For cast and crew, the end of 'The Wire'

After five seasons, HBO show faces its final chapter

From left: Dominic West, Benjamin Busch, and Johnnie Louis Brown in a scene from the Baltimore-set HBO series "The Wire." (Paul schiraldi/hbo)

WASHINGTON - It was about 10 p.m. on a Friday and somewhere in Columbia, Md., David Simon, creator of the HBO series "The Wire," was giving a tour of the sights: There, he said, pointing, was the Baltimore mayor's office. Over there? The city's Western District police headquarters, and there, that little closet of a room, "that can be the visiting room at Jessup." Pause. "Or the jail. Depends. We just redecorate."

As he stood on a platform, taking in his world, it was hard to ignore the irony: For the past two years, a good chunk of "The Wire," a show that critics have praised for the grittiness of its inner-city verite, has been filmed in an anonymous suburban soundstage - one that reportedly will be turned into a massive food market.

After five seasons, and this final episode, they would be done.

"It's time," said Clarke Peters, who plays Detective Lester Freamon, "to pull the plug on 'The Wire.' "

It is the actor's lot to say goodbye again and again, to bond with cast and crew, only to be sent scattering after the wrap. But this, everyone insisted, would be a particularly sorrowful parting: This morning, they buried one of their own, the daughter of a crew member who died of breast cancer. Tonight, they were putting "The Wire" to rest.

"I was a wreck," said Deirdre Lovejoy, who plays Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman on the show. "But there was a funeral and that put everything in perspective." She looked around the room at everyone guzzling champagne, slapping backs, and engulfing each other in hearty bear hugs. "This is a happy death."

Simon, who once covered cops for the Baltimore Sun, always knew that "The Wire" would end at exactly this point. When the show debuted in 2002, he saw it as a visual novel, with each season a distinct chapter exploring an aspect of inner-city life: The first season examined the drug trade; the second focused on Baltimore's longshoremen; the third grappled with politics and reform; the fourth dug into education and the lives of the city's children.

This season, which begins airing Jan. 6, explores the media, featuring a morally challenged reporter played by Tom McCarthy, who wrote and directed the indie film "The Station Agent."

"The Wire" has always struggled in the ratings; last season it averaged 1.6 million viewers per episode. But it's enjoyed the admiration of critics. Notwithstanding the giant soundstage, a good 50 percent of the show was shot on location in Baltimore, with real-life characters frequently sprinkled in with the fictional ones.

Over the years, Simon has carved out a cottage industry from covering Baltimore's drug and crime issues, from "Homicide" to the HBO miniseries "The Corner," based on his book, to "The Wire." But despite the show's depiction of Baltimore as decaying and dysfunctional, the city has benefited greatly from its presence, including tens of millions of dollars it has brought in revenue to the city. In many ways, "The Wire" is a long, convoluted love letter to Baltimore.

But even the greatest love affairs come to an end.

Said Wendell Pierce, who plays Detective William "Bunk" Moreland: "He told us from day one, 'It's a novel.' He had the novel in his head, and he wouldn't share with us."

It wasn't until last year that Simon told his cast that this season would be the last.

"If you get five years out of a TV show," Pierce said with a shrug, "that's pretty successful. I'm proud of it. . . . We showed the possibility of television used as an art."

This sensibility of art as mission statement pervades the conversations of everyone here. They don't talk about TV, they talk about "television." There is a sense of them being the earnest outsiders, messengers shining a klieg light on society's ills.

It was sweltering on the set of the cop shop: No cooling fans allowed during filming. Too noisy. It meant that between takes, the makeup artists rushed in to dab at the sweat on the faces of Pierce and Dominic West, the British actor who plays Officer James "Jimmy" McNulty.

At 9 p.m., it was time for "lunch," which was held in a giant tent outside the warehouse. Surrounding it were massive trailers: wardrobe trailers, caterer's trailers, even bathroom trailers." Folks were queuing in the food line, loading their plates with lobster tails, steak, and baked eggplant before heading into the tent.

Notwithstanding the cameras, the makeup artists, and the high-rent grub, this was your standard office party. On the walls of the tent, a gag reel was projected, a litany of you-had-to-be-there jokes: close-ups of actors munching on chips, belching, cursing, a montage of the show's extravagant use of the F-word. Actors wandered in with their families, while Andre Royo, who played Bubbles, ran around, dressed like a newspaper peddler, handing out copies of a fake newspaper, "The Wire," with a giant headline: "HBO SERIES WRAPS PRODUCTION: Fifth season concludes in Baltimore; Emmy voters will be given one last shot to get it right."