Thanks for aggregating, Richard. Also - Season 5's song is currently unavailable.

Can we have a do-over on the generally lame season 5? Surely there could have been a better plotline than the wacky hijinks of Lucy and Ethel--I mean, Jimmy and Lester--as they launched their daffiest caper yet, no?

Even the sight of Omar stalking the streets like some demented biblical angel of vengeance couldn't make up for the overriding silliness.

@VirusWithShoes: Hm. Replacing with another one. We'll see if that works.

Good Night, Baltimore, and good luck with that case of the crabs. At least you still have your title as VD capital of the U.S.

Someone should tell Sheila that NYMag didn't watch every single minute of The Wire if they think those questions are unanswered.

"Step by Step"? Like the New Kids?

Karen Valby on EW.com pretty much echoes my feelings. I'll miss this a lot.

@Conbon: Agreed. Bit of a puzzle, that one.

Spitzer just couldn't let Baltimore have one day in "The Sun"
All in the game.

@VirusWithShoes: I really miss the days when the Internet didn't know about this show. So, last year.

i was awestruck this a.m. when i found all the montages online.

@Conbon: Ha! I say that about so much these days. Thought it was just me, my ego, or some electronic nostalgia trip to back in the days when I was the only guy I knew who spoke about "the internet" or "email".

I'll probably write about it one day, probably a year after you write about it a whole lot better. If you haven't done so already. You fuck.

@VirusWithShoes: I make sure to write about everything ever so I can feel righteously indignant when other people write about it and misinterpret everything so badly. Sanctimony is time-consuming!

@Richard: Oh, yeah - that one works. Thanks, Richard.

Still get a lump in my throat when I see Bubs sit down with his sister. Mind you - I'm such an emotional mess at the best of times, all of you couldn't help but love me.

See?

@Conbon: You did strike me as pretty energy-efficient. I was going to mail you and ask for your energy rating, but I'm of the opinion that some questions are best left unsaid, with the answers simply inferred. Or transmitted via untapped psychic powers.

@Conbon: I'm watching all the internet shows before TV discovers them.

I wish I was dead.

Ha! The Baltimore Sun blog is prettyfuckinbitchy.

Also, where are all the other commenters? This was televisual history. Thoughts, please.

Isn't Stanley actually saying it isn't like "Numb3rs"?

@Richard: Sorry to flag this, but your NYT link points to the Bitchymore Sun blog.

I'm walking a fine-line between nit-pickery and servicey, I know. I'm blaming Quarterlife and some sort of residual intellectual concussion.

@Richard: Wanna hear something you aren't allowed to say on the internet?

My So-Called Life is mind-numbingly boring. For real.

@Conbon: You. Bite. Your. Tongue.

@VirusWithShoes: Blargh. Fixing.

@ohkay: She is stating a difference between the two, but she calls it "another intelligent show" like The Wire, basically. Those two shows should never be compared in their "intelligence" level.

@Conbon: Agree to disagree on that one.

Heaven and Here is, was and always will be the single best source of Wire-related writing.

@dustym: Thanks for that. Although, kinda wished I'd discovered it sooner.

Stanley Error Report: She claims that McNulty turned himself in, which is of course wrong. One of the other detectives ratted him and Lester out to Daniels.

I demand a correction.

Gawker, when you make this a post where the comments are visible on the front page, you end up with possible spoilers on the front page.

@Richard: Fair enough.

@moff: Good things comments don't appear on this site, eh? Am I right? Heh.

Of the Baltimore set shows, Homicide Life on the Street was the best. Although the best line of that series was uttered by Richard Belzer in the pilot, "Don't you ever again lie to me like I'm Montel Williams. I am not Montel Williams. I am not Montel Williams!" If memory serves they did a couple of jump cuts with it.

@moff: You what the thing about spoilers is? There's no such thing. Either watch the show with everyone else, or tough titty for you. I found out about Omar from the internet and I was bummed, but it was my fault for not watching on time. The world cannot wait. Otherwise we're just a John Mayer song.

@Triborough: Wasn't it great to see Belzer in the second to last episode?

@moff: Though to be fair (and drunken ramblingy) Alex Balk, everyone's personal fucking hero, once threatened to read the last chapter of Harry Potter aloud in the office when he got an advance copy. I ran out of the office with my hands over my ears, so upset. He didn't, of course, end up reading it. Because he is a good man. But that was a preemptive spoiler. After the fact, it's just called... well, facts.

(I had a friend buy HP at a Duane Reade in Chinatown that was selling the book illegally on Thursday. I read the whole thing in a day and a half, before the book was technically available. The lesson in all of this is that I have a severe problem. And if some insider from Lost ever ruins anything for me, I will gut them like a fucking fish.)

Drunk Richard is mean.

@Conbon: You have no idea.

@Richard: My dad told me about Omar's death. He knew I hadn't seen the episode yet. I will remember this when it is time to choose his nursing home.

@Conbon: You should go with that crooked one you heard about on the news.

Does this mean we can officially begin the beautification of America by hydrogen-carpet-bombing B-More?

@Richard: Or (to correct the reference) on 60 Minutes.

@Richard & Conbon: Omar is DEAD?!?!!!?

@Richard: I think I took the day off from Gawker when Deathly Hallows came out, not just because I was reading the book, and not just because I was going to Siren Fest, and not just because I was actually at Siren Fest reading the book, but also because I only mostly trusted Balk's innate goodness.

@Conbon: Like Superman.

@Conbon & Richard: My brother and I used to use that Golden Girls line, "Shady Acres, ma, Shady Acres," on my mom and dad, but that was before we came up with Dead Man's Curve Ice Cream, which is where they always have to get us ice cream from, ever since they went over their estate documents with us.

I'm going to bed now. I have had a sublime day.

Well, I was waiting to watch the entire show on DVD and was studiously avoiding this post because I didn't want any spoilers... but because I follow comments from half the people posting in this thread, I guess I won't get too attached to whoever the hell Omar is.

@moff: shady pines moff, shady pines. brilliant shows.

@Hez: if that ends up being true, you have no soul.

@dustym: meh. Heaven and Here is cool but it's um a bit heavy on the post-structuralist cult stud shit for my taste. A Thousand Corners ([athousandcorners.blogspot.com]) gets the job done much less grad schoolishly.

Alessandra Stanley totally misunderstood the scene with Marlow fighting with some corner boys. Her column read like a transcript of the show, and a poorly done one, at that.

@dutchtwista: That's reasonable. I'm in complete agreement on A Thousand Corners being excellent.

H&H is part of a greater universe of heavy handed grad schooly (but tongue in cheek!) writing that I'm a fan of (see freedarko). That said, Tim Goodman's blog is also great source for Wire reading.

@timbnyc44: I agree. Wasn't Marlo testing his old g-thing muscles a little bit there? He challenged them, disarmed them and ran them off and then laughed about the little scratch on his arm. His final expression was a twinge of nostalgic satisfaction.

@Sigerson: I saw it more like a drug habit he can't kick. All he has to do is retire from the street and he is free, but retirement will prove impossible. He LOVES the game, and being hard is the only thing that matters. So more desperate than nostalgic. But yeah, Stanley is unbelievable in her dauntless quest to always. miss. the. fucking. point.