7 TV Shows With Near-Perfect Endings
2. The Wire
Even after shows like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, you can still find justification for calling The Wire the greatest series ever made. Its sprawling character narratives, earthly tones of realism and grounded approach to police procedure and criminal dynamics made it one of the most thought-provoking series aired at the time.
Across its five seasons, the scope of the show got bigger as the audience was exposed to another side of Baltimore not previously examined, and its swan song came in the form of introducing Journalism into the narrative of the show.
While the series most definitely peaked in its fourth season, it was the send-off in season five that wrapped up the series and book-ended the show properly.
Homicide Detective (not lead) Jimmy McNulty leaves the Baltimore Police after faking a serial killer to secure funding and support for the Marlo Stanfield investigation. After picking up a stray homeless man who has been copycatting the fake murders, Jimmy briefly parks up at the side of the road to reflect, and thus begins the closing montage every other season concluded with prior.
Playing along to the first season's opening rendition of Way Down In The Hole, we are shown the lives of every character still left alive at the end of the series. With an extended montage, we're shown the sprawling lives that engulfed Baltimore, and reminded that life goes on even if some if not all of the bad guys are caught.