He's excellent as expected in "Hap and Leonard" with James Purefoy.
It's on Sundance TV in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK.
Two seasons with a third already commissioned.
>Set in the late 1980's, Hap and Leonard is a darkly comic swamp noir of two best friends, one femme fatale, a crew of washed up revolutionaries, a pair of murderous psycho killers, some lost loot, and the fuzz.
"he was on a three-day-long bender when his mother brought him to a rally for Barack Obama in Harrisburg, Pa. Earlier during his campaign, Mr. Obama had declared “The Wire” the best show on television and Omar his favorite character. When the two men met privately after the event, Mr. Williams, lock-jawed and high on cocaine, could barely speak."
Enamored with David Simon's work, I picked up the DVD box set of "Homicide: Life on the Street", which I'd heard of before, but didn't have an attachment to. After seeing The Wire, then Treme (which took me a long time to adjust to not being The Wire, but may actually be even better) and then Show Me A Hero, it's fair to say that Davis Simon is just a brilliant writer.
Anyway, that was kind of a tangent to get to the real point, which is that Homicide, filmed a decade earlier than the Wire, highlighted many of the same troubles that The Wire did. Perhaps as the result of being based on the same (or similar) works, but if Homicide was authentic (and I believe it was) and the Wire was authentic (which I also believe), then it seems that Baltimore's had problems for some time.
I work in Baltimore now, and get to see some of the areas The Wire was filmed in enough to see that they've made real progress in certain areas, but on the whole, but Baltimore tends to do a good job of holding a spot in the top 10 of "most dangerous cities" lists year to year.
One of the sadly brilliant things with The Wire was that it had so many great black actors given great roles. It contributes to a stellar ensemble (which also includes a white Old Etonian). Seems like a lot of shows don't offer those opportunities, and the few great black roles that do exist these days are often given to... actors from The Wire.
The UK is even worse, David Harewood is on the record as saying left and went to America to find better roles.
To be fair, the racial composition of the UK, as multicultural as it might be in certain areas, is nowhere near the US' - it's almost 90% white, and before the 1950s it was dramatically more so. Even today, the largest minorities are Asian, not African.
This composition is inevitably reflected in the stories people choose to write, read, film and watch.
There's truth in that, although I'd say the composition is still wrong. Famously, Midsomer Murders is way less diverse that the average Cambridgeshire village (which no-one would describe as a melting-pot). Equally, there really aren't that many decent Asian roles either (there have been some successful comedies, some good, some bad). And London... well, this isn't really about race but London rarely looks like London.
As an aside, the PC Peter Grant series (aka Rivers of London) depicts London way more accurately than most fiction, despite teeming with elves and goblins.
So, it's a decade earlier, which means that the cinematography is a decade behind. The camera work is often sloppy, and the soundtrack is, at times, atrocious. That said, the stories are just as compelling, and just as well told.
If not for the faults I reference above, I'd strongly recommend it as epically great television -- and it is, if you can look past those faults, but sometimes they're pretty glaring.
Andre Braugher though? He's pretty amazing throughout the series.
I know that hand-held was an intentional choice, as was 16mm, but even for what it is, it still seems sloppy in spots. There are a number of sloppy pans back and forth during conversations, and because they eschewed camera trucks / sleds / dollies / etc., there are walking backwards shots in which you can tell the cameraman is walking backwards by the camera bob.
That said, I'm not privy to the production details, so if even those things were intentional, then so be it, but it definitely feels dated and off, relative to The Wire.
Simon is all over that. i knew before I watched it, and while it's nothing like The Wire, it feels similarly honest. The best criticism of the show I've found (and I really look for that type of stuff) mostly seems to be relatively benign.
If someone can direct me to more substantial disagreement, I'd love to know. But so far I've been a little surprised at how little has been written against the depiction of Generation Killl.
I would definitely recommend his original book, "Homicide". I read it as a kid and it was eye-opening to see how even someone as open-minded/ hopeful(?) as Simon got ground down by the cycle of poverty.
It took me a long time to switch gears. Going from The Wire to Treme is kind of like switching from Windows to Linux -- the hardest part is unlearning what you already know. In my case, I kept expecting Treme to be more Wire-esque. It isn't, at all. It's its own show, with its own characters, in its own city.
