HBO’s The Wire returned to the screen last week, marking the beginning of the show’s fifth and final run.
“I’ve had about four months to get used to it,” show star Clarke Peters told TV Guide when asked how he felt about The Wire, which is shot primarily in Baltimore, coming to end. “You’re not seeing the crew anymore, you’re not working on the stories, so Baltimore seems to be fading into the background, but I like Baltimore, so I’m here.”
On The Wire, Peters plays Lester Freamon, a veteran detective for the Baltimore Police Department who has spent countless years tracking down the money laundered by the town’s drug kingpins and corrupt politicians. With this season being the last, viewers will see some kind of resolution, although Peters was reluctant to say whether or not the resolution is desirable.
“Let’s put it this way: If that’s the catchphrase, ‘Follow the money,’ which we’ve been saying since the first season, you can rest assured that [creator/ executive producer] David Simon and [producer] Ed Burns are not going to just let that disappear,” Clarke Peters said. “We continue to follow the money in this season. What is interesting is that I met the man who actually worked a case like this, who Ed I think based some of Lester’s personality on, and he said he had coined the phrase ‘You gotta follow the money,’ and in his words he followed the money right up to Annapolis and then was, let’s say, discouraged from going any further. Now whether that’s what happens in The Wire you’ll just have to wait and see.”
As per the network, the final season of The Wire focuses on the media and its role in addressing – or failing to address – the various social, economic and political issues raised over the course of the series. In line with that theme, Peters says that viewers will see how the media affects the money trail.
“We will certainly hear more about the money, and you’ll see how following that trail is actually affected by the press,” he said. “It changed my perspective on what’s happening in newspapers today and how a simple byline has a far-reaching effect. And it’s David speaking much more about the world he knows, and there’s some really interesting stuff going on there.”
The Wire airs Sunday nights at 9pm on HBO.
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: TV Guide
(Image Courtesy of HBO)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
