HBO stamps '30' on one of TV's finest dramas

One of the best shows in TV history comes to an end this weekend, but it's not getting the ballyhooed send-off of "The Sopranos" finale or the last "Seinfeld" or "Frasier" or "Cheers" or even the last "Will & Grace," for that matter.

It's situation normal for "The Wire," the understated HBO police procedural too good for television that has nonetheless survived somehow for five seasons and 60 complex, richly detailed, hyper-realistic episodes.

"The Wire" is proof that the top premium-cable channel is onto something when it claims "it's not TV, it's HBO." Just as no other channel could have produced "The Sopranos," the same is true of "The Wire." And when it concludes at 8 p.m. Sunday with the episode "30" (journalese for "The End") it might just put the finishing touches on a series even better than that sensational mobster drama.

It's too late to catch up with "The Wire," and the story has been too complicated to accommodate an easy synopsis in any case. Created by David Simon, the Baltimore Sun reporter who did the book that inspired the excellent NBC police series "Homicide: Life on the Street," and Ed Burns, a police officer turned teacher who had previously worked with Simon on the drug book and HBO miniseries "The Corner," "The Wire" began as a look at police working drug surveillance in Baltimore. It was uncommonly nuanced in the characters not just of the police, but of the criminals. Later seasons found it expanding its range into union corruption, political intrigue, a failed attempt at drug reform and the education system. This season, Simon has brought things full circle by focusing on journalism at the Sun.

The basic story has revolved around two main figures: Dominic West's self-destructive detective, McNulty, the original focal point of the series, and Tom McCarthy's ambitious reporter, Templeton, newly introduced this season. Both are working in fields with diminished resources; both have taken shortcuts to get what they want. With the police hamstrung by budget cuts, McNulty has faked a serial-killer case in order to justify added manpower he has secretly plowed back into the original "wire" drug investigation. Templeton, meanwhile, has created quotes and fabricated entire stories to advance his career.

Their stories have dovetailed, meeting up when McNulty placed a call to Templeton pretending to be the killer. That was after Templeton had already made things up to get himself put on the high-profile story.

In Sunday's penultimate episode, McNulty's ruse paid off when Clarke Peters' Lester Freamon used phone surveillance to orchestrate a drug bust crippling the drug organization run by Jamie Hector's Marlo, just at the point when Aidan Gillen's Mayor Carcetti was pleading for a victory over crime they could trumpet. Yet Sonja Sohn's detective Greggs, the show's other original central character, moved to reveal the faulty foundation of the entire investigation. It looked quite possible that a desperate McNulty might even end the series by eating his gun. And the newspaper editor Gus Haynes, played by former "Homicide" star Clark Johnson, began to put together a case exposing Templeton's fraudulent stories.

Johnson too comes full circle, as he directed the first episodes of "The Wire" and also directs Sunday's finale, from a script by Simon.

It seems clear that whatever fates befall McNulty and Templeton will provide most of the drama Sunday, but that won't be all by any means. Marlo's drug operation has begun to unravel and turn on itself, as when Tristan Wilds' young Michael killed Felicia Pearson's Snoop last week -- before she could kill him. Gbenga Akinnagbe's Chris, Snoop's old partner, may yet have to answer for the dozens of murders they committed in helping Marlo rise to power. I'd look for an open-ended conclusion, but one much more satisfying than the high-concept last scene of "The Sopranos."

I'd also expect more dead bodies in a series that has already seen the murder of Stringer Bell, Omar the Terror, Proposition Joe and Bodie, to name just a few. Even so, those characters live on because they were imbued with such life. I think the same can be said for "The Wire" as a whole. It figures to be a classic, and I believe it will be a long while before we see a better cop drama.