Gus Haynes is old-school with an indepth knowledge of Baltimore, having worked his way up from district police reporting. He can sense a lazy reporter and read between the lines of press conference statements. His style, considered by the new management at the Baltimore Sun, is vulgar and unrefined, but he has an instinct for the truth and is determined to get every last detail correct.

Scott Templeton

Scott Templeton is hungry and ambitious and sees the Baltimore Sun as a stepping stone to a real newspaper like the Washington Times or Post. Supported by his bosses Whiting and Klebanow, he is willing to go to great lengths to further his career and, unbeknownst to them, he doesn’t let the truth get in his way.

Managing Editor Thomas Klebanow

Klebanow is the Managing Editor of The Baltimore Sun, doing most of Executive Editor James C. Whiting III’s dirty work. The commercial realities of running a regional newspaper mean that he is in charge of belt-tightening, improving efficiency and staff cutbacks.

Frank Sobotka, the secretary-treasurer of the slowly sinking longshoremen union, is the guy everyone turns to. His dream is to return the port to its former glory, feeding lobbyists secret $50,000 bunles of cash to convince the lawmakers to make Baltimore a competitive port again.

To finance his campaign, he arranges for The Greek’s shipping containers to slip into the port undetected. His family life becomes frayed when he finds out his son Ziggy and nephew Nick are doing some freelance work for The Greek, not to mention his feud with police Major Valchek and their investigation of the port.

Nick Sobotka

Nick is Frank’s nephew. As money is tight and “hours” on the dock are few and far between, he can’t afford to live with his girlfriend and daughter and is desperate to earn enough for them to get their own place.

Tempted by the lure of some easy money from The Greek, he is convinced by Vondas to arrange a delivery of stolen goods which is paid half in cash and half in heroin. This brings Nick into contact with the street corner drug crews and he starts to make serious money. Nick sees this as an opportunity to make his dream of a good life with his girlfriend and daughter come true.

Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos

Vondas is the face of The Greek’s illicit shipping business keeping a low profile working out of Little Johnny’s Diner. He negotiates the various deals between The Greek and his associates, including Frank Sobotka and Prop Joe. Vondas takes a shine to Nick Sobotka, bringing him deeper into the business, until Major Valchek’s investigation gets in the way.

The Greek

The soft spoken and unimposing man known only as The Greek imports anything and everything through the Baltimore port …stolen goods, drugs, women … anything that would make him more money. He is ruthless. Anyone interfering with him is eliminated immediately, including the ship’s engineer when one of his containers arrived with 13 dead girls inside. His signature style leaves victims headless and handless.

Namond is the son of imprisoned Barksdale soldier Wee-Bey Brice. Forced by his mother to follow in his father’s footsteps he becomes a runner for Bodie and it quickly becomes clear that Namond is not suited to the streetcorner life, despite his bravado. Former police Major Bunny Colvin takes Namond under his wing and, with Wee-Bey’s blessing, eventually becomes his guardian.

Howard “Bunny” Colvin

Former Western District’s police Major, Bunny Colvin is lured back to work by UM Professor David Parenti to help him run a school-based program targetting at-risk kids. Fighting with bureaucracy and the city’s Education Authority as well as the kids themselves, Colvin makes headway with some of the kids and eventually takes in Namond Brice to raise him as his own.

Roland “Prez” Pryzbylewski

Prez was formerly a member of the Major Crime Unit. Working alongside Lester Freamon on the wiretaps, he soon demonstrated a skill for identifying codes and an aptitude for following the paper trail. Unfortunately he was a liability as a street officer and as a result of an incident in which an undercover officer was killed, he left the force to become a teacher. His first year at Tilghman Middle school is an eye opening experience as he finds out that the kids education is not his colleagues main priority. Prez learns how to command the respect of his street-savvy class, finding new ways of teaching them without getting too emotionally involved.

Michael Lee

Reserved and quiet, Michael is an observer. He is also loyal and smart. He is the parent to his younger brother, Bug, and with a homelife made fragile by his mother’s addiction, he is wary of adults who take any interest in him or his situation. In eighth grade, he traded boxing in the gym with Cutty for banging on the corners with Chris and Snoop, though he may not be as cut out for a life of murder as he thought.

