(CNN) -- I finally said goodbye to some old buddies. Omar (played by Michael K. Williams), "The Wire's" legendary stickup artist, hunts for a rival with his shotgun. One of them shot a woman at point-blank range after complimenting her on her hair. Another person maimed a rival with his shotgun. A third stole from his sister to finance his drug habit. Their names are as twisted as their deeds: Snot-Boogie, Bubbles, Dukie. And if I ever introduced you to them, you probably wouldn't be able to understand them. Their talk is filled with a bruising street poetry that's hard to decipher unless you've lived in their West Baltimore neighborhood -- as I once did.
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HBO's "The Wire" is praised for realism, but how real is it?
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CNN.com writer who grew up in "The Wire's" Baltimore neighborhood renders verdict
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Writer says show confuses "hopelessness with authenticity"
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But dialogue crackles, the characters are rich, writer says
My "friends" are some of my favorite characters on the @placeholder series, "The Wire."