Cold turkey

Episode 10, Season 5 of The Wire has been and gone in this household, and a bittersweet night it was. I don’t remember when we started watching, but I do remember the kindly classics professor who turned us on. And I thank him to this day. There’s not a lot to be said about the perfection of The Wire that hasn’t already been said in more detail, and with more insight, than I could ever pull together. I’ll just add how all-engrossing it was. Of course it wasn’t real, of course we weren’t “there”, but we cared about Omar, Stringer, Bubbles, Prop Joe, the Greeks, Lester, Herc and the rest. We tried to work out a ranking of sins and retribution, guilt and deservingness. And I have to say, I don’t get what all the fuss was about in the portrayal of The Baltimore Sun in season 5. It seemed both entirely fair and entirely believable to me.

I’m told Burn Notice might be worth watching, and I’ll give it a shot, but then again ...

And then, suddenly, into an empty fantasy world, comes an amazing find: The Wire Bible. David Simon’s original pitch and three shooting scripts (two of which won’t download for me). This will fill the gap, for a while. Then, I know, I’ll be craving more.