Randy Wagstaff

Randy grew up in children’s homes after his mother died when he was young. He never knew his father. An incident at school resulted in him being labelled as a snitch and his life turns to the worse after a revenge attack on the home of his foster parent, Miss Anna.

Jimmy McNulty is the closest the Wire comes to a lead character. At times he’s the most reliable, thorough and stubborn cop on the case. McNulty is “good police” but his insecurities and self-destructive nature come to the surface, particularly when he’s drunk. He leaves in his wake a failed marriage, an on-off relationship with Rhonda Pearlman and strained relationships with his colleagues and superior officers.

Detective William ‘Bunk’ Moreland

The Bunk is a cigar-toting veteran of the homicide department with a great dry (and profane) wit. He is loyal to McNulty and together they let off steam by drinking and picking up women although Bunk is married with kids. Bunk is shrewd, experienced and a good interrogator with an inbuilt BS detector … other than his own!

Detective Shakima “Kima” Greggs

Kima was drafted in from Daniels’ Narcotics Unit and quickly gained respect from her male colleagues in the new Major Crimes Division. As the series unfold her relationship with McNulty grows closer and soon they even began to empathise with one another about the job, relationships and department politics.

Detective Lester Freamon

Before being assigned to Major Crimes, Lester Freamon was in the pawnshop unit for 13 years with a lucrative sideline making dolls-house furniture alongside his minimal police work. He is relentless when it comes to following up leads – wiretaps, cell phones, property, money, paper, players – all the way to the top, where he is eventually offered the choice between his career case and his colleagues’ careers.

Colonel Cedric Daniels

With a law degree under his belt and a chip on his shoulder, Daniels was assigned head of the Major Crimes Unit with a brief to lead a fast, straightforward,and above all, limited investigation into the Barksdale empire. As its extent became apparent to the Unit, he forged on with the investigation, jeopardizing his career by defying the Commissioner’s order to shut it down.

Thomas “Tommy” Carcetti

Tommy has a genuine desire to improve the life of the city’s diverse population and to become Mayor he has to play hardball politics. Like many in politics, Carcetti is about contradictions. Although a family man committed to his wife and young children, he isn’t above the odd indiscretion.

Assistant State’s Attorney Rhonda Pearlman

Rhonda’s understanding of the nuances of surveillance law and complex casework proves invaluable to the Major Crime Unit’s investigations. She is often worried about the political implications of the casework and the effect on her career prospects. Her affair with McNulty led to the breakup of his marriage and he still showed up on her doorstep every now and then until her relationship with Cedric Daniels.

The number two but clearly the brains in the Barksdale gang, he saw the future in becoming a legitimate investor and secretly studied Economics at college. Stringer, along with Prop Joe, tried to reform the violence and gangsterism of the drug trade by forming their own wholesale drugs co-operative, with a typically violent outcome.

Bubbles

Bubbles is a drug addict living in vacant or abandoned lots, eeking out a living from petty theft or selling second-hand items out of a shopping cart. As a longtime informant for Kima Greggs, he volunteers to help the Major Crime Unit after his buddy Johnny is nearly beaten to death by Barksdale’s crew over a few, forged dollars.

Bubbles life on the streets is tough and gradually improves after he meets Walon, a former addict, who helps him to slowly clean up his act and get his life back together.

Marlo Stanfield

Marlo Stanfield, a cunning young gangster, takes on the much larger Barksdale crew with his lethal enforcers Chris and Felicia “Snoop” Pearson in a ruthless drug war hiding the dead bodies in vacant buildings. After taking control of West Baltimore, Marlo joins the New Day Co-op to get an inside look at how they work. Marlo continues with his ruthless hunting of his competitors and goes head to head with Omar.

“Proposition” Joe Stewart

Prop Joe works out of a small appliance repair shop on Eastside Baltimore and it is this low profile that has kept him free and profitable for years. Sensing an opportunity, Prop Joe convinces Stringer Bell and others to join his New Day Co-Op, pushing his cheap, potent supply of raw heroin and cocaine imported by his Greek contacts through the Baltimore port. The syndicate puts product before territory by promoting peace and security for all the members, until they run into Marlo.

