The Wire: Complete HBO Season 5 | 
 enlarge | Actor: Dominic West
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £27.98
You Save: £12.01 (30%)
New (12) Used (2) from £26.00
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 148
Format: Box Set, Pal
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled), Danish (Subtitled), Finnish (Subtitled), Greek (Subtitled), Hungarian (Subtitled), Norwegian (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Swedish (Subtitled)
Rating: To Be Announced
Region: 2
Number Of Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.7
EAN: 7321902223384
ASIN: B0016OZ9Y6
Release Date: September 22, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
It's borderline tragic that one of American television's finest shows of recent times comes to an end with season five of The Wire. Long-praised for its astonishing mix of character, grit and outstandingly scripted drama, the upside is that the show sure goes out with some style. As with every season of The Wire, there's an underlying theme running alongside the exploration of both sides of Baltimore's drug problem, and this time it's the media. Fighting cutbacks, yet trying to maintain quality, the staff of The Baltimore Sun prove to be a compelling addition to the mix. On top of that, there's also Mayor Carcetti's battles at City Hall with the budget, a stretched police force looking for easy statistics, and fractions among the city's main drug dealers. Desperate times, ultimately, call for desperate measures, and it turns to McNulty to come up with a plan that threads through each of the city's factions. That The Wire has maintained its standards for five straight seasons is surely something to be celebrated all by itself. Yet what's even more remarkable is the way that it leaves our screens, seemingly forever. No character is safe and nothing is black and white, right up to the quite wonderful final episode. And what a way to go that last instalment proves to be. Giving nothing away, it's a superb fanfare to a genuinely stunning--and unequalled--piece of television drama. If you've not already, you really should find out what all the fuss about. --Simon Brew
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Masterpiece, Vol. 5 April 28, 2008
Petrolhead (Hong Kong)
72 out of 75 found this review helpful
This review will NOT spoil your enjoyment, I promise!
If you've watched the first four seasons of The Wire (and there's no point watching this if you haven't) you will know by now what to expect:
a gripping storyline with a new theme which allows David Simon and his team of writers to explore their Baltimore universe from a fresh angle, exposing the goodness in the bad guys and the badness in the good guys.
Except of course, you don't know what to expect at all, because Simon and his team of writers have always been brutally realistic in bumping off very serviceable characters (by the end of Season Four, almost none of the original hoodlums were still at large) and The Wire's storylines unfold unpredictably - previous episodes managed to veer from sickening loss to heart-warming camaraderie without ever losing the various threads of plot. Season Five is no different, either in its unpredictable plotlines or its nail-biting, tear-jerking, awe-inspiring mood swings.
This time, the new theme is the media - or more specifically the Baltimore Sun newspaper, where The Wire's creator David Simon cut his teeth as a reporter. As a reporter myself, I can attest that the depiction of the paper and its staff rings absolutely true. But more significantly, the bosses of the real Baltimore Sun agreed to have the paper feature in The Wire without disguising its name, which is testament to the trust they place in The Wire's writers and to their appreciation of its verisimilitude and integrity.
There's plenty of politics in this season, and as usual most of it is decidedly dodgy: back-handers, back-stabbing and below-the-belt punches.
Barack Obama told a US television magazine that this was his favourite show, so it can't be too wide of the mark. Of course it's not just the politicians doing the politics. There's intrigue and infighting all over Baltimore. Some of those caught red-handed (or even suspected of
complicity) are dealt with summarily, while others are dealt with "the Western District way". Without giving anything away, there are moments of sweet revenge, rough justice and triumphant "gotcha!" that linger long in the memory.
If I have one complaint about this season, it was that one plotline, involving the loveable rogue McNulty and some gentlemen from the media, was allowed to run so long. It's not so much that it was unrealistic, just that I found it extremely frustrating that the situation only got more tense as time went on, while I was practically chewing the arm off the sofa in my desperation for a resolution. Still, I suspect that it is my personal experience as a journalist that drove me to the brink, not any problem with the storyline itself, because when the resolution came, it was an ecstatic and sudden and brilliant denouement that totally redeemed the situation and restored my faith. I had been squirming for weeks as I tried to guess how things might play out, but was wrong every time. The simple turned complex, the complex simple. So if you too find yourself having doubts about one or two storylines, fear not, for The Wire will come back and hit you right between the eyes as usual.
As well as McNulty, who is back centre-stage after his low-key role in Season Four, this season stays in close touch with all the old favourites, while introducing a Baltimore Sun newsroom that includes all the psychological complexity you would expect from The Wire. The season has plenty to offer admirers of those charmers Bubbles, Bunk and Omar and it finally gets under the skin of that legal lizard Maury Levy, who had previously only slithered on and off occasionally. I'd been wanting to see more of him since he first dragged blabbermouth D'Angelo out of the cells by the ear in Season One. Here he recruits a new assistant, who you may recognise...
Season Five is unusual in that it only has 10 episodes, but the final episode is a wrap-`em-all-up double-length slam dunk which will leave you slack-jawed and wide-eyed at the brilliance of it all. Unlike Season Four, which left us hanging with a virtual "to be continued...", this one ends with a resounding finale which bids a fond or fearsome farewell to each of the characters still standing after five series. Crucially for The Wire's fans (including my entire office, now frequently calling out "Five-Oh, Five-Oh", "Red tops, Red tops" and the like), this is a satisfying ending. It would have been a disaster if Simon had bungled things right at the end of the best show ever, but rest assured, he doesn't.
