(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.



My "friends" are some of my favorite characters on the HBO series, "The Wire." HBO (which, like CNN, is a Time Warner division) released the complete, five-season box set two weeks ago. The show focuses on a detective unit's quest  to take down a ruthless drug crew, but it grapples with bigger themes: the collapse of public schools, the disintegration of working-class America and political corruption.



Critics say "The Wire" offers the most realistic depiction of America's inner-city subculture ever seen. I decided to test that claim because I grew up in the West Baltimore community where "The Wire" is set. After watching all five seasons, my take on the show is ambivalent.



Some of "The Wire" is real, but not in the ways you might expect.



'How do I get from here to the rest of the world?'



"The Wire's" most unsettling scene for me took place in season four. It involved a murder  -- of a gentle teenager's spirit. The character's name is Dukie, and he brought back memories of some people I knew.



Dukie is lost. He has no family, his public school is paralyzed by violence and he's not tough enough to make it on the streets. He has a gift for computers but doesn't know what to do with his ability.



Dukie looks one day for help from "Cutty," an ex-con who runs a boxing gym in their neighborhood. Cutty tells Dukie that "the world is bigger" than the violent neighborhood both live in.



"How do I get from here to the rest of the world?" Dukie asks Cutty.



"I wish I knew," Cutty sighs, and walks away.



Why did Cutty give Dukie such a hopeless answer? Maybe it's because some people who never lived in a neighborhood like "The Wire" confuse hopelessness for authenticity. Yeah, I could shock you with stories of violence, but it's so easy to slip from revelation to titillation. I start off telling you a story about how tough my school was, and soon I'm shooting it out with five drug dealers who want to steal my homework.



But I never remember West Baltimore being so hopeless. A man like Cutty wouldn't tell a young man that he had no way out -- adults rallied around kids with potential.



I even checked with some childhood friends -- one who is now an undercover police officer who literally works a "wire" for the Baltimore Police Department -- and we all agreed that "The Wire's" bleakness was exaggerated.



"They made it seem like we grew up in Bosnia," my friend, another "Wire" fan, told me.



Perhaps I had the luck of timing, or, to paraphrase one "Wire" character, I left  just before "the game got more fierce."



I'm 44. I grew up on a street connecting two notorious Baltimore landmarks -- North Avenue and Frederick Douglass High School. Douglass is a school so bleak that PBS recently aired a documentary on its dismal state. North Avenue is known for its liquor stories and shootings. I left my neighborhood for good in the 1980s before crack cocaine really hit.



Still, I shared
What is praised for realism? Where is "The Wire" set? What did the CNN.com writer have to say about the show's realism?
"The Wire" West Baltimore community Some of "The Wire" is real, but not in the ways you might expect.
question: What is praised for realism?, answer: "The Wire" | question: Where is "The Wire" set?, answer: West Baltimore community | question: What did the CNN.com writer have to say about the show's realism?, answer: Some of "The Wire" is real, but not in the ways you might expect.