Credit: Larry Riley/HBO
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Actor Wendell Pierce takes his seat, slams down his newspaper, and hauls his drunken partner McNulty into a room to chew him out. Pierce plays Bunk, the surly detective waging a never-ending war on drugs in Baltimore on The Wire. But to the disappointment of many of the show’s fans, his fighting days and those of this acclaimed HBO series are numbered. The Wire enters its fifth and final season January 6 on a soundstage in Columbia, Maryland. “I’m sad and proud,” says Pierce, who served as the unofficial tour guide on set. “I mean, this is the defining moment of my career. It’s not often that you can be challenged as an actor while doing something commercial.”
The set has the warm feel of the first day back at high school as old faces catch up between takes. Sonja Sohn, who plays the tough-as-nails lesbian Detective Greggs, shows off the three-piece pantsuit wardrobe picked out for her. “I’m gonna take this home,” she whispers half-jokingly. “Nobody’s thinking about the end yet,” says Dominic West (McNulty) while eating a catered “lunch” served at 9:00 p.m. “People are just too busy.”
Truth is, all the cast can do is think about the end, because no one knows it yet. “The fifth season will say a lot about our media-saturated age,” West reveals. “It’s about how our opinions and policies are all informed by the media.” That’s a key point considering McNulty has a killer case on his hands (hint, hint). Later, while making a costume change in his trailer, Pierce offers what sound like parting words: “We’re not going to win a lot of awards because we didn’t play politics, but we’re going to be remembered. We’re like a great novel—our fans feel personally affected. That’s the role of art.”
What are your predictions for the fifth and final season of The Wire? Share your thoughts below
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