Omar Little

Omar is Baltimore’s Robin Hood, stealing fom the rich drug dealers and … keeping it for himself. He is careful to only rob dealers and others in the game who will not call in the police. After robbing a Barksdale stash house with his lover, Brandon, and another gunman named Bailey, he became a target of Avon’s crew. Bailey was caught and killed first, followed by Brandon, who was tortured in an unsuccessful attempt to make him reveal Omar’s whereabouts.

Omar moves on, sticking up other drug dealers all over the city, eventually getting caught in a web of double-crossing and retribution with Proposition Joe and Marlo Stanfield with disastrous results.

Preston “Bodie” Broadus

Preston “Bodie” Broadus, a loyal soldier of Barksdale’s crew worked The Pit under D’Angelo and was later given command of a crew at a high-rise tower. As the war between Marlo and Barksdale takes its toll, he finds himself back on the corner, without his own territory and under threat from larger drug crews. Bodie fails to remain independent and starts selling Marlo’s gear.

Following Tommy Carcetti’s election as Mayor, public funds have fallen through the floor. The city is broke. There is no money to pay the police, teachers and other city workers and especially no funds to invest in the city infrastructure. Any spare money is being invested in the schools. Moral is at its lowest and even the city newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, has to consider redundancies.

Police overtime is not being paid despite Mayor Carcetti’s promises. McNulty, Bunk, Freamon and rest of the team are far from happy and they soon find out that the Marlo investigation is being shut down.

Greggs and McNulty are returned to Homicide to work with Landsman (better than Harbour duty for McNulty … but only just).

Marlo Stanfield’s empire has grown despite being under constant surveillance from Major Crime Unit and he has joined the New Day Co-Op alongside Prop Joe , Slim Charles, Calvin “Cheese” Wagstaff, Hungry Man and Fatface Rick. Marlo, Chris and Snoop meet to discuss the lack of police surveillance – no tails, helicopters or cameras … ironically whilst being watched from a distance by Lester Freamon, who had been patiently waiting for this moment to happen.

Marlo wants to bypass Prop Joe’s Co-Op and buy his product direct from Vondas but first has to set up a meet.

Arriving at Jessup Correctional Institution intending to meet with Vondas’ enforcer Sergei, instead he meets Avon who wants a $100k fee for putting Marlo and Vondas together.

Awash with cash, Marlo asks Prop Joe how to “clean his money” and learns how The Pastor and he clean Prop Joe’s money with good works projects – financing hospitals and schoolhouses on the Islands that never actually get built.

While travelling to a crime scene … by bus, the city has no money to service the squad cars … McNulty plans how to get more resources for his department to catch Marlo. Later at a homicide of a homeless man, McNulty, still drunk from the night before, fakes a murder scene and tells his partner, “There’s a serial killer in Baltimore, Bunk. He preys on the weakest among us. He needs to be caught.”

McNulty reads through police reports of previous unsolved murders and spots a victim with a red ribbon tied around his wrist. His plan comes to life and he sets about creating evidence that a serial killer is attacking the homeless, going to the morgue to add a red ribbon on his homicide’s wrist.
McNulty explains his plan to Lester Fraemon who agrees to help him, much to Bunk’s disbelief.

Meanwhile at the Baltimore Sun offices, Scott Templeton files a story and when Gus Haynes asks for more proof and background, Templeton gets defensive and Gus starts to get suspicious.

Marlo is still hunting Omar, ordering Chris and Snoop to kill his close friend, hoping to enrage Omar into coming after him. Word gets to Omar, who is out of the country, and he comes back vowing revenge against Marlo and those who gave his friend up.

After another homeless “murder”, Templeton meets McNulty at a bar who feeds him some inside information and Templeton rushes off to make the second-edition deadline.

Templeton makes the case his top priority and scours the city for homeless people to interview, but comes up with nothing.

