What is going to get me through the week now?

Last week I had to say goodbye to the last episode of THE WIRE. Now I know the show has been on cable ages ago but as I am terrestrial only - yes Constant Reader, I am the only one left - I caught up with it this year when it was shown on Beeb 2. It arrived heavily promoted as one of the greatest TV series so as I *always* miss out on these - usually over-hyped - series, I sat back with my best Impress Me face on. By the end of the first episode I was as hooked as any of the street junkies in the show!
Over the span of it's five series, the lives of a wide range of people are followed in the city of Baltimore. Each series focused on a particular organisation - the police, the dock workers, the politicians, the teachers, the journalists - their lives intersecting all the time either in a big or small way, and as a constant thread linking them all together, the dangerous internecine world of the street drug dealers. The genius of the show was to use mostly unknown actors in all the roles - of all the cast pictured here I only knew seven! - so you came to each character fresh with no preconceptions of previous roles played. Of course now whenever I see them it will be different! The main surprise was the casting of three actors who definitely are known to me: British actors Dominic West and Aidan Gillen in the pivotal roles of policeman Jimmy McNulty and politician Tommy Carcetti as well as American actor Clarke Peters as detective Lester Freamon, who is primarily known for his stage work in this country. I have always liked him but his work here was one of the many triumphs of the series.
Conversely Dominic West is an actor I have never particularly cared for but in the role of the flawed anti-hero Jimmy McNulty he was never less than compulsive. He is due to appear at the Donmar soon - at the same time as one of his WIRE co-stars Reg E. Cathey (who played Norman Wilson, Mayor Carcetti's gimlet-eyed political right-hand man) is about to star in the Morgan Freeman role in the ill-advised stage version of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.It is rare to look back over 60 episodes of a show and find not a single bad performance - not one false note struck. David Simon, the show's creator, producer and co-writer is to be applauded for his particular vision for the show - the characters frequently committed either major crimes or tiny cruelties which hurt the lives of others, but none were ever judged or played accordingly. How often do you see an American series where the police and the criminals are given equal weight? All the characters seemed to know what was the right thing to do... but the compromises and deal-making to do the right thing inevitably took them further away from their goal. So often I kept finding parallels to other drama - Shakespearean and Greek tragedy played out on the urban streets, the American tragedy of Arthur Miller played out on the docks or in school rooms... it really was that good.
So many great actors helped by nuanced direction and deeply-layered characters made an indelible impression that will stay with me for a long time. I will miss their stories of loss and redemption.

11.20 p.m. won't seem the same again.