Great idea by @Electrifying that the greatest drama series ever made deserves its own thread.
I’ll keep it simple to start. Best character? A bit of an easy answer, but I’ll go with McNulty. Dominic West is a brilliant actor (he’s arguably even better in The Affair). I had to do a double take to make sure he was actually English and not a Baltimore native (there’s a hilarious scene in which McNulty has to put on an English accent- the irony isn’t lost on anyone!)
Best character is hard, so many to choose from.
Although relatively shortlived, D’Angelo Barksdale is up there. The chess scene and the analogy / metaphor used has been copied in various ways by so many other shows / movies.
Prop Joe, Bodie, Stringer and Bunk stand out for me when I look back.
Need to rewatch this all. The show is a masterpiece.
I hated D’Angelo and loved watching him die lol
Gus deserves some love.
Only characters I hated were Nerese and Scott Templeton
Bunk or Omar for me
Slim Charles. Loved that guy although underused.
Recently been watching the wire (and sopranos) clips on youtube. You can spend an hour if your not careful haha.
my flatmate said that slim charles is that smart-ass pawn that made it to the end of the board and became queen, from this:
I think Carver is the best character in terms of arc. Starts out as just another dumb cop like Herc, but every season you can see him maturing further and making smarter decisions to the point he becomes the kind of guy you’d probably want to be your leader out there.
I think my favourite is probably Norman (Carcetti’s right hand man). You can see him go from a believer to realising what a cunt Carcetti is.
And Lester is the earlier seasons.
I don’t know why but I’ve always liked Chris too.
Yes, Norman and Carver were quality.
I loved Clay Davis as well. Also, I was glad that Kima never fell down into the McNulty rabbit-hole.
It looked like McNulty was corrupting her in S2, but she ended up resisting and turned him in in the end.
Bubs is my favorite character probably. My favorite side story is Bodie and Poot. I rewatched this series recently and I loved the Season with about the Unions and the docks and all that more than I did the first time around.
Bubs is my favourite character forever and always.
Honourable mention goes to Wallace too. Don’t want to spoil it for anyone who has (criminally) not watched The Wire, but his story arc is brilliant and Michael B Jordan’s acting fucking amazing for someone that young. D’Angelo is also brilliant for the same reasons.
Amazing series.
Real good shouts with Slim Charles and Norman—I too liked the way he realised Carcetti was just another politician cunt—but no need to be too creative about it, it’s stringer for me. Series is brilliant throughout but always thought it reaches its dramatic high point at the end of season 3.
Lesser series would have made Stringer outwit Clay Davis, because he is a main character, but this series did the unexpected, realistic, right thing by having Stringer get done.
Avon had it right:
Yep, Slim Charles was the Mikel Arteta of the Wire underworld. Well respected and can put a shift in now and then.
I could easily give about ten different answers as to who my favourite character is based on my particular mood at the time.
But right now I wanna give some love to Bodie. Fucking balls on that kid, in the end he was totally uncompromising and refused to fall in line because he didn’t agree with the unparalleled and unnecessary brutality of Marlo and his crew. Absolutely love him successfully beating the Hamsterdam case by claiming “contrapment” by the police too.
Definitely top ten for me and in the end that shit broke my heart.
Carcetti was a great character too. Not one that I love at all, but he’s a great characterisation of that kind of liberal, white, Democrat who is either totally full of shit or is sincere at first but chooses the path of bullshit when push comes to shove. Agree with those mentioning Norman too, loved him in House of Cards too.
Nowhere near my favourite character, but also really enjoyed Cheese when he was on screen. Horrible snake cunt but always find him to be pretty charasmatic. I saw an interview where he was saying that loads of other people (seemed to imply rappers IIRC) were asking him how come he got offered a part on the show, he was basically like “cos I turned up to a fucking audition bruh” haha
M-e-t-h-o-d, MAAAN
If only he begged to the Governor to bail out the schools in S4 
Was this gif not about when Bunny went to Wee-Bey to ask for adoption of Namond? So I meant change your mind, like Wee-Bey does, to allow Namond to be adopted.
Also, shoutout to Namond Brice, some more great character development. His last line, ‘Mr Colvin, you know the mayor too?’ 
No, definitely isn’t that scene. He’s eating fries here, I think that’s the scene where the police have him on a murder rap and they hook him up with a sick munch in exchange for naming his other victims (though mainly cos any murders not admitted to with invalidate his deal at a later date). I think the nah is when he basically tells them to fuck off when the ask him to snitch on Avon and Stringer.
Ah I see, this is earlier when McNulty offers him the burger right?