However, this doesn’t stop Templeton who thinks the case will be his way out of Baltimore and onto a more prestigious paper. Instead, he fakes a conversation with the “killer” which makes the Sun’s front page. As soon as he finds out, McNulty meets with the editorial team, sensing that Templeton could be played and that a front page serial killer could bring City Hall funds he could divert to bringing a case against Marlo.

At Mayor Carcetti’s press conference he promises that the killer will be stopped and Daniels, now
Deputy Commissioner of Operations, explains how the police department will catch him. As expected, City Hall uses the case as a political diversion from the city’s other problems. The investigation into the fictitious killer takes much needed funds from the education and social services budgets.

McNulty is put in charge of the investigation and he arranges for Lester to get equipment to continue the Marlo wiretap, also using the equipment to further draw Templeton into his net, feeding him more lies to publish in the Sun. The serial killer case spirals out of control, even the FBI become involved. McNulty begs Lester to finish off Marlo … and quickly, not easy as Marlo is using a new and seemingly complex code to arrange meets with his crew and other dealers.

Det. Leander Sydnor, who had replaced Prez as Lester Freamon’s protegy, has a moment of inspiration whilst trying to track Marlo across town and cracks his code.

Suddenly it all comes together after years of police work and the day of reckoning for Marlo and his gang is almost here.

Time is also up on the fake case, and McNulty is forced to admit his involvement to Rawls and Daniels. However, even after nearly 60 hours of superb TV, there is a final twist …

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The Wire’s no-nonsense focus on city life in North America continues in Series 4. The gritty storyline weaves together the inner city realities of under-funded education, the street corner gangs attracting young kids into their fold with easy money, and “white-collar” manipulation and corruption at the highest level of the city’s “ruling class”.

McNulty is back on the street and the Crime Unit, without Daniels, is targetting Marlo Stanfield and his growing organisation of dealers.
Something is just not adding up … how can Marlo’s kingdom grow with no dead bodies?
Marlo’s enforcer Chris and his partner Snoop have found a way of hiding the evidence in the many vacant lots in the city.

Brodie, formerly one of Barksdale’s crew, resents having to work for the new boss, Marlo and fights for his corner.

Daniels, is now a Major in charge of Western District, and romantically involved with Assistant State’s Attorney Rhonda Pearlman. Rhonda is processing Money Laundering subpoenas issued by Daniels’ former unit against many city politicians, in particular State Senator Clay Davis, whose driver had been caught earlier with cash in a bin liner. Clay Davis warns Mayor Royce that he had better tell the police to back off … or else.

Former member of the Crime Unit, Roland “Prez” Pryzbylewski, is now a trainee Maths teacher at Tilghman, the local Middle School. His first day doesn’t go well, his lack of experience is obvious to the kids and they interrupt and destroy his lesson. Randy Wagstaffe, one of his class, sneaks out during the confusion and goes to the school cafeteria to sell his product … a backpack full of candy.

Prez would later help his class to learn Maths (and make money on the street) by giving them tips on how to work out the odds on their card and dice games.

Bunny Colvin, former Western District Police Major, joins a behavioural study by the University of Maryland of 10 students at Prez’s school, three of which, including Namond Brice (son of Barksdale crew member Wee-Bey), were taken from Prez’s class. Despite his initial bravado, Namond gradually learns to trust Bunny, breaking away from the street corner culture and also, eventually … his family.

Proposition Joe approaches Marlo once again to join the drug consortium set up by him and Stringer Bell, The New Day Co-op. Marlo declines the offer … planning to take over from Proposition Joe and his cartel of drug dealers to become King of Baltimore’s corners.

Omar, having finished his feud with Stringer Bell, meets up with Proposition Joe who offers him a cut of a high-stakes card game. Suspecting that Joe intends to set him up, Omar stakes the game out. Not recognising Marlo, Omar sticks the game up and tells him “Money ain’t got no owners, only spenders.” The Marlo-Omar war is on, with Marlo setting up Omar at every opportunity and Proposition Joe and the New Day Co-Op caught in the middle.

The Mayoral election reaches its climax. Tommy Carcetti works hard to increase his share of the black vote, despite last-minute smear campaigns from the Royce camp.
Mayor-Elect Carcetti, wanting to appoint a new police commissioner is faced with a revolt from leading city officials, and relies upon Clay Davies to call in some favours.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t get any better for Mayor Carcetti or the city as you will find out in Series 5.

