I would add that

1) the story of Bubble and Gerard served as a fifth example of a man reaching out to a boy only to find his efforts sorely insufficient

and

2) Namond may not be out of the woods, as is shown by the look on his face in the final moments, when he smiles at some gangster in a spiffy car flashing a gang side; he's got a taste for the street and will always fight against it

that should read "gang *sign*"

(not enough coffee this morning)

A good essay that still does not really capture the power and compassion of this show...a show that is, without any doubt at all, the best thing produced for television in the history of the medium.

This is entertainment for adults, and there is none of that elsewhere on television.

I've been a devoted follower of the show since season two, and I have to say it was very difficult to watch Bodie go to his doom..and that is the brilliance of this thing. Bodie was no saint. But even he, like Omar, had a code. Loyalty to his friends (the very thing that got him into the life, probably) in particular.. and loyalty to a certain kind of honor. He followed that code, and now he's gone.

A more melancholy example of the futility of our "war on drugs" is hard to imagine. It is a war that should never have been fought, and it has chewed up, what? three generations now? More?

and while Bodie is simply a drug dealer, and his death unremarkable to anyone who didn't know anything else it, to me it was like losing a friend I saw from time to time, who I worried about. I am very bummed-out this morning, not only about this character, and those kids who are doomed too (although Randy may survive, the kid he was is dead as Bodie), but that I have to wait another year for the final season..

and after that, unless Simon and his crew go on to some other thing, I probably won't be watching television anymore. After The Wire, nothing measures up. Not even close.

I know, Salon doesn't do drug policy any more. Drug policy can no longer be discussed by Democrats in public because it's too dangerous a topic to even think about these days.

Since this topic is now forbidden from public discussion, obviously it's ripe for fictional exploitation.

So I have three shows based on current events that I think could replace "The Wire" next season.

1. "Heads Off to Mexico" -- This story is set during the complete collapse of rule of law in northern Mexico. Fans of "Rome" who enjoyed the beheading of Pompey Magnus will get five times the rush from this one. Plus those narco-corridos celebrating the exploits of the beheaders and the beheaded will make a superb soundtrack, giving this show a Miami Vice breakout potential.

2. "The Dead Melon Patch" -- The setting for this story is the dumping of herbicides on the small precious regions of arable cultivable land that exist in Afghanistan. I see an honest, likeable helicopter pilot who falls in love with the fiery, independent daughter of a poor melon farmer whose crop the affable pilot has accidentally wiped out. The melon farmer complains to the Taliban, and complications ensue for the plucky, determined lovers!

3. "What the F*** Do We Eat Now?" -- This show takes place after the use of a genetically engineered "super fungus" to infect the soil in countries where cocaine and marijuana are grown. This script has "global sci fi environmental disaster drama" written all over it.

It could be a breakout hit, unless the fungus spreads and we all strave to death because there's no dirt left that's safe to grow food in any more.

It's more powerful than anything else I've ever seen on TV or on film. Everyone I've ever introduced to it has fallen for it, hard.

That said, the ending of Season 4 has been tough, real tough. It's absurd and somewhat stupid, but I feel really depressed today, almost on the verge of tears. And this is coming from a cynical and largely apathetic mule of man. I know it's just a story, but the effect it's having is difficult to deny.

So, I decided this morning I'm going to find a volunteer program in the local public schools (Chicago) and try to do some tiny part to help someone in a similar situation to what Randy or Dukie are going through. I never really seriously considered it before, but now, I can't just keep going home every night and sinking into my digital pod of an apartment. It may well be futile, but I don't know what else I can do and I don't want to be an Oblomov any longer.

I wish I had stayed home today, I feel terrible. What a weird, wonderful show.

Its interesting to read what is happening across the pond. In the UK we have massive social problems due to a failure to realise the effects of rapid changes in the way we live and work on the young of poor families.

My own view is that the virtual segregation of generations (promoted by media and advertising) is a lot to blame.

When I was in my teens I learned a great deal about how to be a grown up from being among older men.

Now it is always portrayed as "uncool" to associate with older people - unless they are gangsters or druggies.

The article was a nice summary of the show, and did a decent job of exploring the human side of the subjects. What it didn't do was talk seriously about the policy and procedure critiques. There is so much content in the 'Wire', so artfully inter-woven with the stories, that it would take a much longer essay to fully explain them, but I was hoping for a bit more than I got.

The challenges Carcetti faced in getting elected, and then governing; the utter obsurdity and detrimental effects of 'No Child Left Behind' and standardized testing in general; the sysiphean struggle of municipalities to fund education with no real help from the federal government. Passing mention was made to the compromises politicians make everyday, at the expense of their constituents, to preserve their own careers.

I have always felt that Salon is for some reason afraid or unwilling to dedicate themselves to the discussion of education policy. This lightweight submission on one of the most severe, adept, and unforgettable contemporary critiques of our government at every level, and especially in regards to how we treat our children, only reinforces my opinion.

Education is the silver bullet for crime, poverty, drugs, intolerance, and the much resented social welfare programs that deal with the aftermath instead of addressing the cause. Standardized testing is the single largest failure in public education since its inception, a fact put into sharp focus by NCLB policies and outcomes. If there is any universal testing that coud help our children, it would be intelligences testing at an early age- identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each individual child, adapting cirriculae accordingly, and tracking and testing progress throughout their school career.

I also agree with our British friend about age/class separation. Lev Vygotsky's theory of the Zone of Proximal Development supports a class structure that includes a range of ages and ablilities. Simply put, there are things one can learn on their own, things one can only learn with the help of a more knowledgeable other, and things that are developmentally impossible for a person to learn. By arranging classes according to ability, and minimizing the emphasis on age you remove the stigma of being 'left back a grade', or even 'skipping' a grade. There are many other benefits, including the socialization education children gain by observing not only their peers, but their elders as well. Instead of dividing children by the irrelevant metric of age, we should be grouping them by the unifying metrics of ability.

I hope Salon can make the effort for a more insightful analysis of media like this- it may be the only effective education tool the underprivileged masses have left and its importance should not be dismissed so lightly.