What it has in common with The Wire is that its characters are richly crafted, and they're whole characters. Nobody in any David Simon show is a throwaway character, and that might not ever have been more true than in Treme. Also, the acting is exceptional, in every scene, and in every case. Another commonality is that of the failures of people, and of the institutions that ostensibly aim to protect them. Like The Wire, Treme is filled with a panoply of people all attempting their best in every task, but as in life, those people sometimes fail, and often those failures come at the expense of somebody else. Just as in The Wire, we often get to see the impact of those failures up close and personal, and we get to feel the hurt it causes, while sympathizing with those who made whatever mistake caused the failure, and far too often to be comfortable, we get to pick which one of those people we prefer.
There are big differences, obviously. The Wire is, at its core, a cops and robbers drama, with some other stuff going on. Treme focuses more on the people, and less on the game they're playing. Music plays a much bigger role in Treme than in The Wire, but that's a commonality too, as David Simon works tend to feature the city as a character, and Treme's set in New Orleans, and that music is part of New Orleans' character.
The narrative in Treme meanders around A LOT. It all basically wraps itself up by the end, but while The Wire managed to tell a basically cohesive story each season, Treme's big plot is spread out, with blurrier lines. It gives you the feeling of closure with each season finale, but the collection of tales being told don't, and really, keep going well after the show's end.
At the end of the day though, the main difference is that narrative draw. If you need one, maybe Treme isn't for you. Sure, it has political corruption, and criminal investigations, and the occasional legal proceeding, but at its core Treme is really just a window into the lives of a couple dozen folks making their way in post-Katrina New Orleans. We get to see how the storm affected them, and how the city affected them, and sometimes, how they've affected the city -- whether by making their mark on it, or succumbing to its ways, or in some cases, getting out while the getting is good. It isn't about anything that I could wrap up into a few sentences, but it's a deep cultural exploration into a culturally rich and beautiful people, and it's a showcase for some of the best damn music around, and it's an expose into the triumphs and troubles of people just trying to make it work in a city at a time when nothing's working as it should. It's also the inverse of that, in true David Simon form, so -- yeah, nobody can fault you for having a hard time making an adjustment, but it's worth adjusting if you can manage it.
Not to be a pedant, but one of the best things about The Wire is the language..."Omar comin!" or "knockos" instead of "narcos" (narco cops) or "Hamsterdam," a mishearing of "Amsterdam."
In general people in the UK can understand most Americans. People in the US are fucking baffled when they hear someone from the UK say "herb" or "water".
I was under the impression that the dense use of language was an intentional artistic choice.
To give a non-"street" example, one character makes a comment about working a "ro-ro" which I happen to know is a "Roll-on, Roll-off car ferry". But I guess the average viewer isn't supposed to know that, just to absorb the authenticity as a background texture.
Sopranos is in the tier JUST immediately below The Wire and Breaking Bad, for me. Amazing TV, but not quite at that extra-elite level. I have not yet watched Deadwood, and judging from these discussions, I should.
I think the Wire excelled at a more difficult game because the writing adhered to a kind of journalistic dogma that didn't allow for many of the tricks used in the storytelling of Breaking Bad or The Sopranos. Walt could blow up a room and not only survive, but convince a psychopathic drug dealer to do business with him by that very act. Tony Soprano could garner empathy and understanding by showing us his dream sequences. But The Wire gave its audience only what its characters said and did. Characters who-- by and large-- couldn't just "problem solve" their way out of their circumstances like Walt did so often.
Season 5 is the most underappreciated season, but I've really started to appreciate it.
McNulty has been a character who believes the ends justify the means. In Season 1, he falsifies that Sidner (iirc) was on the roof, thus allowing the police to admit phone tapped evidence.
In Season 5, it shows how taking that mentality of by any means necessary can quickly spiral out of control.
I think nobody really touches David Simon in TV. He's like Miyazaki in anime I feel. First it's him, then everybody else. The Wire, Treme, Generation Kill... it's just another level. On the next step below we'd have things like Man Men, Deadwood, The Sopranos, etc.
I enjoyed deadwood, and I thought the story arc with The Comstock and George Hearst as a robber baron was going to have a huge payoff, but instead the series was cut short which is a huge shame.
There is just enough foolery to make it easily tier 2 for me: Francis Wolcott's story arc, Olyphant's acting, Seth Bullock's attempt at morale highground.
