Watch The Wire: The Last Word For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

Just perfect...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

To help me gradually get used to the fact that The Wire is now finished I watched the couple of documentaries on the DVD set of the fifth and final season. The first film was The Last Word, which explores the main topic of the season – the media and their role in focusing on the problems and bringing reality to the attention of readers. For the majority it does this and does it very well although for some reason it does become a season 5 promo in the last five minutes – no idea why but it is not too painful. What we get for the rest are mostly very relevant talking heads discussing the issues that we have seen in the show and adding a lot of meat and opinion to that.Some of the contributions are pointless (one or two of the actors have nothing to say and no time to say it in) but the real problem yet again is the fact that the makers seem to have forgotten that the audience for this film is an audience of Wire viewers. These viewers are fine with slow development, intelligent commentary, few musical beds and so on. So it is a bit of a problem that this film is delivered in a frantically edited style with lots of music, lots of clips, lots of sound-bites and no time for reflection. If it had no substance to it then this might be for the best but The Last Word is actually worth listening to because it is informed, thoughtful and interesting.So another solid documentary/DVD extra from The Wire but again it is a shame that it seems to have been put together with MTV viewers in mind.