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Series 3 returns to the street corners of Baltimore and Lt. Daniels’ team is still chasing the city’s drug dealers.  With Avon close to release from jail and the Barksdale gang’s former territory, the Towers, raised to the ground, Stringer Bell decides to become the city’s top drug wholesaler.

Meanwhile pressure mounts at City Hall and the Police Department as the city’s crime rate continues to grow. At Comstat, Rawls tells his commanders. “If Baltimore had New York’s population, we’d be clocking four thousand murders a year at this rate”. Police Major Colvin, close to retirement, has an idea to bring the crime rate down … legalise drugs, at least in his district.

The Free Zone, nicknamed Hamsterdam is launched in an area full of abandoned buildings. Not surprisingly, the cops are outraged at Colvin’s idea and the drug dealers and users are amazed but soon get used to it and open trading starts with the cops looking on from the side.

Stringer Bell, with Proposition Joe on his side, calls a meeting of the city’s drug dealers and they agree to form a cartel so that they can negotiate better discounts from their New York supplier.

Unable to convince Marlo Stansfield to join the cartel, and against Stringer Bell’s advice, Avon decides to go to war with Marlo over the street corner territory. A bloody and violent battle commences between Marlo and Barksdale’s soldiers. Baltimore’s murder rate grows … and grows, increasing the pressure at City Hall and on the Mayor … just before the Mayoral elections.

Hamsterdam isn’t going as planned … a young black teenager turns up dead, so Colvin calls a group of dealers threatening that if the killer doesn’t turn himself in next day, Hamsterdam will be shut down. When Stringer Bells learns of Colvin’s edict, the killer is promptly persuaded to turn himself in. Worse still, a local reporter has found out about Hamsterdam but isn’t aware that Police Command doesn’t know about Colvin’s plan. Colvin lies to the reporter in an attempt to buy a week’s silence, telling him that the drug dealers are being lulled into a false sense of security and will all be arrested within the week. The reporter is promised an exclusive as his reward.

Already at war with Marlo, Avon puts a contract out on his old enemy Omar and traces Omar’s family in an effort to track him down. Two of his soldiers spot Omar taking his grandmother to Sunday church and open fire injuring his grandma. Omar is furious and tells his crew “Barksdale gotta be got.” Teaming up with Brother Mouzone, Omar seeks his revenge … with deadly consequences.

At the next Comstat meeting, Colvin finally tells his superiors about Hamsterdam and how it has reduced his district’s crime rate. Major Rawls is incredulous and so, when he is told, is the Mayor, although he is also intrigued by the drop in violent crime and considers whether he could spin it for his own political purposes.

Hamsterdam is eventually closed and the buildings bulldozed.  Councilman Tommy Carcetti learning from his recent experience and with a new, higher media profile, senses the opportunity to run for Mayor. Tommy promises to reduce the city’s crime rate and improve Baltimore’s quality of life.

Will he succeed? Find out in Series 5.

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Series 2 moves the focus away from the lowrises onto Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal cargo docks where the unions are struggling to keep the docks open and their members in work. The Wire’s political landscape now involves the police department, the longshoremen union, the Catholic Church, a growing number of drug smugglers and dealers and people traffickers. An intriguing and addictive plot, light years away from the weekly packaged cop shows.

Frank Sobotka, secretary-treasurer of the union has a long running feud with fellow Pole, police Major Valchek.

The feud is renewed when Major Valchek notices a stained-glass window donated to St. Casimir’s Catholic Church by Sobotka’s union when he also delivers a new stained-glass window to the Church.

Major Valchek is determined to take revenge and targets Sabotka, his family and the union for “special treatment”.

Meanwhile, Frank’s son Ziggy and his cousin Nick go to meet “The Greek” who has a container arriving on a cargo ship in which he has contraband and needs help sliding it by the authorities.

Jimmy McNulty has been demoted and reassigned to the Baltimore Police Harbour unit as Colonel Rawls’ revenge.

