The 30 Greatest Characters on The Wire, #2 - #1

I took a little weekend vacation and then work really picked up for me, so apologies for the delay on this. If you're still with me, hopefully the below was worth the wait, though I don't think it's all that surprising.

If you have not seen The Wire:

Step 1) Stop reading immediately (though you probably would do this anyway). There are spoilers below, and I will not be held responsible for ruining the greatest show of all time.

Step 2) Watch the entire series on HBO Go. If you do not get HBO, this is a fixable problem.

Step 3) Come back and read all of these wonderful character reviews.

Previous Installments
Characters #30 - #26
Characters #25 - #21
Characters #20 - #16
Characters #15 - #11
Characters #10 - #6
Characters #5 - #3

I must say, I am a little relieved to finally be at the end! This was a lot of words!

2) Russell "Stringer" Bell

Stringer Bell is a parallel to many of the other interesting characters on this list. In some ways, he's the Bunny Colvin of the drug trade, interested only in the desired results and disinterested in the conventions of the pseudo-institution, like pride, violence, and obsession with territory. He's similar to McNulty in that he's the smartest guy in the room, but his superior (Avon) stands in the way of things getting done the way he wants. Like Frank Sobotka, he obtains money by illegal means to unsuccessfully seek political aid in advancing his legitimate interests. And like Marlo Stanfield, he orders several unnecessary murders because of his own paranoia.

That last bit is what makes it difficult for many to even like Stringer as a character. Yet, despite the fact that he orchestrated the murders of D'Angelo and Wallace, those hardcore "gangster" acts are what make Stringer as nuanced and complex a character as he is. He's every bit a businessman that just found himself in the wrong business. The murders of two of the show's most likable characters aren't seen acts of aggression, hatred, or vengeance. They're purely business decisions.

In fact, much of the advice Stringer gives Avon over the course of three seasons is to avoid violence, violence that he believes would represent bad business decisions. He spends most of his time trying to distance himself from "beefing over corners" and achieving legitimate success in things besides heroin. "B&B Enterprises" is ostensibly a line of front businesses for Stringer and Avon to hide their money, but Bell takes their operation just as seriously as Avon's drug empire.

As Stringer's journey continues into the "real" business world, he grows to discover that that it's full of just as many, if not more, dishonest characters as his ring of criminals. The process for developing a condominium complex is full of thieves like Clay Davis and workers that aren't committed to meeting demands and deadlines. Even though the drug trade is filled with violent lawbreakers, there's a sense of duty and loyalty that allows the bosses to get things done. In the citizen's world, Stringer's naive enough to think that people operate honorably simply because they're ostensibly on the right side of the law. It doesn't work that way, and he doesn't have the patience to deal with it and learn, even to the point of asking Slim Charles to place a hit on a state senator.

Stringer's simultaneously too much profit-minded thinker to be a drug lord and too much gangster to cut it in the business community. There seems to be no room in this world for a heroin kingpin that takes macroeconomics classes in plain sight and reads The Wealth of Nations. As easy as it is to hate him for his occasional despicable acts, he's one of the most complex and interesting villains to ever appear on television. His death at the hands of Omar and Brother Mouzone isn't particularly sad, but it's one of the more powerful scenes of the series.

Greatest Character Moment: I'm tempted to re-use the rooftop scene that I used for Avon, but Stringer's most significant moment is the heated confrontation between himself and Avon in which he reveals what really happened to D'Angelo. Apparently he takes exception to his longtime partner and friend suggesting he's not hard enough for 'the game'.

1) Omar Little

The Wire is a show that is widely praised for its realism. In that sense, it's a bit odd that its best character is the one that appears to be larger than life. As a stick-up boy that manages to make a living robbing drug dealers and roaming the streets of Baltimore with a sawed-off shotgun while making a horror tune out of The Farmer in the Dell, there's some superhero elements to Omar that don't resonate as down-to-earth. That he's able to survive a "day at a time, I suppose" in this occupation and get dealers to dump their stash simply by approaching a house (with his back turned, no less!) or walking down the street in a bathrobe is nothing short of crazy.

Yet, the writing of Omar's character is so compelling that we can forgive him for being part Robin Hood, or occasionally pulling off "some Spider-man shit". The Wire is all about convoluted characters with moral gray areas, and Omar might be the most complex of them all. He's known for his honesty and a lack of need for deception, yet his finest moment came when lying under oath in a courtroom. He steals for a living, yet doesn't seem motivated or consumed by greed. He sincerely promises Bunk to stop killing, but compromises that when Butchie is murdered and returns to Baltimore to avenge him. 

And of course, there's Omar's infamous "code" of not putting his gun on a citizen, which he adheres to throughout. He only kills characters the audience isn't meant to be enamored with, such as Stinkum, Stringer, and Savino, so his code and actions seem righteous, even though he's effectively still just murdering people. Bunk, in particular, notices the effect Omar's image and street presence have on children, as he witnesses several idolizing him and pretending to be him while at play. That comes back to bite Omar in the end, as Kenard, one of the kids who looked up to Omar as a true badass in Season Three, winds up shooting and killing him years later in Season Five. While Omar may have had a code, it's pretty clear that Kenard does not. Bunk was right in the end -- even if Omar can justify what he does, there's a ripple effect that he doesn't fully consider.

I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't add that Michael K. Williams' performance is stellar. The rumor is that Omar was meant to be killed off in Season One, but Williams made the character so interesting that he had to survive and remain a significant part of the show. His voice is excellent for the role and his delivery of witty one-liners is always perfectly timed.

In a world where even some of the most powerful characters are inhibited by corrupt people or systems, Omar exists free of any sort of boundaries, which allows him to think and act for himself at all times. He's an antihero whose lack of rules defy the rest of the show's universe, and a charismatic gunman with a penchant for danger and Honey Nut Cheerios. There has never been, nor will there ever be another character like Omar on television. If Simon was always determined to kill him off, we should all count ourselves lucky that he waited so long to do so.

Greatest Character Moment: Though Omar is such a great character, this is a really, really easy call. His total owning of Maurice Levy in the courtroom near the end of Bird's trial is Omar's most iconic moment and an obvious top-three scene of the entire series. If you ask me, it's number-one.