March 07, 2008 - Saying Goodbye to "The Wire"

David Simon's tantalizingly multilayered HBO drama series ends Sunday night at 9 with an expanded final episode - one that starts with the major learning of the duplicity of his own police force, and ends with one of the series' end-of-season trademark musical montages.

For details, you'll have to watch. I'm not about to spoil the fun of those who have stuck with The Wire to the bittersweet end sprinkling spoilers throughout a farewell preview.

Some points, though, can be made without ruining any of the fun. And ought to be made, because a series this good doesn't come around very often.

First, Simon's choice for the song to be used in the final montage is not only perfect, but, in its way, inevitable.

Second, watch that montage very, very carefully. In a few frames, without any accompanying audio, we get bits of closure regarding one story line after another. Some seem maddeningly arbitrary or unfair. At least one brings a smile to the heart, and provides a happy grace note amid so much desperation, depression and disintegration.

In between those two poles - the discovery that McNulty (Dominic West) has faked the serial killings, and the end of the episode - The Wire does its best to service both its stories and its characters, leaving you with reverberating memories of both.

I'll continue to miss characters who didn't make it all the way to Sunday's finale - and once Sunday gets here, I'll miss this whole series, just as I still wonder what's happening to the residents of Deadwood. At least The Wire got to end its story the way it wanted, on its own terms and timetable.

Fans of this show won't expect a happy ending. But if there is a true happy ending in store for The Wire, it'd be for the show, and some of its players and contributors, to be remembered, rather than egregiously ignored, come Emmy nomination time.