The Wire, HBO's beautifully weary drama, documents the decline of industrial America. Having explored the docks, and failing schools, the fifth and final season introduces a new setting: the depressed newsroom of the Baltimore Sun, as it struggles to stay relevant in the increasingly binary American newspaper industry. Most telling line, from a bitter Sun reporter yearning to do real journalism: "The Times, The Post. Where else?" (Click the video for one of the sadder scenes from last night's show; after the jump, more on The Wire and the media.)

The episode was littered with allusions to the state of media both glaring ("The bigger the lie, the more they believe" said one cop of his interrogation methods) and subtle (the last scene, Bunk reading the Sun, commenting on McNulty the "prodigal son." Get it??) How effective this little-seen show (it attracts approximately 11 regular viewers) will be in making the rickety old papes penitent in any way may be in question, but there are certainly lessons to be learned here. Reflected back to us is a world where the latest batch of dope is called Greenhouse Gas - "It's hot!" - and dead eyed newspaper staffers stare at a distant urban fire with shrugging passivity. Indeed something somewhere is burning, and David Simon and Co. continue to tease at the source, blowing plumes of necessary smoke our way.

Oh, and Aiden Gillen's resemblance to Tea Leoni continues to alarm.

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