Two Cents & Five Questions With...

... David Simon, Writer/Executive Producer

David Simon is the Executive Producer of HBO's critically acclaimed series - "The Wire" which launches its ten-episode fifth and final season Sunday, Jan. 6 at 9:00PM EST, exclusively on HBO.

David has also been a writer on shows such as "NYPD Blue" and "Homicide".

Recently David was able to spend some time answering questions about the show and the final season. Enjoy his TwoCents and Five Answers!

Q: Now that "The Wire" is finally winding down, how do you feel?
David Simon: It's been six years of storytelling, and we've put in a lot of effort to create this universe, so to say goodbye is certainly bittersweet. But we got to say what we wanted to say, and it's time to tell other stories.

Q: Was the five-season arc something you had envisioned from the beginning, or was it a season-to-season process of developing the series?
DS: We had pretty much decided by the middle of the second season what we would like to cover in terms of this city we were slowly creating.

Q: Can you summarize what "The Wire" is trying to say?
DS: I suppose that what we are trying to say, as a last consideration, is that if "The Wire" is at all correct in its portrayal of an American city, its problems and its inability to even fully acknowledge - much less attend to - its problems, then what exactly are we paying attention to? When the drug war went awry for generations, when the factories closed and the working class was hollowed out, when the police departments and the school systems all began critiquing themselves with fraudulent crime statistics and test scores, and when our political leaders exalted themselves with non-existent achievements, how exactly did we see ourselves?

Q: "The Wire" is often hailed for its uncompromising depiction of timely issues, but that kind of praise doesn't necessarily convey how much fun the show can be.
DS: We think about the issues, of course, but we try not to be didactic. It's important first to let the characters breathe. The show is very confident in its own sense of story and its sense of character and its own sense of humor. It's a very funny show in many ways - sometimes in that "Dr. Strangelove" kind of way. If you walk in anybody's footsteps, you'll see that people have a way of laughing at the world, and at themselves.

Q: How do you think "The Wire" will be viewed five or ten years from now, as people continue to discover it on DVD?
DS: I think it will have a shelf life. It has survived by critical attention and by word of mouth. And I think that word of mouth will continue.

A big thanks to David for taking the time to share his TwoCents and Five Answers!