The Icepick Cometh

Think I've seen “The Wire” series finale four times now (thanks to HBO's repeated showings). I've already discussed my thoughts, and I've got at least one or two others percolating that I may or may not get to.

One digression: After the third time I watched the montage at the end of this episode, for the life of me, it got me to thinking about the montage that came at the end of Boogie Nights, which used "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys as its music. Maybe because it was late when I was watching “The Wire” re-run, but after Rawls got his promotion to State Police super, I could've sworn the next shot would've been of The Colonel getting the beat down by his prison-cell roommate ("shut up, Colonel!"). Or maybe it was wishful thinking that Rawls would someday still get his just desserts.

But on a serious note, “The Wire's” last montage was one of the many things I loved about that final episode, and bringing back the Blind Boys of Alabama's version of "Way Down in the Hole" was note-perfect. That was one of the first songs I picked up when I began my iTunes account (that, and the Ryan Adams tune from the opening credits of Old School and the Black Flag version of "Louie, Louie" from the same flick — an odd trifecta, I know). I'm glad this montage used the full (or nearly full) version of "Way Down in the Hole" (when it's used as a credit-sequence opener, the song is necessarily truncated); it's such a perfect song, and it was the perfect way to punctuate the end of the series, segueing from McNulty on the expressway to the drug dealers to the politicians to Dukie to the newsroom to the prison yard in slow motion to the empty Season 1 sofa in the Pit to the Ports to that great rapid-fire sequence of real-life Baltimore residents to suddenly close back on McNulty.

Any other great movie- or season-ending montages? (not sure if the end of Animal House counts.)

For the record, I liked the other montage songs that closed the previous four seasons — they're on “The Wire” soundtrack, which I got last month and have been listening to almost non-stop since.