[jancsika]

I think the Wire excelled at a more difficult game because the writing adhered to a kind of journalistic dogma that didn't allow for many of the tricks used in the storytelling of Breaking Bad or The Sopranos. Walt could blow up a room and not only survive, but convince a psychopathic drug dealer to do business with him by that very act. Tony Soprano could garner empathy and understanding by showing us his dream sequences. But The Wire gave its audience only what its characters said and did. Characters who-- by and large-- couldn't just "problem solve" their way out of their circumstances like Walt did so often.

[DanBC]

McNulty planting evidence in the Journalism season was such bullshit though.

[balls187]

How so?

Season 5 is the most underappreciated season, but I've really started to appreciate it.

McNulty has been a character who believes the ends justify the means. In Season 1, he falsifies that Sidner (iirc) was on the roof, thus allowing the police to admit phone tapped evidence.

In Season 5, it shows how taking that mentality of by any means necessary can quickly spiral out of control.