The Wire Begins to End: I have seen episode one of the fifth and final season of The Wire. The episodes are coming out week ahead of time on HBO On-Demand. It starts out with a standard boilerplate police interrogation, which is weak and obviously there to give voice to David Simon's social commentary, but it picks up a bit from there. The bigger problem -- which may be isolated to the first episode -- is that everyone is talking to position themselves vis-a-vis upcoming developments. There's none of the naturalistic dialogue we are used to from this bunch.

Also worrisome is that the high-powered media types who have had advanced viewings, and the bloggers who have pirated copies, of most of the series are not responding all that well. After four seasons, and with the end in sight, The Wire was finally getting something similar to hype. Maybe it was better off obscure. Next month I should have a better take, with four or five episodes out.

It's good to see Homicide alum Clark Johnson back as the City Desk editor at the Baltimore Sun. Fine actor.