'The Wire' goes silent after this season

BALTIMORE, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- "The Wire," the critically praised but viewer challenged HBO drama depicting inner-city life in Baltimore, will bow out after a five-year run.

The funeral of a crew member's daughter who died of cancer put the show's closure into perspective for the cast and crew, The Washington Post reported Monday.

"I was a wreck," said Deirdre Lovejoy, who plays Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman on the show. But the funeral, she said, "put everything in perspective."

David Simon, executive producer, writer and creator for the show, said he envisioned "The Wire" as a novel with a beginning, middle and end, and with each season examining an aspect of inner-city Baltimore: The first four seasons addressed drug trade, Baltimore's longshoremen, politics and the notion of reform, and education and children. This season, which begins Jan. 6, explores the media and features a morally challenged reporter.

Simon, a former police reporter at The Baltimore Sun, has offered up Baltimore's drug and crime issues to TV viewers for years -- from "Homicide: Life on the Streets," to the HBO miniseries "The Corner," to "The Wire."