Finished The Wire last night (spoilers)

I've been watching it gradually over the last few months, but really hit it hard the last week or two (watched seasons 4 and 5 in that time span). Finished the finale last night.

Fantastic show. I had always heard pretty much nothing but good things about it, and people always tout it as "OMG best show evar!!" and all that, so I was a bit apprehensive going in because I didn't want to expect too much. And all in all, it's just great. Definitely lived up to most expectations I had and I had heard from others.

Funny thing is, it's hard to explain why it's so good; it just kinda is. I mean, the tons of different plot lines are almost all interesting, the characters are fantastic, the acting is great, etc. But those are pretty general things...it's hard to say specifically why the show is so good. I had read an overall synopsis of the series and saw that each season focused on a different aspect of the city (drug trade, seaport, government bureaucracy, school system, and print media) and was worried that some seasons would struggle compared to others...but that really didn't happen. Aside from maybe a few of the plots, I pretty much liked it all.

Best seasons (or should I say my favorite) are 1 and 4...I really liked the whole dynamic of the Barksdale organization, and season 4 with the kids was really interesting to me.

Also, aside from one fairly huge spoiler I read on here (in a Walking Dead thread, no less...about Stringer getting killed), I was able to stay away from them, which made it all the better. And to be honest, even knowing the couple of spoilers that I did know didn't really ruin anything, because you're never really surprised when people die or something bad happens, because that's how shite goes in that kind of setting.

Favorite character overall is prolly Cutty for me. Other favorites are Bubbles, Omar, Stringer, Slim Charles, Bodie, Chris Partlow, and Marlo. Least favorite is Snoop (by a fricking TON...she fricking sucked bad), Cheese, Greggs, Daniels's wife, Clay Davis (sheeeeeeeeeeeeet....), Namond Brice, and prolly a few more I can't think of.

As far as the best show ever, I'm not so sure...but it's definitely up there, no doubt. And I feel like the more I reflect on it and think about it, the more I'll like it. Anyway, thanks to the M/TV Board over the years for talking this show up to the point where I felt like I finally had to check it out, cuz I'm really glad I did. It's awesome. And feel free to bring up anything about the show in discussion...spoil away, if you will. I haven't really talked to anyone about it since I've been watching it, so I've been wanting to talk about it and I'm open to any discussion about the show.