If folks aren't turned off by violence, profanity, and prostitution, it's definitely must watch tv.
I've come around to the thinking that Sopranos (even if I prefer the Wire) was the best show on television. Before it, nothing on television came close to the depth that the Sopranos did. It laid the foundation for epic shows like The Wire, Game of Thrones, and Breaking Bad.
Maybe I'm nuts, but I couldn't stand The Sopranos. I didn't find Tony Soprano to be a sympathetic antihero at all. Just a vile gangster who I just wanted to be killed in every episode.
I felt the same. I watched it all the way through and understand that it laid the groundwork so a better show like The Wire could be produced. But I agree with you. I hated Tony and basically everyone he associated with and was glad to see some of them killed off. I guess that means it was well written but its the reason I haven't bothered to rewatch.
The Wire on the other hand I've seen completely atleast 5 times and always notice something new.
Maybe you're not supposed to find him sympathetic. Maybe you're not even supposed to find him unsympathetic. Maybe that's one of the things that differentiates good shows from great shows.
Overall, The Sopranos stands near the top in my book, but it did suffer from some unevenness. There seemed to be experimentation with directors that didn't always work (an Imperioli episode comes immediately to mind). And, there were some episodes and arcs that didn't have the same weight overall.
Still top-tier, and I think it laid a foundation that others have built upon, in sheer game-elevation alone.
I'm an Oz fanboy and this is as close to objectively wrong as any subjective value judgment can get. Even the best of Oz is barely as good as the worst of the Wire - and Oz just got progressively worse as the seasons went on.
David Simon called it "a treatise on the end of the American empire, and who we are as a people, what we've come to, why we can no longer solve or even seriously address our own problems", and generally said and wrote a lot of insightful things since, very eloquently. I loved The Wire, but discovering that head and character behind it impressed me on top of even that.
If I had to put it in a nutshell I'd say The Wire "comes from a place of" paying attention, not from distraction or deriving entertainment from crime and other problems, and that (combined with genius and the right people getting together and having good chemistry, and a lot of things not going wrong that can easily kill a TV show) made it so good. Good art can be luck, but art this great is always the tip of an iceberg.
Interesting. I hadn't heard that quote from Simon, but it absolutely fits.
One of the brilliant things about the show is how it wove in so many elements: rival criminals, politics, law enforcement, the media, the church, well-meaning citizens, etc. There was so much tension, angst and striving from all quarters. All of this created a separate entity--a system--wherein all actions and motivations served to form a near-perfect tension that held everything and everyone in a state of suspension.
There's a couple of exceptions, but in general, Omar is far less inclined to use swearwords than other characters and even expresses a dislike for that language.
"There are not many shows taht are better than the Wire; my favorite part about Omar is that he doesn't curse."
I loved the wire - truly.
However, I think I would rate the first season of true detective as being better than all of the seasons of the wire except for season 2, which was my favorite.
I was surprised to learn that s2 (dock workers, etc.) is not very well liked - I thought it was by far the most interesting.
EDIT: WIRE SPOILER: also, as long as we're talking about it ... the resolution of the omar character in the last seasons of the wire was incredibly anti-climactic and just downright weird. I understand they got the rug pulled out and had to quick wrap up the show but that was really just the worst and most useless bookend to his character arc...
> EDIT: WIRE SPOILER: also, as long as we're talking about it ... the resolution of the omar character in the last seasons of the wire was incredibly anti-climactic and just downright weird. I understand they got the rug pulled out and had to quick wrap up the show but that was really just the worst and most useless bookend to his character arc...
I think that was the point. I don't remember where I read it, but his death was always going to be like that. It didn't matter that he was the only beacon of (kinda) good in a cruel world - good and bad, the streets get you eventually and its never honorable or glorious.
Yeah, I would have expected - and enjoyed - a blaze of glory end for Omar.
Which in itself is an argument against doing that!
The way he went out says that in the real "game", there are no super heroes. Even the biggest badass dies just as much from a bullet, and ultimately mean nothing compared to the big institutional forces that shape the world.
One way to think about The Wire as a whole is that it's about organisations and how they remain the same, regardless of the seemingly big influence individuals have in them.
At the end of the show most the bigger-than-life people on all sides have been replaced. Yet everything is just the same as it always was.
