The Wire season 5 is a real mixed bag for me. The parts that are good are as good as ever but the serial killer plotline is very silly and the journalism stuff just isn't all that engaging, I really think they should have ended the trend of introducing new institutions every season and just focus on tying up all the plotlines that had already been established.

The ending is still very satisfying and makes up for the messy jog to finish line to a large extent but it's still disappointing that the final season is so much less tight than the rest.

Season 2 is excellent and just as good as 1-4, I struggle to rank them above one another.