I just finished watching The Wire’s season four finale — easily the best hour and half of television I have seen in a long time. There weren’t any of the big reveals or resolutions that have capped previous seasons. But I’ve become so invested in the characters, each story twist was intense.

HBO shows are all about character development. And with well over twenty characters, it’s amazing how well The Wire manages to tell so many stories. I feel like I know each of the characters personally. I’ve only felt that way reading a few books, never watching a television show.

The Wire started out with a police task force investigating organized drug crime, then it shifted for a season to a group of dock workers, then back to the drugs. This season completely shifted focus to Baltimore’s school system and the mayor’s office. Most of the new characters introduced were middle school kids. Ed Burns, a writer and producer, was a Baltimore cop that ended up teaching in a city school after he retired.

Even though things have bounced around wildly, there’s always people and events that return from the past. Something that happened in an episode in the first season will pop up three seasons later. If you rewatch an episode, you’ll catch details that didn’t register on the first pass.

So now onto the long wait for the fifth (and supposedly final) season. The finale definitely sets up next season for a return to the police-versus-organized-drug-crime dynamic. But the mayor and the school system can’t be out of the picture entirely.