Top 5 Characters – The Wire, Season 3

I think Season 3 actually has the most characters, as it adds the political characters, Marlo’s people, Bunny Colvin, and Cuddy to the already staggering array.  So there are a lot of choices for my favorites.

5. Avon Barksdale

Out of prison, but dealing with a new set of challenges. His pride got the better of him.

4. Bunk

If only for the scene where he calls out Omar and his “code”.

3. Freamon

Had some great conflict with McNulty, in addition to his typical detecting excellence.

2. Rawls

Several tremendous scenes in the Comstat meetings.

1. Stringer Bell

Desperate to establish himself as a legitimate businessman, the mistakes he made in the drugworld finally catch up with him.

Top 5 Characters – The Wire, Season 2

The second season wasn’t as purely entertaining as the first, but it may have been better. We’ll sort through all that once I finish Round 2 of the whole series. For now, there’s a bunch of new characters vying for a spot in the Top 5.  

5. Ziggy

The first time I watched the season, I found Ziggy mainly annoying. But watching him get more and more frustrated, knowing what’s going to happen to him, made me appreciate how they developed him. This poor kid finally did something “right” with the car heist, but he still got ripped off and laughed at. And that was the final straw.

4. Daniels

Another great season for Daniels, who made a tough career decision despite the pressure from his wife. I particularly enjoyed his negotiations with Burrell and Rawls to put his team together, take the murders, and even rescue poor Jimmy from the boat.

3. Stringer

Stringer is in over his head. He knows how to make the right business decisions, but can’t manage the personal/emotional aspects of the game. Or as Avon said, “This isn’t your business school stuff…this is that other thing.”

2. Frank Sobotka

A good guy who got mixed up with some very bad ones. It was a tough season for the Sobotka family.

1. McNulty

From using the tides to pin the murders on Rawls, to getting “overwhelmed” in the brothel raid, this was the signature McNulty season. And nobody plays drunk like Dominic West.

Top 5 Scenes – The Wire, Season 1

In general, I tried to stay away from the main climactic scenes of the season (Greggs undercover, Wallace in the vacant, etc.) to add some variety to the list. [SPOILERS AHEAD]

5. The Footchase (Episode 7)

When the squad busts the re-up with Stinkum and his runner and they chase the kid into the lowrise courtyard. First of all, I love a good footchase. I’ll take one over a car chase pretty much any day of the week. Then you have Bodie getting in Herc’s way as those two continue their rivalry. And best of all, when the runner disappears around a corner and then has to come back the other way because Kima is sprinting after him with one of those huge police batons. Priceless.

4. Jimmy and Bunk Figure Out The Apartment Murder (Episode 4)

An entire scene with expletives as the only dialogue, yet you can follow it perfectly.

3. Stringer and Bodie Discuss Wallace (Episode 12)

So much is said without actually being said, as the audience realizes what is going down. Very menacing.

2. Rawls and McNulty After The Shooting (Episode 11)

Rawls tears into Jimmy in a brutally honest and generous tirade.

1. The Extended Bird Interrogation (Episode 7)

This should maybe count as more than one scene, but I don’t care. Landsman, Kima, and Daniels question Bird, while Bunk and Jimmy talk with Omar outside the room. I love when Daniels tells Jimmy to go in and make sure nothing happens…not to protect Kima, but Bird. I love when Landsman, Kima, and Daniels beat the s%#t out of him because you don’t really think of those three as a “team”, but the cops are the cops. And I love the Omar and Bunk’s surreal conversation, which ends with Omar saying something like “Wow, Bird really brings it out in people” as he listens to the brutality.

(So I can’t believe I did five characters and five scenes from Season 1, without mentioning Freamon.)

Top 5 Characters – The Wire, Season 1

So I’ve started my second trip through “The Wire” and just completed the first season. I figure now is a good time to put together some Season 1 Top 5 Lists. We’ll start with the characters. I’m trying not to think about what happens with the characters in future seasons. [ALERT - POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD]

5. Wee-Bey

The first time I watched, I think he sort of blended in as just one of Barksdale’s guys, at least for most of the season. I really enjoyed him the second time around. Very entertaining to listen to him talk…his attitude is the same whether discussing going to the hospital for a gunshot wound or putting too much hot sauce on his sandwich.

4. Daniels

His confrontations with McNulty, Burrell, and others are terrific. And it’s great to watch Daniels make the transition from doing whatever Burrell asks to telling him basically to go f#%k himself.

3. D’Angelo

Trapped in the game by his family ties and in way over his head. “Where’s Wallace at?!?”

2. Stringer

The intellectual force behind Barksdale’s crew. Coldly calculating and all business, he steals every scene he’s in.

1. Greggs

The sequence when she goes undercover is as intense as any I’ve ever seen. And it’s because she’s so damn likable that the other characters, and the viewers, are terrified something is going to happen to her.