What makes the show both brilliant and crushingly depressing is the cyclical nature of it all. At the end there's a new Bubbles, a new Omar, etc. Nothing changes.
Absolutely. I loved Breaking Bad, but afterwards I couldn't help but notice the difference between it and shows like The Wire. The former felt liked entertainment, while the latter felt like some degree of education. I'd still watch Breaking Bad in a heart-beat, because entertainment has value too, but The Wire left me thinking and I do generally prefer things that leave me thinkin'.
> the resolution of the omar character in the last seasons of the wire was incredibly anti-climactic and just downright weird. I understand they got the rug pulled out and had to quick wrap up the show but that was really just the worst and most useless bookend to his character arc...
That's just it. In the streets, there aren't heroes and villains. Just everyday people who are in the game, and those who are not. And if you're in the game, something as normal as going to a 1-stop shop can end in murder.
I loved that for Bodie, they let him go out in blaze of glory. Deciding to hold his corner in defiance.
Both characters were given the type of ending that fit best with their arcs. Omar had enough epic shootouts that one more would have been cliche.
Best.Show.Ever. Nuance, layers, intricacies and Macro/Micro views on Baltimore pictures in a realistic and coherent whole. I will never know these microcosm, but for 5 years I felt I was part of them.
In light of the "All Eyez on Me" movie recently released, there is an interesting, indirect relationship between Michael K Williams and Tupac Shakur.
Shakur was filming with Mickey Rourke for 1996 release Bullet (actually filmed in 1994), and Williams was specifically chosen for a role by Shakur because of his facial scar. William's manager at the time was James Rosemond who is currently incarcerated with several life terms. Rosemond was a childhood friend of Michael Williams, and grew up in the same area of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, near the Vandeveer housing projects (now called Flatbush Gardens), and became heavily involved in street crimes as a teenager, allegedly robbing drug dealers like in the Wire.
Fast forwarding to the early 90's, a number executives in the urban music industry had indirect/direct ties with street crime and gang culture, and Rosemond, who became Michael K William's manager, was believed to be one of them (he also managed several popular urban music groups at the time). It's widely believed by industry insiders that Rosemond wanted to become Shakur's manager as well, but Shakur wasn't interested. Also, much of Shakur's problems (the 1994 shooting and imprisonment) are believed by many to be of the doing of either Rosemond or his acquaintances.
It would be interesting to know how much Omar's character was influenced by his friendship with Rosemond and people from the neighborhood they both knew.
A lot of the show was inspired by real events and real people, including the experiences and true character of some of the actors.
One of the most interesting to me was Melvin Williams who played The Deacon, and in real life was a big-time heroin kingpin who was renowned for his intelligence. There's a decent documentary about him floating around and a (short) Wikipedia page [0].
Another is Felicia Pearson who played Snoop. Listen to an interview with her and hear her backstory, and you know she's the real deal. Stephen King called her character "perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series". [1]
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[ 0.27 ms ] story [ 158 ms ] threadhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQyXxGgz__Y
It's on Sundance TV in the US and Amazon Prime in the UK.
Two seasons with a third already commissioned.
>Set in the late 1980's, Hap and Leonard is a darkly comic swamp noir of two best friends, one femme fatale, a crew of washed up revolutionaries, a pair of murderous psycho killers, some lost loot, and the fuzz.
Damn.
Goes perfectly with the ethos of the show, at the end, nothing changes.
Anyway, that was kind of a tangent to get to the real point, which is that Homicide, filmed a decade earlier than the Wire, highlighted many of the same troubles that The Wire did. Perhaps as the result of being based on the same (or similar) works, but if Homicide was authentic (and I believe it was) and the Wire was authentic (which I also believe), then it seems that Baltimore's had problems for some time.
I work in Baltimore now, and get to see some of the areas The Wire was filmed in enough to see that they've made real progress in certain areas, but on the whole, but Baltimore tends to do a good job of holding a spot in the top 10 of "most dangerous cities" lists year to year.
The UK is even worse, David Harewood is on the record as saying left and went to America to find better roles.
This composition is inevitably reflected in the stories people choose to write, read, film and watch.
As an aside, the PC Peter Grant series (aka Rivers of London) depicts London way more accurately than most fiction, despite teeming with elves and goblins.
