The Wire: Top 40 Characters: 5-1

5. Marlo Stansfield (Jamie Hector)

In a show packed with fantastic acting performances, Jamie Hector provides one of the very best in his portrayal of ice-cool Marlo, who runs a drugs empire based on killing absolutely anyone who stands in his way (and even a few who don’t).

Marlo is a terrifying figure, completely devoid of any sympathy or empathy to anyone else. Once you cease to be of use to Marlo, you often simply cease to be. Like the Greek, Marlo is chiefly driven by power rather money… despite being a millionaire the only thing that matters to him is his feared reputation.

4. Stringer Bell (Idris Elba)

Stringer is Avon’s right-hand man in the Barksdale empire, responsible for much of the day-to-day running of the business. But while he is highly effective in this role, his ambition is to be a legitimate businessman, taking economics night-classes and investing in property in an attempt to make the Barksdale operation more professional and business-like. But for all this he is more than willing to eliminate anyone who threatens the business.

In Season Three the differences between his and Avon’s approaches to business come to a head and their relationship falls to pieces. It gradually becomes apparent that Stringer can never achieve true legitimacy and is another character in The Wire whose aspirations to better himself are doomed to failure. 

3. Bubbles (Andre Royo)

Heroin addict and police informant Bubbles is one of the characters that makes The Wire so great. His addiction is depicted in unflinching terms but the writers and actor Andre Royo ensure that the viewer never loses sight of his humanity and in fact bubbles is one of the most straight-forwardly likeable figures in the show.

He is also one of the very few characters in the show who is allowed any form of redemption, although he has to go through a great deal to get there.  Royo gives a brilliant performance as a decent man trapped in a desperate life because of drugs. Importantly, he puts a human face on the misery caused by those who propogate the drugs trade.

2. Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce)

Bunk is a gruff Baltimore homicide detective, often working alongside McNulty or Freamon. He is almost as hard-drinking as McNulty but possesses a stronger conscience than his partner, which comes to the fore in the Season 5 storyline involving the pair.

He is driven to solve cases rather than advance his career and is generally hugely successful at doping so. The reason that Bunk is so high in this list comes down to him being one of the program’s most likeable figures, who is given some of the show’s best one-liners (‘I’m just a humble motherfucker with a big-ass dick… Okay then. I ain’t that humble’).

1. Omar Little (Michael K. Williams)

  

Omar is a mass of complexities. A street robber with a strict moral code, a gay man in the homophobic world of Baltimore and the show’s most feared character who makes a point of never swearing.

He only ever robs drug dealers but such is his reputation that when he appears in the street everyone literally runs away. He frequently outsmarts his opponents, outthinking them and anticipating their next move at every turn.

He understands the deeper meanings and hidden connections that hold the city and drugs trade together and makes one of the most important statements in the show during a court appearnace in Season Two. When Levy accuses him in court of profiting from the drugs trade, Omar rebukes him: “Just like you man. I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It’s all in the game though, right?”

With this statement Omar illuminates of the show’s key messages: that everyone is to some degree complicit for society’s ills and no one can claim innocence as all live flawed lives of constant comprimise, both powerless and unwilling to change the system.