UKH

After having watched this for the 3rd time, my list has changed again.

Here are my favourite characters and why:-

1. Omar - he is the most moral person in the whole show, with intelligence, empathy and generosity thrown in.

2. Bubbles - he (thankfully) underwent a sort of Damascene conversion to a better way of living after many years of nearly dying on the streets. He was one of the few rays of hope and light in the series.

3. Lester Freemon - the epitome of "good police". Fiercely intelligent, deeply good hearted and single minded in his pursuit of the real criminals (including Clay Davis).

4. Bunk Moreland - a giant bear of a police who did his best to steady a deeply compromised Baltimore PD. He was a steadying influence on many others in the how, including Jay Landsman and McNulty. The "F*ck" scene is a classic of TV. ( youtube.com/watch?v=DS6pE88Xg3s&)

5. Snoop Pearson/Chris Partlow - remorseless, unrepentant, murderous devils but with an edge of humour and humanity about them that occasionally showed itself. But not very often.

6. Tommy Carcetti - a classic example of how good intentions completely fail when power is on offer.

Honourable mentions - Clay Davis, Major Rawls, Bodie and Prop Joe.

Bubs #1 for me for sure. 

Clay Davis - shiiiiiiiiiitttttt....

Over lockdown I watched all the seasons of The Wire back to back, then Fleabag then finished with the first season of True Detective. 
There’s basically no point me watching television anymore insofar as I can see.
 

Plus I need to get out more.

Omar by a country mile-funny too.

+1 for Omar 

Tnere is equally good stuff out there. And it's not all American or British.

Anyway, as for The Wire, the young docker played by Pablo Shcreiber.

Hard to disagree with that top 3, or probably 4. I don't recall Snoop Pearson and I don't even recall Aiden Gillen being in the show.

It's a few years since I watched (Cannot believe it's as old as it is! Though I started watching a couple of years after it aired) . Loved the first few series but lost interest the more it moved away from the street corner stuff. I never watched it all the way through, may have to be next on my watch list.

Omar without a doubt..

I think a less popular character is Roland Pryzbylewski. Really good character arc there. Totally awful weak and inexperienced policemen and shows lots of signs of being the man brought in to the police by his father in law as a favour. Hated him right away. He then finds his niche solving problems using the wire tap and is a very intelligent person (without giving too much away) becomes a good high school teacher later in the show and has a lot of empathy.

I have watched the series 3 times too and due to watch it soon, Best TV show of all time imo.

Oh, indeed. Though one of the best things about The Wire was how pretty much everyone in it was rounded - people who acted like dicks could also show enough humanity that you'd still root for them*, or at least sympathise. Mr Prezbo, for example, was a bit of a tool to start with, but sorted himself out. 

Cuddy deserves a spot on the list too, for trying. Kima too, for putting up with everyone else in the department

*Marlowe excepted. What a bastard

I'd forgotten about Prezbo - I agree, a really good character once he found his niche. It developed well in the education season.

I've said it before, but imo The Wire is, literally, Shakespearean.  If I could only rewatch one series, it'd be this.  Or maybe Buffy, but probably this.

Can't disagree with your top three.  All in the game, yo (although I remain absolutely convinced that what he actually says is 'all in the game, y'know'...)

I reckon that Deadwood is even more Shakespearean. 

But, back to the Wire, I see that Pelecanos is working with HBO in a project televising his Derek Strange stories.. that's definitely something to look forward to.

I read somewhere that browsing in a secondhand bookshop and coming across an early Pelecanos novel is one of life's great pleasures. I tend to think so, too.

( Though Robert Durran might disagree, if his campervan post is anything to go by....)

my favourite two characters in The Wire are the two 'e's.  Always look like nice happy, smiley faces. 

How does that work, Jamie Wakeham? How can The Wire LITERALLY be Shakespearean? 

A humble shout out for the third series of Twin Peaks 

Well, 'Shakespearean' doesn't necessarily mean 'by Shakespeare', but also has a sense that is 'reminiscent of the works of Shakespeare'. 

I'm using that latter sense. The Wire feels more like a Shakespearean tragedy than anything else I've seen on TV - for example (SPOILERS) the parallel salvation of Bubs and descent of Micheal, the rise and fall arc of several characters, notably Stringer.  The use of Valchek and his hunt for the stolen van is not unlike several comedies. 

It's an over used description. I'd say The Wire qualified as Shakespearean in that sense far more than GoT, Breaking Bad or even (it's closest competitor?) The Sopranos. A lot of stuff is described as being Shakespearean these days; my intention was to say that I thought this (unlike other works the term is applied to) really was like Shakespeare.

I clearly don't mean it was actually written by Shakespeare.  I'm not also using the modern sense of 'literally' to mean 'figuratively', which is what I guess you were alluding to... although I rather suspect that the Bard would have had no problem at all with the morphing of the meaning of the word, given how fluid and inventive his use of language was!

The wire is a show of epic depth whilst being totally unpretentious.

