IMO The Wire is the better of the two shows but it lacks a dynamic character like Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) from The Shield. Det. Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) is Ok but actully the more interesting and compelling characters have been the villians on the show.
Avon Barksdale
Stringer Bell
Omar Little
Marlo Stanford
The Greek crew
The Longshoremen's Union crew
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Detectives Bunk and Freeman are key characters on the police side which includes to many good characters to mention here.
Living here in Costa Rica I am behind US residents for viewing the latest season of The Wire but it will air soon enough.
wil..
this is what makes the show so compelling (and real)-what is right is wrong, white is black etc-no good guy there to come to the rescue, because everything is relative and changes in the blink of an eye-i think we all have experiences with this
omar (of all people) and bubs to an extent are essentially the moral compass(es) of the show
one of my favorite examples of this is prior to bodiegetting clipped-mcnulty has him in the park and body tells him the game is rigged-bodie gets got with mcnulty (kinda) to blame-next episode mcnulty says the same exact thing as he resumes his love affair with jamesons and self destruction (ie games rigged against him-and somehow that excuses his and everyones behavior on the show)-love daniels how even he who is well respected and admired even by street police, is worried about prior misdeeds (cant escape his past etc much like omar and bubs and presbuluski and even some of the yo's)
this show is so good we havent understood it yet and may never
"the bigger the lie the more they believe"