If not for the faults I reference above, I'd strongly recommend it as epically great television -- and it is, if you can look past those faults, but sometimes they're pretty glaring.
Andre Braugher though? He's pretty amazing throughout the series.
That said, I'm not privy to the production details, so if even those things were intentional, then so be it, but it definitely feels dated and off, relative to The Wire.
Don't forget to check out Generation Kill, which was co-written with Ed Burns with whom he also worked on The Wire and The Corner.
If someone can direct me to more substantial disagreement, I'd love to know. But so far I've been a little surprised at how little has been written against the depiction of Generation Killl.
What it has in common with The Wire is that its characters are richly crafted, and they're whole characters. Nobody in any David Simon show is a throwaway character, and that might not ever have been more true than in Treme. Also, the acting is exceptional, in every scene, and in every case. Another commonality is that of the failures of people, and of the institutions that ostensibly aim to protect them. Like The Wire, Treme is filled with a panoply of people all attempting their best in every task, but as in life, those people sometimes fail, and often those failures come at the expense of somebody else. Just as in The Wire, we often get to see the impact of those failures up close and personal, and we get to feel the hurt it causes, while sympathizing with those who made whatever mistake caused the failure, and far too often to be comfortable, we get to pick which one of those people we prefer.
There are big differences, obviously. The Wire is, at its core, a cops and robbers drama, with some other stuff going on. Treme focuses more on the people, and less on the game they're playing. Music plays a much bigger role in Treme than in The Wire, but that's a commonality too, as David Simon works tend to feature the city as a character, and Treme's set in New Orleans, and that music is part of New Orleans' character.
The narrative in Treme meanders around A LOT. It all basically wraps itself up by the end, but while The Wire managed to tell a basically cohesive story each season, Treme's big plot is spread out, with blurrier lines. It gives you the feeling of closure with each season finale, but the collection of tales being told don't, and really, keep going well after the show's end.
At the end of the day though, the main difference is that narrative draw. If you need one, maybe Treme isn't for you. Sure, it has political corruption, and criminal investigations, and the occasional legal proceeding, but at its core Treme is really just a window into the lives of a couple dozen folks making their way in post-Katrina New Orleans. We get to see how the storm affected them, and how the city affected them, and sometimes, how they've affected the city -- whether by making their mark on it, or succumbing to its ways, or in some cases, getting out while the getting is good. It isn't about anything that I could wrap up into a few sentences, but it's a deep cultural exploration into a culturally rich and beautiful people, and it's a showcase for some of the best damn music around, and it's an expose into the triumphs and troubles of people just trying to make it work in a city at a time when nothing's working as it should. It's also the inverse of that, in true David Simon form, so -- yeah, nobody can fault you for having a hard time making an adjustment, but it's worth adjusting if you can manage it.
In general people in the UK can understand most Americans. People in the US are fucking baffled when they hear someone from the UK say "herb" or "water".
To give a non-"street" example, one character makes a comment about working a "ro-ro" which I happen to know is a "Roll-on, Roll-off car ferry". But I guess the average viewer isn't supposed to know that, just to absorb the authenticity as a background texture.
In a profane and violent world, he has a code, which he upholds. IIRC, MKWilliams was the one who insisted that Omar not curse.
Season 5 is the most underappreciated season, but I've really started to appreciate it.
McNulty has been a character who believes the ends justify the means. In Season 1, he falsifies that Sidner (iirc) was on the roof, thus allowing the police to admit phone tapped evidence.
In Season 5, it shows how taking that mentality of by any means necessary can quickly spiral out of control.
Oz is still one of my favorite tv show, it has so many good characters and the huit clos format (closed doors) is really perfect for focusing on them
There is just enough foolery to make it easily tier 2 for me: Francis Wolcott's story arc, Olyphant's acting, Seth Bullock's attempt at morale highground.
If folks aren't turned off by violence, profanity, and prostitution, it's definitely must watch tv.
That's what I liked about it.
The Wire on the other hand I've seen completely atleast 5 times and always notice something new.
Yes! Seeing the family struggles of a vile gangster is what made the show amazing.
Still top-tier, and I think it laid a foundation that others have built upon, in sheer game-elevation alone.
