Top 50 Characters of The Wire 35-31

#35
Kenard

How He Fit: Man, what a little shit. Between picking on Dukie and killing Omar it was like the writers were trying to make him the most despised character on the show. But how much does his outward aggression and hostility have to do with his environment? I think this is a key question that the show asks (although not in any obvious way, which would of course suck). We never see him go to school unlike the kids older than him, he has no parental support at all that we know of, and the drug trade seems to be his only means of support. As dislikeable as he is, he is also one of the most tragic characters on the show.

What I Liked: Pretty much impossible to like, but at least possible to understand. What I liked most is that this kid was actually scary. One could easily see him growing up to become another Marlo or Snoop. He was being bred to be one of the top dogs of the streets, and with nothing else going in his life it made perfect sense to aim for that. It’s just too bad that at the least he couldn’t have kept aiming to be the next Omar instead of the next Marlo. Just a ruthless individual, and I have to give major props to the kid who acted him, as I saw an interview with him and he seemed like the nicest little guy.

Top 3 Moments:

3. Playing cops and robbers as Omar.

2. Throwing that bottle at Dukie. His dialogue in that scene is so true to life of certain very troubled kids I knew back in public school.

1. What else? Who’d have ever thought this little pip would take down the legend.

#34
Brianna Barksdale

How She Fit: Mother of D’Angelo and sister to Avon, Brianna was one of the top players in the Barksdale organization, but always a step away from any of the violence. She seemed relatively content to live off of the money that was made by the drug trade, even convincing her own son to take a jail sentence to keep it.

What I Liked: Brianna is an easy character to dislike, after she indirectly got her son killed, and I admit that she is probably one of my most hated characters on the show, but as with the best characters on the show you can see layers of complexity to her character and even of sympathy both when she learns of his death and when McNulty tells her about D’s potential murder. The guilt is there, even if she never explicitly says it. Still, she managed to get out with no jail time and all the money she needs, while D died trying to reform himself while at the same time honouring his family; so unbelievably unfair.

Top 3 Moments:

3. Confronting Avon about D’s murder. Such a well-written and acted scene. The tension is one of the highest of the series.

2. Listening to McNulty’s theory. “I wanted to talk to someone who actually cared about him.” Ouch. Can’t say it was undeserved, though.

1. Her talk with D’Angelo to take the years for his family. So convincingly manipulative she almost had me too. In a way she was right, that without the drug trade they wouldn’t have each other at all and would be in poverty like most of the population of their area. The saddest thing was even after all that D had said to the cops about wanting out of the game and to start over, I knew that he was going to turn away from that after this speech to him. It was the moment that finally convinced me that this show was something special.

#33
Ervin Burrell

How He Fit: Deputy of Operations for the first season and then Commissioner until close to the end of the series, Burrell was another easy character to hate as he stalled cases, re-assigned personnel, and generally made life a complete headache for anyone on the show trying to do good police work, unless it worked for him politically. Nevertheless, there was some sympathy there for a guy just trying to survive for his job at times, as we saw more and more with each season as he was a pawn of the political system. We also saw him rise in the ranks and then eventually finally get booted, which seemed like a good thing, until I saw his replacement.

What I Liked: I definitely did not like this dude, so kudos to the complexity of the show that he was still able to keep some sympathy but at the same time didn’t go into the stereotypical “evil boss who will stall the case” that you see in those awful McBain movies on the Simpsons. Still, the fact that he went along with some of things that he did made me really biased against him, being the perfect representation of the Wire’s current problem of the American political structure, being shit on from above and having it roll downhill. His loyalty to Royce was somewhat admirable, although so horribly misguided. I never liked him quite as much as Rawls, which I think simply comes down to performance, and the fact that Rawls did show that he had good policework in him at times. Overall, he was very difficult to like but also very difficult to outright hate. Prop Joe's reveal that he was dumb as a post in school made perfect sense, too.

Top 3 Moments:

3. Standing up to Royce finally about Hamsterdam and how he can lie with the best of them. It’s too bad it had to be over the completely wrong reason.

2. The silent moment with the golf club in his office when he doesn’t say a word to Daniels and yet everything is clearly stated.

1. “Whatever names you found, I hope you flushed them.” Probably not a obvious number 1, but I just had to laugh the second time watching through as to how accurately and hilariously it sums up his character and especially his position.

#32
Roland “Wee-bey” Brice

How He Fit: Heavy enforcer for the Barksdale organization who likely has dozens of murders under his belt, Wee-bey was another character notable for his likeability despite the horrible acts he commits. Between his love of fish, loyalty to his crew, and his eventually decision to help his son out of the drug trade, Wee-bey always kept a human side.

What I Liked: I wish we could have gotten more of him, since as it was he was only a major character in the first season, he still made a strong impression in the limited time that he had. He was one of those characters whom I couldn’t decide if he was meant for the game or if he could’ve been something else if life had put him in a different place. Of course, it is probably some sort of combination of the two, but his eventually decision to give Namond up to Colvin shows that he at least understands the desire to leave the streets of West Baltimore. His conversations with his wife were hilarious too (and I’ll admit now that she’s not on the list, and I’m starting to regret it). How he ever ended up with her is something that should be a sitcom spin-off or something.

Top 3 Moments:

3. Showing D’Angelo his fish. What a brilliant little characterization that most shows would not even bother with.

2. His nonchalant meeting with the lawyers and police in the interrogation room, a sandwich and some chips being his biggest concern.

1. Standing up to Delonda about Namond. Who would have thought that Wee-bey of all fucking people would have the most heart warming moment at the end of season 4.

#31
Major Stan Valchek

How He Fit: South-eastern commander with a permanent bug up his ass, and a hard-on of hate for anyone who dares take his spot at the church window. For all the Burrell’s and Rawls’ that we meet, there is probably no police commander more despicable than this guy. His contribution to Frank Sobatka’s downfall and execution were huge, and yet of course he will never see any remuneration for it, aside from the fact that he can’t gloat that he caught him.

What I Liked: With a few exceptions, there was no one I loved to hate more than Valchek on The Wire. While with someone like Levy I just despised his tactics and personality, Valchek was usually so funny with his blow-ups and general way with dealing with people that I actually enjoyed him being on screen, even if it was generally for being an impotent asshole. The guy seemed to completely miss the point of being a police officer, and only used his power to fuck over those he didn’t like. At least with Burrell and Rawls their positions kind of required them to suck as police, Valchek could have been great if he wanted, but then was selected as police commissioner after all. *facepalm* I also felt sorry for poor Prez, as you can see many of his initial problems as a police officer came from Valchek’s horrible guiding hand.

Top 3 Moments:

3. Becoming police commissioner. Got as big of a laugh from me as Rawls in the gay bar.

2. Blowing up at Burrell, Pearlman and Daniels for not going after Sobatka. “Fucking rat-fuckers, all of ya.”

1. Doing the same thing to Daniels, Prez and the FBI agents, and getting a nice punch for his troubles. Go Prez!