So I finished watching the rest of the episodes a little while ago, but reading the "best TV show ever!" thread made me think of this, because The Wire really is the best TV show ever made.

Season 4 is really engaging. Bunny Colvin is great as usual, but in a new area. Most of the kids have very tragic stories, especially Randy. Marlo is his usual badass self.

Season 5, as I said earlier, is a bit weird. It's not bad by any means, and adds the interesting perspective of the media. But the overplot is a bit out there. It's probably not much more weird than Hamsterdam of season 3, but it seems like it. McNulty and Freamon go a little off their rocker, though it was a good way to end things. Some things change, but most trout stays the same. It was both really great and really frustrating to see that self-absorbed snake Carcetti not live up to anything. He's arguably worse than someone like Burrell, because Carcetti knows what's wrong and what's right and consciously chooses wrong where it suits his career (albeit with transparent, self-interested rationalizations like "I'll be able to help more in Annapolis!"), whereas Burrell is just a clueless hack.