The fifth and final season of The Wire focuses on the staff of The Baltimore Sun, with editors and reporters serving as fictionalized stand-ins for David Simon’s former co-workers at the same publication.

Simon paints unflattering portraits of the paper’s top editors, who are more eager to win prizes than practice ethical journalism. Tom McCarthy (who later went on to direct and co-write the Oscar-winning Spotlight) plays a Stephen Glass-esque reporter who is celebrated by the bosses even when the accuracy of his stories is questioned.

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