Nepal has a doubleheader of festivals this week, Holi and Women’s Day and I am enjoying the first of my two days off from school. One aspect of Holi is to throw colors and water all over each other and I was introduced to the festsivities yesterday at school when the kids brought their water guns and everyone had a blast soaking each other. After school while jogging my daily route through Baluwatar, I was struck between the eyes by a water filled bag lofted from above which proceeded to explode all over my chest. I kept running and gave a wave of acknowledgment to my anonymous assailant for such a direct hit. My iPod had gotten wet so I went back to Shehrish’s house to drop it off and completed my run with no further incident aside from a couple of water gun squirts as I ran by some kids. When I had finished running and was cooling down, I realized that I was feeling really disoriented as if I had been punched in the face. About an hour later that day we took bus to meet up with people for a birthday celebration (Shristi’s), and I nearly collapsed while exiting the bus from dizziness. You wouldn’t think that a makeshift water balloon could pack such a punch but I had a pretty intense headache for the rest of the evening. Apparently the police have been cracking down on the water balloon assailants as it has caused traffic incidents and injuries in the past. I was just thankful that it was only water this year, as last year I was splashed with a substance that reeked suspiciously of ammonia.
The rest of this blog has nothing to do with Nepal and if you haven’t watched The Wire you may want to stop reading now. It hasn’t been feeling like March to me as I have been unable to follow college hoops at all while living in Nepal and have no idea how the season has played out, aside from knowing that Duke-UNC split and that Anthony Davis of Kentucky is considered a lock to be good in the NBA. But yesterday morning before work I was perusing Grantland.com and discovered that they had formed a 32-character bracket of Wire characters and had assigned them a seed and a region exactly like the NCAA bracket but only with 32 components. This is basically about as perfect of entertainment for me that I have come across in a long time, as I have seen every episode of The Wire at least three times and have had many discussions and debates over various aspects of the show. Nobody in Nepal has seen it and I hadn’t really thought about the show until a few days ago where President Obama mentioned that Omar was his favorite character on a podcast. Since the Grantland version wouldn’t print for me, I immediately Googled ‘Blank 32 team bracket’ printed it out and had a blast filling out, thinking about the show and comparing/contrasting the value of certain characters. I wanted to do it before the website publishes their version so that my views are independent and I can see what other people think as I haven’t talked about The Wire at all over the last year. I have seen seasons 1-3 again over the last few months. It’s about to get really esoteric for most of the readers of this blog but I don’t care, because The Wire is probably the best show ever. I only say probably because I’m still really high on Breaking Bad having finally seen the fourth season but I digress; here is the breakdown of my Wire bracket. I did all of this from memory, so excuse me if I’ve forgotten anybody or remembered something slightly differently. I put in YouTube clips later when I have time. EDIT: YouTube clips in. I had never realized the shear breadth of YouTube until searching for Wire clips. I figured that only the classics would be on the internet, but you can basically watch any moment of the show, significant or not.
I evaluated characters on their importance to the story arc, longevity, quality of character/actor and personal preference.
Overseeded:
Bunk Moreland (#1): The Bunk as a #1 seed seems dubious. I like Bunk but never thought of him as much more than part of a buddy cop tandem with McNulty. Nobody I’ve talked with about The Wire with has given Bunk any real admiration, so him being a #1 seed surprised me. The scene where he explodes on Omar is probably my favorite memory of Bunk.
Chris Partlow/Wee Bey (both #4’s): The top hit men for their respective kingpins. Chris was an important fixture in seasons 4 and 5 but really just killed a lot of people and didn’t talk. Wee Bey was locked up at the end of season 1 and really did nothing else throughout the show aside from allowing his son to be adopted. There are too many better characters to assign such high seeds for one-dimensional killers.
Kima Greggs (#7): Probably my least favorite character on The Wire. The whole lesbian family storyline was monotonous and completely unnecessary. Too bad Little Man and Wee Bey didn’t have better aim when they shot up her car in the first season; her dying would have made for a stronger ending to season one and would have saved a lot of air time in subsequent seasons.
