It was an inevitability from the start but is a difficult reality to accept nonetheless: this Sunday at 9 PM ET, HBO will air the final episode of the highly acclaimed series The Wire. The show's creator, David Simon, reflects on the final season in an e-mail exchange with Newsweek's Devin Gordon, who finds that, lest anyone think otherwise, The Wire is ending its successful five-season run "with a bang, not a whimper." To read the interview, visit newsweek.com.

The Washingtonian is also following the season ender with its coverage of a Wire screening at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association Theater in DC. Simon spoke at the event and "received a hero's treatment, a rock star among the media brethren," reports the site's Peter Bryce. "If you've seen The Wire," Bryce continues, "you might agree with the chorus." He calls the show "the most relevant drama in television today" and praises Simon as "a storyteller in the truest sense, always looking for a deeper explanation for the seemingly inexplicable." To read the coverage of the event, visit washingtonian.com.

The series soundtracks, ... and all the pieces matter: Music from Five Years of The Wire, and Beyond Hamsterdam: The Baltimore Tracks, are in stores now. You can listen to Season Four version of the series's opening track, Tom Waits's "Way Down in the Hole," by the young Baltimore group DoMaJe, here:

Listen to two other songs off the soundtracks and learn more about the show at nonesuch.com/wire.