Saying Goodbye to The Wire, Over And Over Again

As you may have heard a million and one times today, last night was the series finale of HBO's The Wire, David Simon's sad and probing look into the lives of some people who lived in an American city once. Today there has been heaps of coverage about the last gasp of the Greatest Television Show In The History of Ever, and it can be a little daunting to sort through it. So, we've gone ahead and put together a little digest of some of the more interesting write-ups after the jump. Plus, a little video bonus. Shiiiiiit. Goodnight, Baltimore.

• EW.com lists the 15 Most Brilliant Moments and manages to find some joy in the ending.
• New York Magazine has exhaustive, point-by-point commentary and a list of unanswered questions.
• The Baltimore Sun, which was heavily (too heavily, perhaps) focused on this season, was unhappy with this "once great" series' finale. Seems they maybe didn't like being depicted as Pulitzer hungry fabulists.
• The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley loved the ambiguity and uncertainty of the series. Oh, and she manages to bizarrely equate The Wire to that show Numb3rs.
• Slate counted down their Top 13 Moments.
• The Onion's AV Club has an interview with David Simon, who talks about his new miniseries Generation Kill, and waxes dramatically about The Wire's connections to Shakespeare, O'Neill, and Chekhov.

And now, as a final adieu to this most beloved and barely watched show, the five closing montages that played at the end of each season.

Season 1, song: "Step by Step" by Jesse Winchester

Season 2, song: "I Feel Alright" by Steve Earle

Season 3, song: "Fast Train" by Solomon Burke

Season 4, song: "Walk On Gilded Splinters" by Paul Weller

Season 5, song: "Way Down In The Hole" by Blind Boys of Alabama