Dork Reports

For now, at least. It took me over a year to finish five seasons of The Wire and now I wish I had more time to spend with the folks from Bal’more. I usually pour through shows on DVD, too eager to move on to the next episode, even if it means putting off sleep for an hour or two. Or four. I can’t even Netflix TV shows because I can’t handle the lag time between episodes. It was different with The Wire though, because I started watching it with Abe, and he exercises control in his life. Unlike others who have marathon-watched TV with me on a work/school night, Abe was not one to sacrifice sleep, not even for Omar, McNulty, or Bubbles. Plus, most of the episodes were on his computer, so even if I wanted to cheat and skip ahead, I couldn’t.

Well, with Abe no longer in the picture, I finished seasons four and five of The Wire in two weeks. And that was with some restraint as well, as there were days when I was tired or had something else to watch. But mostly, I just didn’t want the show to be over. Every episode I watched just reminded me I was that much closer to having to find another show to be obsessed about. That made me sad. And, I was also saddened by the fact that after watching three seasons with Abe, I had to finish it by myself. I don’t mean this in a Debbie Downer way, but I liked that we shared The Wire together, and there were so many great moments in the last two seasons that I know he would have loved as well. You know, those moments when someone would get called “shitbird” or there’d be some exchange of dialogue that would make you grab the other and exclaim an Asian country’s name in glee because it was just so awesome and snarky.

Anyway, after putting off The Wire for the past few days I decided it was time for me to face the end and watched episodes 9 and 10 of season five last night. I have to admit, season five wasn’t exactly my favorite season, probably because I could feel they were trying to tie all the loose ends together, but I still enjoyed it. Without spoiling it for my non-readers, there were some happy moments, some sad moments, and most of all, moments that made you think, “Damn, this show is good.” Not like Battlestar Galactica was a good show – which it was, to be fair, but was also kind of dumb – but like Six Feet Under was a good show. While watching the series finale of Six Feet Under, I cried like a big baby. Okay maybe I cried a little when BSG ended too. This didn’t happen with The Wire, I was glad to not be too sad, but also happy to not be disappointed.

And while I didn’t have it as bad as those who watched the original run in real time on HBO, sporadically watching The Wire over the course of a year has made me want to start from the beginning again because I think enough time has passed for me to want to revisit all those characters that made me love the show. Maybe I will, after I start Breaking Bad. Until then, I’ll just have to have fond memories of that crazy little show that showed me a little bit more about Baltimore, which I once drove through at 3:30am when there was nothing but trash and scary looking people walking around the city that smells like farts.