HBO's drama about the drug wars of Baltimore is back Jan. 6 for its fifth and final season.
1. IT'S LIKE A SMART REALITY SHOW—MINUS THE TRASHINESS AND GUILT It's a raw slice of life within a city in turmoil. I'm a big fan of Law & Order and CSI, but only The Wire avoids caricatures with pitch-perfect depictions of the criminals scrapping their way to the top of a bloody heap, the jaded cops and politicians trying to do the right thing as chaos reigns, and the citizens caught in the middle, just trying to survive.
2. OMAR LITTLE, THE BEST OUTLAW ON TV Picture Clint Eastwood as a black, gay, shotgun-slinging vigilante who gleefully robs—and kills—the drug dealers of Baltimore. As Little, Michael Kenneth Williams steals every scene; whether he's doling out brutal justice or hard-edged tenderness to those loyal to him.
3. THERE ARE NO HOLLYWOOD ENDINGS Without the happily-ever-afters, everyone is expendable—and each suspense-filled episode gives you plenty to think about afterward.
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