I recently completed my 2nd rewatch of the entire series. It is still great. I was amazed that I didn't remember or caught new things. A few times I legitimately couldn't remember what was going to happen.
Season 5 with the newspapers is still the worst season, but it wasn't as a bad as I remembered. McNulty and Freamon obviously went too far with the serial killer angle. They probably wouldn't have done it at all, but toward the end it is way too much.
She doesn't have a big part, but I liked this journalist in season 5:
