Over-thinking the Wire

Actually, one cannot overthink The Wire as it remains one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking TV shows of all time.  If I had to name a top five of TV shows (and I am sure I have already done this somewhere in my blog), The Wire would be number one, Mad Men and Breaking Bad would immediately follow (I liked Sopranos a lot but it was uneven and not quite as meaningful to me), and then things get confusing. 

Anyhow, inspired by Bill Simmons's question to President Obama, the Grantland folks have put together a tourney bracket of The Wire: who is the greatest character of the show? Obama took the easy and obvious choice--Omar, the gay Robin Hood of the Baltimore drug wars.  Of course, one could say this is a controversial pick as Omar was very violent, but he had a code--"the game is the game" and would not target folks who were not in the drug business. 


Anyhow, the first problem is: what is "greatest"?  The most interesting?  The one with most complex character?  The one with the most interesting arc?  The one who had the greatest impact?  The one who evolved the most and in the most interesting ways?  The VORP equivalent--the one has the greatest disparity between what he/she brought versus an average replacement?  I would probably combine the last two--the one that brought the greatest added value and developed as a character in the most interesting ways.  Omar had heaps of added value, but did he really develop that much along the way?  Hmmm.



Okay, this leads to the second problem: brackets are all about who will win, not who should win.  That is, when filling out a bracket such as this, one is usually making predictions about who will win.  Thus, the question would be--how will the ESPN fans of The Wire vote?  Then Omar again is  an obvious choice with potentially Carcetti or Bunny upsetting Avon in the parallel bracket and McNulty or Davis facing off against Stringer in the other brackets. 

A third problem--this is not a bracket of my making: it omits Beadie and most importantly, Carver, who showed the most growth from Herc-esque idiot into a potential Bunny/Freamon down the road.  I am too lazy to come up with a new bracket so I am going to run with this one.


Nope, my bracket is of who should win--who is the greatest character.

West Baltimore Region:

• Omar vs Ziggy: Omar in a runaway.  Ziggy was an idiot for one season.  Omar was pretty complex, with style, some of the best lines, a code, and some passion.
• Michael Lee vs Cheesy: Again, an idiot versus a potential Omar.  The fourth season was heartbreaking as Michael went from child and pal of some good kids to hitman. 
• Snoop vs D'Angelo: Lots of folks will like the young, female hitperson but D'Angelo, who did not stick around that long, precisely because he evolved, was most moving.  "Where's Wallace?!" was the line of the first season.  No clue as to why he was seeded so low.
• Chris Partlow vs Dennis "Cutty" Wise. Chris didn't say that much but his reactions, especially to Michael's step-father, said much.  Cutty had an interest arc from prison to local do-gooder who messed up by messing with too many of the boy's mothers.  Tough call, but Partlow was just more dynamic.

Hamsterdam Region:

• Bunk vs Mouzone: Many will go with Mouzone since he had a nice Malcolm X crossed with the Sam Jackson character from Pulp Fiction kind of style, but Bunk was just tremendous.  Whether it was schooling Omar about the kids who saw him as a role model, his various drunk performances, the great moment where he and McNulty interacted for an entire scene using only one word over and over again with different intonations, or his outrage at McNulty's ploy in the last season, Bunk was a rock who rocked.
•  Clay Davis vs. Bubbles:  Sheeeeeeeet, is Clay Davis over-rated.  He had the one word and was a sharp survivor and thriver, but it was Bubbles who moved us with his progress and regress, with the devastating responses to the death of the kid he worked with (spacing out on the name right now), to how he reacted to his sister keeping him down in the basement.  He really was the emotional heart of the series as well as the keen observer.  He should been a number 1 seed if the Grantland boys were not so obsessed with the bad boys: Avon?  Really?
• McNulty vs Daniels: Very apt that the two cops who had juxtaposing approaches and conflicted so often to face off here.  Both were terrific characters deserving of #1 or #2 seeds.  Daniels tried to work within the system and ultimately got elevated only to find the position quite constraining.  McNulty screwed everything up despite being confident that he was the smartest guy in the room.  Tough call, but Daniels evolved more and showed the conflicts between what would work and what was right so clearly.
• Wallace vs Maurice Levy: Easy.  The lawyer who played the game to perfection.  Wallace was moving and interesting, but mostly through the eyes of others and as a symbol.  Levy was great because he interacted with several of the most interesting characters and usually got the better of them.  We didn't want him to succeed, but he did so anyway.

Ok, the third and fourth brackets in my next post after I catch up on some newer TV (last night's Walking Dead).

I am sure there are Wire fans out there that think I am wrong.  Tell me why or guess my next choices.  Hint: Avon is not going to get to the semi-finals.