I think The Wire season 5 is a perfect 10-for-10.

You know, it's funny, because I had this problem for a long time, but I ultimately found the finale very satisfying. Mostly, I think that's because, even if the consequences of his actions didn't really catch up to him, the show demonstrated Raylan had changed, as he acted in a way he would not have when the series…

I still assumed one was for himself, but it's possible the second was for the child. Then again, a child wouldn't really need an ID at this age— not hard to cook up a story about not having a birth certificate because of a home birth or whatever.

Ahh, that makes more sense.

It would have been pretty dark to then have her have to pay with
either her life or her freedom for mistakes that Raylan was complicit in
and was going to get to walk away from into a better life.

The assumption is that the deal Ava made with Duffy is that he gets her out alive in exchange for the location of the money. When he goes and retrieves it? That's another question, especially since last I remember, we saw Boyd dragging it away with him, then showing up at the Bennett barn without it.

Have you watched The Shield? I think you might really like it. I wrote about this elsewhere on this page, but it didn't get the amount of critical praise it deserved in part because, like Justified, it's much more straightforward and not Consciously Prestige, with all those signifiers to tell you you are watching a…

Yeah, I mean, the pilot was "entertaining enough" before the ending, but that twist was so dark and creative that I got on board because I had to know what happened next.

"I'm Bo, and these are my sons, Bowman, Boyd, Bojack, Bocephus, and Bochristopher, and my daughter, Bochelle."

I really enjoy that they don't even try to make their pitch plausible anymore. "Ten grand a week from home? Sure! Lotus Elan? Why not!"

Me too. I thought there was a real chance he was dead when I saw the spray of blood.

-Raylan shoots Boyd
-Katey Sagal sings a song over a bloody montage
-a black screen with a plastered quote: "WE BECOME THAT WHICH WE HATE"

There's a gay bar in my neighborhood called the Montrose Mining Company. I mention it because it's the only other context I can think of the line "we dug coal together" making sense.

Username-comment synergy of the day.

I was really surprised Art didn't break out the Pappy for the finale. I guess single barrel is a good step up from the usual, though.

One thing I liked about Justified (The Shield remains the king of doing this powerfully IMO) is that it didn't feel the need to be laden with symbolism or distance us from the characters or focus on dense psychological portraits. It was a story straightforwardly told, told really well, and a lot of critics dismiss…

The actual theme song sucks on its own, but it's perfect for the show, considering how often Raylan has to deal with hillbillies who think they're gangsters.

Tell them to let you review it! It's been a really impressive surprise so far and deserves coverage.

"Put out an APB for a license plate reading "LEFT HARLAN ALIVE, SUCKERS"… yeah, Tim, I know it's a lot of letters."

I've played poker against Alex a few times. He was fairly friendly, if soft-spoken, but certainly ruthlessly competitive.