The Wire season 5

HBO announced on September 12, 2006, that a fifth and final season consisting of 13 episodesbut later reduced to tenhad been commissioned. Production for Season 5 officially began on April 30, 2007. Filming wrapped early in the morning of September 1, 2007 and the first episode aired on January 6, 2008. In an interview with Slate on December 1, 2006, David Simon said that Season 5 would be about the media and media consumption. The theme, according to Simon, would deal with "what stories get told and what don't and why it is that things stay the same." Critic David Zurawik saw the unifying theme of the season as "public and private lies," particularly those perpetuated by the media and told by Jimmy McNulty in protest against cutbacks in the police department. TV Guide writer Matt Roush also saw the central theme as lies and characterized it as "deeply and darkly ironic." HBO sent critics the first seven episodes on DVD in December 2007. HBO's On Demand and multiplatform marketing division approached creator David Simon about producing exclusive on-demand content and three short prequel clips were produced that take place prior to the linear storyline of the show. The clips were made available via Amazon.com from December 5 and through HBO's on-demand service from December 15. The clips aired after Season 5 episodes as they premiered starting January 6, 2008. Locations At that Night at the Wire event, fans were allowed to tour the Baltimore Sun newsroom constructed for the show. The real newspaper allowed the show to use their name but stipulated that no current employees could appear in the series. The Wire is the first production to be allowed to film at the location; even the film ''All the President's Men'' about the paper's role in breaking the Watergate scandal had to build a set to represent the paper. and Clark Johnson would guest star in the fifth season. Johnson was later confirmed as joining the starring cast to play Gus Haynes, "a city editor who tries to hold the line against dwindling coverage, buyouts, and pseudo-news."The New Yorker described an early scene from the season where Haynes rants about a reporter inserting a charred doll into scenes of fires to eke more sympathy from his readers. Seth Gilliam as Western district Sergeant Ellis Carver; In addition to Johnson, joining the main cast in the journalism story line were Tom McCarthy as morally challenged reporter Karen L. Thorson returned as a producer. Political journalist William F. Zorzi continued to write for the show and guide the political storylines. Acclaimed crime fiction novelist Pelecanos returned as a writer and contributed his seventh episode to the series. Pelecanos's fellow crime novelists Richard Price and Dennis Lehane also returned as writers. Chris Collins returned as a staff writer and contributed his first script. David Mills contributed an episode, completing the writing team. New star Clark Johnson also helmed the final episode after previously directing the pilot. Other returning directors for the fifth season included Ernest Dickerson, Anthony Hemingway, Agnieszka Holland, Dan Attias, and Seith Mann. Series star Dominic West made his directorial debut. Husband and wife directing team Scott and Joy Kecken were also first time directors on the fifth season. ==Reception==

The fifth season received widespread acclaim from critics, scoring 89 out of 100 based on 24 reviews on Metacritic. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 93% with an average score of 9.8/10 based on 44 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Wire goes out with a suitably resonant bang in its final season, craftily maneuvering venturesome motifs and a colorful cast of characters to skillfully understated conclusion." Matt Roush of TV Guide favorably reviewed the series calling it "brilliantly bleak" and a "landmark series." Brian Lowry of Variety characterized the series' look at the media as the most realistic portrayal of a newsroom in film and television history. However, Leigh Claire La Berge found that "in the popular press [...] the level of critical anticipation that greeted that season was matched only by the immediate disappointment that followed it", noting that the season is The Wire's most explicitly didactic, the one that most obviously comments on the series's own fictionality, and the one with the least realistic plot. Thus in reviewing the first seven episodes of the fifth season David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun said that while "there is greatness in the seven episodes," the major newspaper storyline "contain[s] nothing that matches the emotional power and sociological insight of the show at its best." La Berge argued that it is precisely the fifth season's capacity to explore the social construction of realism itself that is the season's most important characteristic. Awards and nominations 60th Primetime Emmy Awards • Nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Ed Burns & David Simon) (Episode: "–30–") Writers Guild of America Awards • Nomination for Best Drama Series 24th TCA Awards • Award for Heritage Award • Nomination for Program of the Year • Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Drama • Nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Drama (David Simon) ==Episodes==

All episodes except "-30-" were made available by HBO six days earlier than their broadcast date, via On Demand. ;Notes ==References==