Oh man, The Wire only had five seasons!
And we just finished it. We are bereft! Luckily, I cleverly noticed that author Richard Price wrote a whole bunch of episodes, and his latest book "Lush Life" was conveniently available in the Cupertino library's excellent bestseller browsing section, so I snapped it up!
It absolutely filled the void for the time I was reading it. All kind of criminal-cop dialogue and urban decay and the general awesomeness that The Wire delivered so consistently. He's written seven or eight other books, of which I have only heard of "Freedomland" and "Clockers", so I hope those live up to my sky-high expectations. No pressure or anything.
And, although Richard Price didn't write it, I really liked the last episode of the series. <SEMI SPOILER>I thought it was so tragically satisfying the way someone is always waiting to fill any vacancy (retirement, death) ... like Sydnor becomes McNulty, Michael becomes Omar, Dukie becomes Bubbles ... everything changes but nothing changes at all. Too big and cracked-out to change.</SPOILER>
I could have watched that forever. I bet the City of Baltimore's PR department is pretty happy it's done, though.
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We are going to the east coast in a few weeks and we are going to take The Wire tour of Baltimore. No joking.
I guess I will have to read Lush Life in the meantime. Thanks for the reminder that it is out there.
We went on YouTube and watched interviews with the people who played Marlo and Snoop. So Marlo is a total actor, all smily and turtleneck-sweater wearing and classically trained, and Snoop ... is Snoop. Spent years in jail for attempted murder. She said The Wire was like her life.
DAMN!