MovieChat Forums > The Wire (2002) Discussion > if they'd wrapped things up in season 4 ...

if they'd wrapped things up in season 4 (spoilers)

posted 4 years ago by daveyh (583)
3 replies | jump to latest

While I still enjoyed Season 5, I know it gets a lot of flak from fans for the unrealistic fake serial killer storyline, the lack of depth to the newspaper staff, Omar's "spiderman" escape etc.
I've also got to say on further viewings that while the first half of season 4 is amazing, I'm not convinced by the way it finished. Naymond being adopted by Colvin felt like a deus ex machina, likewise Duquan moving in with Michael. And while Randy's fate was horrifying on first viewing, the more I watch it the more I realise he wasn't screwed over by the system, he was screwed over by an implausible convergence of circumstances.
So I'm wondering could they have wrapped up Season 4 a little more conclusively and the show had ended there? We'd have seen Omar happily ride off in to retirement (and be spared Butchie's death), we'd not have the downer of seeing McNulty returning to his old ways....the only happy ending we'd miss out on would be Bubs, but again, season 4 could have ended another way without what happened with Sherrod.
And in season 4 there's a subtlety about the youngsters being a kind of origin story for the more established characters. As brilliant as the final montage of season 5 was, I think it's fair to say the subtlety had gone.
Would people have preferred it to end after Season 4? Or do we need season 5 for more closure?

[–] LockardTheGOAT (342) 3 years ago

Season 3 would have been the only acceptable place to end the show before Season 5 - The Barksdale organization crumbling to dust, Marlo's crew stepping up as the new kingpins, Omar moving on from his beef with the Barksdales, McNulty stepping down from the Major Crimes Unit, etc. There was enough feeling of closure to it that it would have been an acceptable ending.

But we needed Season 5 to really give the show the sendoff it deserved. They invested too much into Marlo's story (and McNulty, Freamon's, etc.) to just end it abruptly with S4.

[–] daveyh (583) 3 years ago

thanks for the response. Very true re season 3 - you'd also have Prez leaving the force altogether (and seeming at peace with it, as you see with his conversation with Freamon on the park bench), and Cutty's reform arc is complete by then too. The only thing that's still open is Carcetti - all of season 3 is building up to his run to be mayor. So even if they had wrapped up all the other stories in season 4, Carcetti's barely started as mayor so it would still need another series for his story to play out.
And like you say by then they'd invested so much in Marlo's gang, and also things still connected to politics (the Clay Davies case, Daniels' promotion, etc) that it would have been too abrupt to try to wrap it up in the last few episodes of season 4.

[–] Boricanator (1369) 2 years ago

I feel the same way. It should’ve ended in Season 3. Season 4 felt forced and Season 5 was needed to wrap up Season 4. I felt it could’ve been its own show.