You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole.

And just like that, it's over. The Wire is gone for good. David Simon wanted five seasons to tell his story and after five, it is no more. I'm having some difficulty with it.

The Wire wasn't just a show. It was too big to ever think of it as merely a show. It was powerful and riveting. It was a force of nature. It came down like the hand of God and said, "Here. Look at this. This is the world and this is how it really works. No bullshit."

From the lowest of the low to the highest halls of power you saw everything and everything you saw was truth. An entire city was deconstructed from the sewers up and you were shown how it all fit together from the hard light of day on the streets to the man behind the curtain during the darkest time of night. No one was safe and the only thing held sacred was the truth.

This wasn't some same old same old cop show that was mostly about great cops, with maybe one sort of flawed guy in there for flavor, that always got their man and taught you a valuable lesson and everything was tidy before the credits rolled. Not all the cops were that great and most of them were deeply flawed. The criminals got equal time and equal development and some of them actually made you give a damn about them. Then there were the lawyers, judges, teachers, school kids, union workers both dirty and clean, wise guys, reporters and politicians of all makes and models. You've never seen so many characters in one show and they were ALL great.

I was drawn to it because I recognized the streets where they filmed. That was my city they were showing and they better not fuck it up. I stayed because having seen it I couldn't look away. This was, without exception, the best series to ever air on TV. Ever.

So to the entire cast and crew and to Mr. Simon I say thank you. It was my honor to have experienced this wonderful and amazing thing that you created.