Wallace (#4): I’ve gotten heat for taking this line before, but Wallace is grossly overvalued by almost everybody. His murder was one of the most intense moments of the entire series and his story is tragic, symbolizes the evil of the drug game etc. but come on. If he had spent the rest of the series back on the corner or staying with his grandma nothing would care about him at all. I expect him to go far in the national bracket and I don’t agree with it. Nevertheless, his murder is one of the most intense moments of the entire series.
Underseeded:
D’Angelo Barksdale (#6): D’Angelo is one of my favorite characters in the entire series and was the impetus for what kept me interested in the early episodes of the first season. I have a soft spot for the ‘tragic characters’ of each season (D’Angelo, Nick Sobotka, Randy Wagstaff etc.), and his inner battle with morality versus loyalty made for some really good television while his anti-violence approach (despite killing somebody) contrasted nicely with the bloody approach that the rest of his drug crew took. He gave a nice speech in his prison library book group referencing Great Gatsby about having to embrace who you are before being strangled to death in prison which ultimately led to Barksdale organization falling apart. I was really surprised to see him seeded so low.
Marlo Stanfield (#2): Probably properly rated, but I thought he deserved the final #1 seed over Bunk. Marlo is more of a personal preference for me, but I love his ice-cold demeanor and callous approach in becoming the top drug kingpin of Baltimore. Unlike the rest of the top drug players, Marlo only cares about power and respect, evidenced by his explosion in the famous “MY NAME IS MY NAME” scene. The ending for Marlo was perfect, as he had all of the money but none of the power and was left alone in the streets reminiscing on what he once had. Dude just looks the part, too.
Notable Omissions/Inclusions:
Spiros Vondapoulos (not included):
I was primed to send Spiros (or even The Greek) on a George Mason-like run to at least the elite eight of the bracket before noticing their omission. Professional and efficient gangsters who never got caught and exuded complete power and control in their minimalistic approach to business. I am a big season two defender but one of them should have been included, especially over…
Sergei Malatov (#6): Dumbest inclusion in the entire bracket. I wracked my brain trying to remember any scene involving Sergei and only came up with when he got defensive about everyone just assuming that he’s Russian and the phone call where he denies responsibility for a murder as the corpse still had hands and a face. He hooked Marlo up with the Greeks from prison in season five but did nothing else.
Slim Charles (not included): Probably an acceptable omission but Slim had longevity and was fantastic in his role as violent muscle for Avon and Prop Joe. He also notably ascended to the top of the drug world at the end of season five as everyone else was dead, incarcerated or out the game like Marlo. Looked and played the part of cerebral hit man to perfection.
Namond Brice/Randy Wagstaff (not included) /Dukie (#5): I was surprised that Namond and Randy were omitted especially since season four is held in such reverence by nearly everybody. Season three is my favorite, but Namond and Randy were integral to the school system storyline and were both fantastic in their roles, especially Namond. Putting Dukie in over either of them seems stupid, as Dukie basically just became the next Bubbles. Onto the bracket…
West Baltimore Region:
I think the Grantland people gave ‘the king’ an easy walk to the final four as I found this region easily the weakest of the four. My one heavy upset was D’Angelo knocking off Michael Lee and going to the elite eight for aforementioned reasons. I love Cutty as well and may have sent him further if he were in another region. Omar takes this region easily. Winner: Omar Little
Hamsterdam Region:
I found a lot of the seedings/pairing weird and didn’t realize that people like Clay Davis (#2) as much as I do. I thought McNulty was properly rated as a #3 and I went with the upset pick, taking Daniels (#6). Daniels acts better and the McNulty/serial killer storyline of season five was the lowlight of the series. I also went with Maurice Levy (#5) over Wallace as I love Levy as the high power drug kingpin defense attorney and love that the writers of The Wire had the balls to portray a Jewish lawyer in such a stereotypical light. Bubbles over Clay Davis could be an upset in the public bracket. I find Bubbles hard to assess, as the acting is really good and the drug addict angle to the story is compelling (especially if you’ve read The Corner) but I found much of his character arc redundant. I’m guessing the general public overvalues McNulty and Bubbles and one of the two end up winning the Grantland bracket, but I went with Clay. Winner: Clay Davis, shhheeeeeeeeeet