Although the first excitement of the day is a yacht with a dead motor, the pace later picks up  when McNulty pulls the dead body of a pretty young girl from the harbour.

Later, at the dock, Marine Police Officer Beatrice “Beadie” Russell is making her rounds and notices a container with loose locks, opens it up and goes inside. Noticing a false rear wall in the back, she investigates further and finds inside a tiny compartment the bodies of 13 young women, apparently suffocated.

Nick Sabotka, who’s money problems get worse as the work at the docks dries up, becomes more and more involved with Vondas, The Greek’s right hand man and enforcer. Nick soon gets involved in the street corner drug scene and starts to make serious money for himself and Ziggy, even though Ziggy is becoming more and more upset as he is no longer the boss and the two close cousins fallout.

Major Valchek, hearing that Frank Sobotka and the union have hired a lobbyist to spread cash to local politicians in an attempt to revitalise the docks, seizes the opportunity to start a police investigation into his longtime enemy Sabotka. Valchek convinces Burrell to relaunch Major Crime Unit. The old team is soon back in action but without McNulty, who is still on harbour patrol. Instead, Russell is drafted into the department.

The investigation eventually links the Sabotka family and The Greek’s top quality dope back to Proposition Joe.
Meanwhile, Avon Barksdale brings in muscle from New York to keep out rival dealers, a man named Brother Mouzone.

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The 13 episodes give the plot time to extend and the characters develop.

Book a day off, close the curtains, turn off the phone, grab some food and drink and sit back for 13 episodes of gritty, intense, inner city realism.

The Wire Series One

The story starts with Baltimore Homicide Detective Jimmy McNulty dropping in on the murder trial of a young drug dealer named D’Angelo Barksdale. Sitting at the back of the courtroom, McNulty observes who is there and is himself observed by associates of Barksdale and by the presiding Judge Phelan. The court case takes an unexpected twist and D’Angelo is acquitted of the murder.

After the trial, McNulty is called into see Judge Phelan who wants to know why he’s attending a trial that does not involve him. McNulty tells him that D’Angelo’s uncle Avon Barksdale and his partner Stringer Bell, are reigning terror in the high-rises and are thought to be behind as many as a dozen unsolved murders a year. Whilst McNulty is on his way back to his office, the Judge calls McNulty’s boss Major William Rawls who order McNulty to have a full report on Barksdale for him by eight the next morning.

Across town, when D’Angelo shows up to oversee the drug trade at the Towers the next morning he is told by Stringer he has been reassigned to one of the less prestigious low-rise projects, affectionately called The Pit.
Omar Little, a legendary shotgun-toting, stick-up artist steals Avon’s stash and one of D’Angelo’s boys is shot in the process.

Furious at being robbed, Avon and Stringer put a bounty on the heads of Omar and his gang.

After McNulty files his report, Lt. Daniels from Narcotics is called to head the new Major Crime Unit but apart from his own Narcotics team and McNulty he is given other department’s rejects.
McNulty is inspired at a meeting with FBI Special Agent Fitzhugh and has the idea that the Unit can mix old-fashioned police surveillance with new technology … The Wire (tap).

Knowing that solving the numerous murders thought to have been committed by Barksdale and his crew could be linked with drug assassinations, McNulty and his team re-work the cases. They get a break when they re-visit the file of Diedre Kresson, a former girlfriend of one of the Barksdale crew. The team get enough information to support a wire tap and start to build their case.

As the story develops, Lester Freamon, a thoughtful detective banished to the pawn office over a decade earlier; and Prez, a disastrous detective who is the son-in-law of a police Major, form a successful partnership.

Together they break the Barksdale crew’s code and translate the street slang.

After weeks of hard work, the Unit is now able to keep tracks on the gang.

Meanwhile, Omar and the Barksdale’s are at war and Omar steals from them at every opportunity.

After stealing one of Avon’s re-ups, Omar bargains with one of Avon’s drug rivals, Proposition Joe Stewart. He swaps the stash for Avon’s pager number and a code. Omar uses the pager and code to attack Avon and his bodyguard.

The cops continue to build a case against Avon, Stringer and their crew … but not as water-tight as they hoped.

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