Farewell to The Wire as Final Episode is Shot

This past Friday the final episode of the final season of The Wire was shot. The program was a realistic exploration of desperate inner city life. "Gritty" is the term most often used to describe it, and that is apt as desperate inner city life is gritty at best. To make the series real, it pulled half of its cast from the street.

This past season, season four, was mesmerizing and scary. Its most compelling character, Snoop [pictured above], was also its most terrifying. A braided, small androgynous lesbian, she was an assassin for a drug ring. One of the best and most daring tv moments was when Snoop was in Home Depot checking out nail guns, and not for home repair. The Wa Post did a profile of her in March. In short, the actress did time for killing a 16 year-old and is only 24 herself. So The Wire put people on tv who were really scary, and not actors.

I defer to Rob in terms of the positive or negative influence of The Wire on the Baltimore economy. The Balto Sun claims that the tv show pumps about $17 million into the Balto economy per year. I am more skeptical, as I think that people who don't know Balto think of The Wire when they think of Charm City and thus do not want to go there. I spent nine unhappy months in Balto (sorry, Rob) and when I mention that to friends they all say, "Yeah, it must have been so The Wire."