The Wire: Top 40 Characters: 10-6

10. Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris)

Avon is the kingpin in the Barksdale operation, which he runs generally ruthlessly, but with occasional flashes of humanity and compassion 9like when he allows Cutty to retire from the game).  His relationship with his best friend and confidante Stringer gradually detriorates over the course of the show and it is thier faltering relationship that drives the show’s third season.

The stand-offs between the pair are acted absolutely brilliantly by both Wood Harris and Idris Elba as their conflicting approaches to the game clash diasterously. Avon has his a skewed moral standpoint that justifies any act in the name of family, but this moral code makes him a more human and emphathetic figure than someone like Marlo.  

9. Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West)

 

McNulty  is in many senses the lead character in the show- especially in the first two seasons (emphasised by Dominic West’s name appearing first in the cast list in the titles while the rest of the actors appear in alphabetical order).  In many respects his character ticks every cop cliche: a hard-working, hard-drinking loner willing to fuck up his life and and the lives of everyone around him in pursuit of a case.

But he is brilliantly played by Dominic West (who in real life is an Old Etonian with one of the poshest English accents you’ll hear) and for a while he was my favourite character in the show. However, in the last season he becomes just TOO much of an asshole to warm to. Still a great watch though!

8. Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters)

   

Freamon, alog with Bunk, is “natural police”-  one of the most talented officer in Baltimore who is frequently responsible for major breakthroughs in cases. He gets just as consumed  with cases as McNulty but throws his energy into quietly and methodically connecting the dots to build a case.

In some ways Lester is the character who most closely parallels the writers’ vision of Baltimore (and America).  He sees with clarity the hidden strands that connect society, from politicians to drug dealers. And like the writers, he is unafraid to follow up those strands up the chains of power to show precisely where the power and blame ultimately lies for many of Baltimore’s criminal acts.

7. Roland ‘Prez’ Prezbylewski (Jim True-Frost)

 

Prez is first introduced to the audience as an incompotent and arrogant police officer, whose career in the police has only survived because of his father-in-law, Stan Valchek. Under the guidance of Freamon he gradually becomes a better officer, adept at wiretap working and chasing up the paper trail. For much of the show he is a bit-part player, but when he leaves the force to become a teacher in Season 4, he becomes one of the show’s main figures.

His enjtrance into the unforgiving Baltimore school system mirrors that of co-creator Ed Burns, who despite being a policeman and Vietnam veteran, has said that teaching in the American state system was the toughest job he ever had. Prez’s journey from naive and out-of-his depth to respected teacher is one of the key storylines in Season Four, the series generally acclaimed as the best one by Wire fans.  

6.  Ellis Carver (Seth Gilliam)

 

Carver starts the show as Herc’s partner and the pair have similar views on how policing should work: cracking heads to get results. But while Herc never really abandons this philosophy, Carver evolves to see the bigger picture as he gradually rises through the ranks.  

It is Bunny Colvin who shows Carver the futility of daily low-level drug busts in Season Three and Carver progresses to see the wider implications of alienating rather than serving the community. He befriends the likes of Cutty and Bodie in an attempt to know the community better and bacome a better officer. In Season One he is stealing money from drug raids with herc and snitching on his spervisors to Burrell; by Season Four Carver is attempting to save Randy from a bleak future in a care home.