The greatest TV show ever made. June 26, 2008
D. Brookes (Chorlton, UK)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
You see that this has had reviews already and it hasn't even screened in the UK? That's because this show creates obsessives, diehards who stream it after some US fan rips it and puts it online. It creates fans so dedicated that they watch it on some crappy streaming site, then buy it all over again and lend it out to friends, who in turn buy it. This show creates its own language between people, codes and characters to identify with.
Series five is not the best series of The Wire in my opinion, but The Wire at its worst is still absolutely fantastic. It's the final series too, so all the threads you want tied up get tied up whilst leaving the openness of what happens next in the show's 'reality' down to you in a phenomenally satisfying way.
Yes there are fewer episodes, but the final episode is feature length, so it's roughly as long as all the other series. To understand it fully, you need to watch in order. It cannot be understated how excellent and important this show was; it shows us that we can still make things that matter.
great final season to an exceptional show June 8, 2008
T. Lynes
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
like the other review said i don't want to spoil anything. This final season of the wire focuses once again on the lives of the people involved in Baltimore's drug problems. As well as McNulty and co, and Marlo and his crew, we now have the news press perspective on the war on drugs as it unfolds.
Whats really makes this a great show is all the little details, like a scene you may have remembered from an earlier season, and you did not take much notice of what happened, but then you see something in this season and it all makes sense !!
There are plenty of characters from earlier seasons that show up, and in my opinion it ties everything together nicely. Its hard trying to write anything else without giving anything away !!
Just for anyone mad enough who might think of watching this without watching the first 4 seasons , don't !. Watch them in order and you will be in for some treat, i would love to be able to sit down to the wire for the first time again. So njoy the final season of the finest show on television.
Simply Awesome July 22, 2008
LFP (London, England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is without a doubt the finest piece of television drama that I have ever seen. The sprawling cast of characters is never allowed to get out of control and somehow the numerous plot lines, some of which carry on from previous series, all manage to dovetail. I watched the series out of sequence (3,1,4,5,2) which, surprisingly, worked. Of course you get a little more background detail watching the characters develop if you watch in sequence but the writing is tight enough that you do not need to commit to watching 1-5 straight through.
The series is gritty but not in a brutally sensationalist way - while much of that is down to the subtlety of the plotting there are also stylistic devices used (such as the 'surveillance style' filming as opposed to in your face jump-cuts used in the Shield) to brilliant effect. In addition to that there is balance. There is, amazingly, a small amount of redemption in some of the plots and some dark humor but the over-arching narrative is what it is: an extraordinarily ambitious portrait of modern America, refracted through a view of a deeply troubled city - Baltimore.
This series should have over-reached itself and failed on many levels - consistency, continuation, pretension, interest and more. The fact that it does not is simply extraordinary. The comparisons to 'Russian' novels are apt in that sense.
...And so it goes August 28, 2008
Mr. David Halliday (Ilkeston Derbyshire United Kingdom)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Four consistantly brilliant series has seen this brutal tale of the war between the drug barons of west side Baltimore and the police department, in particular a surveillance unit set up to monitor the gangs.
As the series rolled around so it became obvious that there were never going to be any outright winners. A victory or two by one side would be rapidly wiped out by defeat elsewhere.
This reaches the only conclusion in the fifth & final series that it possibly can..everyone loses. Whether the loss is life, job's or honour &pride eventually only 1 character walks away from this having truly gained anything,(& in the usual perverse style of both life & this programme it is a character who has had 'victim' stamped all over them throughout),while everyone else just gets chewed up & spat out.
As ever the acting is of the highest calibre & all involved give of their best.
McNulty, always living close to the edge, finally falls over it & takes just about everybody with him. The gangs implode & turn on each other & themselves continually as Marlo steps up the fear factor but fails to earn respect.
Carcetti & the whole political circus descend into an abyss from which they will not return with Daniels feeling the backlash.
It is all pretty dark & hopeless and reflects reality all too clearly. The good vs evil battles taking place on the streets is not winnable by either side. In the end coming out of it with their lives is all any of the characters could realistically hope for & many don't even manage that.
So a superb end to a superb programme that has consistently entertained & pushed boundaries. The wire will be sorely missed by it's many fans & I really don't see anything taking it's place just yet. But it ended at the right time & as it should, instead of some pin-head just pulling the plug & leaving us all high & dry as happens with far too many series now, the wire has had a full season to wrap it up slowly & in style.
If you haven't seen the wire before then start at the beginning, season 1 sets the tone, but be aware it is not for the timid. Very strong language, violence, sexual scenes & drug use are common, it would have been pretty unrealistic otherwise!
The sound & picture are very good, not as easy as it may sound, as much takes place in gloomy or near dark areas. The extra's are better than usual but they are unlikely to make you feel any happier about this being the final series.
I have looked forward to every release of this & enjoyed every episode. The final series has seen me once again watching '1 more episode' well into the night. This was the final series the wire deserved.
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