David Simon called it "a treatise on the end of the American empire, and who we are as a people, what we've come to, why we can no longer solve or even seriously address our own problems", and generally said and wrote a lot of insightful things since, very eloquently. I loved The Wire, but discovering that head and character behind it impressed me on top of even that.
Just take this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL6Jv2Jpnpg
If I had to put it in a nutshell I'd say The Wire "comes from a place of" paying attention, not from distraction or deriving entertainment from crime and other problems, and that (combined with genius and the right people getting together and having good chemistry, and a lot of things not going wrong that can easily kill a TV show) made it so good. Good art can be luck, but art this great is always the tip of an iceberg.
One of the brilliant things about the show is how it wove in so many elements: rival criminals, politics, law enforcement, the media, the church, well-meaning citizens, etc. There was so much tension, angst and striving from all quarters. All of this created a separate entity--a system--wherein all actions and motivations served to form a near-perfect tension that held everything and everyone in a state of suspension.
I loved the wire - truly.
However, I think I would rate the first season of true detective as being better than all of the seasons of the wire except for season 2, which was my favorite.
I was surprised to learn that s2 (dock workers, etc.) is not very well liked - I thought it was by far the most interesting.
EDIT: WIRE SPOILER: also, as long as we're talking about it ... the resolution of the omar character in the last seasons of the wire was incredibly anti-climactic and just downright weird. I understand they got the rug pulled out and had to quick wrap up the show but that was really just the worst and most useless bookend to his character arc...
I think that was the point. I don't remember where I read it, but his death was always going to be like that. It didn't matter that he was the only beacon of (kinda) good in a cruel world - good and bad, the streets get you eventually and its never honorable or glorious.
Which in itself is an argument against doing that!
The way he went out says that in the real "game", there are no super heroes. Even the biggest badass dies just as much from a bullet, and ultimately mean nothing compared to the big institutional forces that shape the world.
One way to think about The Wire as a whole is that it's about organisations and how they remain the same, regardless of the seemingly big influence individuals have in them.
At the end of the show most the bigger-than-life people on all sides have been replaced. Yet everything is just the same as it always was.
Which is what made it appropriate and perfect. This is what makes The Wire what it is, this representation of "the game" in all its futility.
> the resolution of the omar character in the last seasons of the wire was incredibly anti-climactic and just downright weird. I understand they got the rug pulled out and had to quick wrap up the show but that was really just the worst and most useless bookend to his character arc...
That's just it. In the streets, there aren't heroes and villains. Just everyday people who are in the game, and those who are not. And if you're in the game, something as normal as going to a 1-stop shop can end in murder.
I loved that for Bodie, they let him go out in blaze of glory. Deciding to hold his corner in defiance.
Both characters were given the type of ending that fit best with their arcs. Omar had enough epic shootouts that one more would have been cliche.
That gives a nice kind of circular relationship, although it's hard to say there was hero-worship going on, given the ending.
Shakur was filming with Mickey Rourke for 1996 release Bullet (actually filmed in 1994), and Williams was specifically chosen for a role by Shakur because of his facial scar. William's manager at the time was James Rosemond who is currently incarcerated with several life terms. Rosemond was a childhood friend of Michael Williams, and grew up in the same area of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, near the Vandeveer housing projects (now called Flatbush Gardens), and became heavily involved in street crimes as a teenager, allegedly robbing drug dealers like in the Wire.
Fast forwarding to the early 90's, a number executives in the urban music industry had indirect/direct ties with street crime and gang culture, and Rosemond, who became Michael K William's manager, was believed to be one of them (he also managed several popular urban music groups at the time). It's widely believed by industry insiders that Rosemond wanted to become Shakur's manager as well, but Shakur wasn't interested. Also, much of Shakur's problems (the 1994 shooting and imprisonment) are believed by many to be of the doing of either Rosemond or his acquaintances.
It would be interesting to know how much Omar's character was influenced by his friendship with Rosemond and people from the neighborhood they both knew.
One of the most interesting to me was Melvin Williams who played The Deacon, and in real life was a big-time heroin kingpin who was renowned for his intelligence. There's a decent documentary about him floating around and a (short) Wikipedia page [0].
Another is Felicia Pearson who played Snoop. Listen to an interview with her and hear her backstory, and you know she's the real deal. Stephen King called her character "perhaps the most terrifying female villain to ever appear in a television series". [1]
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Williams_(actor)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoop_(The_Wire)