The Ports Region:
A polarizing region with good and bad characters. Carcetti (#4) is my second most hated character as I find the acting horrible. My second biggest upset came from this region as I took Frank Sobotka all the way to the elite eight. Prop Joe (#2) is a great character but is slightly overrated as a 2 and didn’t have the overall impact that Sobotka had. I then struggled with Sobotka versus Bunny Colvin (#3), as Bunny was the mastermind behind Hamsterdam and does a great job representing honest police work in a corrupt system in season three and is great in season four as well working with the corner kids. I made one of my two changes here and initially had Bunny versus Avon in the elite eight but changed it to Sobotka. I could be talked out of this because I admittedly, probably put too much emphasis on season two but I went with Frant Sobotka losing to Avon Barksdale. It will be interesting to see how the public evaluates Avon; I love Avon but know that many people don’t and I have argued about his character on many occasions. Pure gangster. Winner: Avon Barksdale
East Baltimore Region:
Easily the ‘best’ of the four and stacked from top to bottom (minus Kima) with quality but was the easiest for me to fill out and the only upset I had was Lester Freamon (#5) over Wee Bey, which is obvious to anyone who has seen the show. I would have sent Lester much further but couldn’t take him over Stringer. Marlo versus Stringer gave me a moment of pause because I probably give Marlo too much importance but in the end it was easy, Stringer in a landslide. Winner: Stringer Bell
Final Four:
The first two matchups were easy, Omar over Clay (no explanation necessary) and Stringer over Avon. The Stringer/Avon conflict throughout season three is my favorite stretch of Wire episodes and the business versus gangster philosophy was fascinating to watch unfold. Stringer accepting culpability for D’Angelo’s death and the subsequent fallout is probably the most underrated scene in the entire show. In the end, Stringer is far and away more important to the overall theme of the third season and I went with Stringer.
Omar Little vs. Stringer Bell:
I started off making a case for Stringer just to play devil’s advocate as I’ve done before in arguments. Stringer is absolutely crucial in seasons one through three and undergoes more development than any character on the show, playing a pure consigliere to Avon in season one, interim kingpin in season two while Avon is incarcerated and defiant businessman in season three when he wants the Barksdale organization to turn legitimate while Avon is still wrapped up in warring with Marlo over territory. His playing ‘legitimate’ businessman with Clay Davis made for some really good scenes as Stringer just didn’t have the knowledge of the political climate and was scammed for serious money. Stringer was responsible for two of the three most intense death scenes in the show (Wallace and D’Angelo) and his death was for me the most shocking, brain twisting moment of any show that I have ever seen; even though I ‘knew’ it was coming, I didn’t believe it would happen until he was full of bullets. The argument for Omar is much easier to make: best actor, most memorable scenes, best character, etc. He’s the first thing I think about when I think of The Wire. I even found Michael K. Williams (Omar) memorable before watching The Wire as he was great as the villain in an SVU episode as a murderous pimp. I can’t really get into Boardwalk Empire because it’s too weird seeing Omar (Michael K. Williams) in another role. I would get pumped up every time an Omar scene came up in any season. I read somewhere that the writers were going to kill him off in season one but didn’t because people liked him too much. Some things about Omar don’t really fit, though. Him being homosexual is completely irrelevant to the overall nature of his character as a cold-blooded robber of drug dealers. That might be the point that the writers are making, that sexual preference doesn’t matter, but him in romantic relationships and caring about people seems contradictory to his ‘job’. I still can’t decide if his polite tone and lack of profanity adds complexity to his nature or is just an arbitrary quirk. I enjoy Omar more than Stringer, but I think Stringer is much more important to the show. Omar’s survival after getting riddled with bullets behind a couch was questionable and his death almost seemed insignificant, albeit shocking. I expected the writers to have some sort of Marlo/Omar standoff with one of them dying and was disappointed by the anticlimactic nature of him getting shot in the end while buying Newports. Stringer wears the crown as The Wire’s best character.
Winner: Stringer Bell
