We're talking about an obese, out of shape 76-year old man who can barely walk down a ramp unassisted and who's diet consists mainly of diet coke and McDonalds. At this rate, the guy could easily pass away before the first trial is even scheduled. Prosecutors seem content to take their sweet, sweet time. If this guy dies before seeing the inside of a jail cell, it will be a massive catastrophe that will demonstrate that someone like him can escape accountability for all his crimes, and will embolden all the would-be Trump 2.0's that are out there waiting in the wings.

Call it what you will, but prosecutors apparently gave the judge sufficient evidence to make him rule that the crime-fraud exception to attorney/client privilege should apply in this instance. That normally requires something more than just the prosecutor's say-so, and most judges (who are themselves attorneys, after all) pretty much consider the privilege to be close to sacrosanct - so setting it aside is not something they normally take lightly.

The stat game? This lie? Its what ruined this department. Shining up shit and calling it gold so majors become colonels and mayors become governors. Pretending to do police work while one generation fucking trains the next on how not to do the job.

Its worth it to keep going, I think, but yeah, seasons 7 and 8 just fail to bring the show's promise home to a satisfying conclusion. Still, there's plenty of great moments even if overall they blew it.

Yes and no - it gets more arc'ish the further into the show you get. And the arc bits tend to center a bit more on the "strike team" itself which are the core characters in the show. At the same time, there's a lot of crime / problem-to-be-solved of the week stuff going on with the side characters or the main characters.

All the pieces matter. Season 2 included. Personally, I like it a lot, but you are far from alone in thinking its the worst or 2nd worst season.

A lot happens that's important and/or entertaining even if you ignore the docks and the characters around that. Prop Joe, Valchek, Brother Muzzone, Cheese all take on much bigger roles or are introduced in this season. D'Angelo's storyline is resolved. McNulty is in full a-hole mode throughout, getting back at Rawls, throwing Daniels under the bus. Omar vs. the Barksdale crew heats up.

Also, I don't quite follow how you can say that nothing happens to the antagonists this season. One ends up dead - before he dies he sees everything he works for go up in smoke.
Another probably never getting out of jail. The rest of the union guys are thoroughly screwed by the end. Of course, Vondas and the Greek pretty much disappear for most of the rest of the series with nothing really having happened to them, but

A emphatic "yes!" from me. But set your expectations going in. The show will present a lot of mysteries, and while some of them get satisfying or even great resolutions, ultimately many will not be answered, or will be answered but in (IMHO) unsatisfying or outright lame ways. Beyond that, its one of those "the journey, not the destination, is the reward" type of shows. There's a ton of great, great acting performances, so many great moments, so many "oh, shit! What just happened?" mind-blowing moments that will leave your head spinning as you ponder the implications - I don't think any other show did that to me as many times as Lost did.

Deadwood I haven't (re) watched in quite a while. Unfortunately it got cancelled and while I wouldn't say it ended on a cliffhanger, it did ultimately feel incomplete. If you don't mind copious amounts of cursing, its another show worth watching. Again, some really fantastic performances from the cast, but Ian McShane's performance is (for me) all-time great.

I think 4-6 seasons is the sweet spot. Most shows seem to run out of ideas or get repetitive and feel like they're trying to milk it for all its worth if they go much further than that. Less than that and probably got cancelled too early, or there just wasn't enough story there to begin with. But also of course the number of episodes per season factors in to this a little too - Most network shows in the past were 20-24 episodes per season, but a lot of cable/netflix stuff these days is 8-12 episodes per season.

Yeah - that was some powerful stuff

Homeland - There's Something Else Going On

Yeah, the little twist in that episode is probably what got me hooked on Lost. I could argue for other episodes of that show being the greatest single episode of TV ever, like The Constant, but Walkabout came first and stands as the greatest.