I found Jay being a very good character too.

The wake scenes are pure genius. Very few tv shows have given me goosebumps than when Jay is giving an emotional speech about "he was not the best detective and not the worst" and everyone is legless and McNulty and Bunk are dancing to the Pogues and vomiting outside singing 'freeborn man of the Usa'

McNulty is hilarious but a tragic character of Shakespearean proportions. 

Frank the docks boss is also a tragic character. (Literally routing for everyone)

Think I remember watching Obama interviewing the writer (I could just google that to confirm) as he had so much regard for it.

No doubt.

About the only one of my favourites who I don't think has been mentioned yet: Bunny Colvin. Maverick, morally driven, fiercely protective of the men and women under his command. Is there a better example of leadership?

I enjoyed the Wire on a bout of paternity leave a few years back. I never really understood how the series with all the boats fitted in.

Were I David Simon, I'm not sure I'd take it as a compliment if someone told me the Wire's plotlines were Shakespearean!

When did “literally” take on this “modern sense” of which you speak?

Series 3 episode 11. 

One of the best bits of tv made, the lead up and then the balcony scene between Stringer and Avon. WOW.

(you need to have watched all of the previous to get the enormity of it though)

Well, the Guardian was getting hung up about it almost a decade ago - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/m... - and notes that the OED records the incorrect meaning in use more than a century ago!

But I was not using 'literally' in that modern sense (which I dislike quite strongly, whilst accepting that we're probably stuck with it now).  I did mean that I felt that the Wire was, exactly, Shakespearean.  If we have any disagreement it's over my use of Shakespearean, not literally.

Shall we debate 'enormity' next?

I haven't watched it for years, but Omar of course. I even bought an Yo! Omar comin'! t-shirt that only got recently retired to bike cleaning duties. I wore it so much for so long the under arms were I'm sure in a bad way.

p.s. Just looked up on my blog from back in the day when I had a mentioned Omar, and this post https://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.com/2007/03/killing-of-stringer-bell.htm... from 13 years ago reminded me of Brother Mouzone who was also pretty badass, but he perhaps lacked the moral urgency and integrity of Omar. 

Interesting article, if somewhat "sitting on the fence"! Thanks

A step above any other TV series, and the best drama of any type I have come across, Shakespeare included. It is that good.

It is a watchable drama that also makes you think very deeply about systems and personalities. It also has some great little asides and stories in it e.g. a mobile crime lab being unavailable for a murder scene because it is busy dusting the mayors garden furniture for prints after a barbecue was stolen. I would not be surprised if this actually happened in real life!

I would have Kima high on the list, great from start to finish. I love the "two guns" scene, where she shows how much she is ahead of hurk and carver.

I know we don't get much of him, but I also rate Brother Mouzone, and his standoff with Omar is just incredible TV - "I don't see no sweat on your brow neither".

Most characters you could make a case for, but a few were just totally appalling e.g. Cheese, Marlow and Clay Davis stand out.

There is a podcast going out on youtube at the moment (I think by the "ringer" channel?) that spends about an hour exploring each episode and has been excellent so far - they are half way through season 3. 

Omar all the way for me. Constantly an interesting and complex character who consistently defies the stereotypes that could easily have been applied to the character. And as you say, fiercely moral in his own way - "every man gotta have a code".

Another vote for Frank Sobotka... The Head of the Brotherhood of Stevedores in Season 2. A truly tragic hero (in the Shakespearean sense, Sorry Blue Straggler!)

Trying his best to help his family and fellow workers in an industry that automation and under investment are slowly killing, and  falling under the spell of corruption in a bid to do the right thing and on into the hands of organised Crime. 

Edit: Frank HAS been mentioned above.

Series 1 episode 4.  My normal day at work.

And who can forget Prop Joe... wise Repair Shop owner cum low key Drug Lord rival to the Barksdale Clan. Uncle and notable in his being opposite to the loud-mouthed, hot-headed Cheese  (played by the Wu Tang Clans Method Man.) 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2008/dec/01/the-wire-marlo-s...

this guy reckons Marlo was the most genuine character and epitomised the show.

I also found it a bit jarring after getting so familiar with everyone in the first series, but I liked it more when rewatching - I seem to remember reading something about how each series was themed on an issue pertinent to contemporary Baltimore, so I suppose it's relevant on the basis that the docks were a big part of the city's identity

The wire is my favorite t.v show of all time, but I have just finished Bojack Horseman and this comes a close second for realism (despite being animation) and character depth.

Yes, another vote for Frank Sobotka: a man who tries to do the very best and ends up doing the very worst. How's that for Shakespearean tragedy! 

When I think of The Wire, I always remember that scene when D’Angelo Barksdale (another great character) tells two underlings how to play chess, using the language of the drugs trade. Slowly you're aware that these characters are the expendable pawns they're playing with, but the allegory is never over-played. The Wire (and The Sopranos which has similarly complex scenes) make Breaking Bad look over-rated and one-dimensional!