wire just wouldn't be The Wire without Omar.

And speaking of "life without" certain characters: SPOILER ALERT: Last season, I had to deal with the death of Stringer Bell. This season, it's the death of Bodie. It makes sense, story-wise, as he and Poot are pretty much all that's left over from the old B&B days, but I do hate to see him go. Every time he comes on screen, it reminds me of watching the first season of the show. Plus, I was kind of digging the interactions between him and McNulty, which, of course, are what did him in.

So, Season Four is over, but there is still hope. Word on the streets is that J.C. bought me Seasons One and Two for Christmas, so I'm going to start over from the very beginning, and then I'm going to watch them again, with the Director's commentary, so I can find out if I'm right about Prezbo, and figure out how they went about creating Omar. And eventually, Season Five will come around. It looks like they're going back to the Greeks, which thrills me, because it'll mean plenty of input and writing from the brilliant George Pelecanos.