The Wire,' TV's best portrayal of gay urban life, begins its final season

Y’ALL IS WHACK: Omar (Michael K. Williams) is the rarest of gay TV characters: an out-and-proud, stone-cold street thug.

For five years, critics have been calling "The Wire" the cop drama set on the mean streets of Baltimore the best show on television, perhaps even more frequently than they have bestowed similar accolades on "The Sopranos."

So why had it flown completely under the radar? No Emmy wins, no nominations for any major awards, no water cooler buzz. Most audiences could easily relegate it to the category of "good-but-who-cares?" television.

But "The Wire" deserves to be singled out especially by gay audiences for being perhaps the most progressive and realistic portrayal of urban gay characters in history.
Not on TV now. Not even on TV ever. In any medium. In history.

At least that was true of the first two seasons, where the sexuality of the characters was out front. As the characters have developed (and the cast grown), sexuality has sometimes taken a back seat to the action. But it has always been evident and perhaps best of all, treated casually but authentically.

The final season of the series (its fifth) began airing on Jan. 6 with a replay of the premiere tonight at 7 p.m. Virgins owe it to themselves to check it out. Those already in the know will want to savor its final hours.

Getting wired
To get started, here's what you'll need to know: The series began as a police procedural, covering a single case investigating drug dealing and murder in the high crime, poverty-stricken inner city of Baltimore.

Over the last four seasons, "The Wire" has regularly reinvented itself, keeping most of the cast intact while adding new actors, each season changing the emphasis: Season 2 mostly dealt with union dockworkers; Season 3 got inside politics; Season 4 addressed inner-city schools. This year, media reporting falls under scrutiny.

Who's queer?
Two of the most fascinating characters are openly gay: a law enforcer and a brazen criminal. Greggs (Sonia Sohn) is the no-nonsense lesbian cop, declared one of the finest female officers the protagonist, McNulty (Dominic West), has ever worked with. She's low-key but out-and-proud, with no maternal instincts and a troubled relationship with her (now ex-) partner.

Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) is a gay street thug who, in Seasons 1 and 2, testified for the cops when his lover was tortured to death by a rival gangster and who has continued to rob from the robbers with the help of his latest lover.

Omar got more action during one episode of Season 1 than Will Truman got in eight seasons of "Will & Grace." But its not the sex that distinguishes "The Wire's" queer portrayal it's the honesty.

What's new?
Season 5 so far hasn't touched on Omar much, but Greggs continues to work cases with skill. In episode 2, "Unconfirmed Reports" (airing Sunday at 8 p.m.), she pulls a triple homicide which budget cuts mandate she solve without much help. Meanwhile, McNulty and others on the now-disbanded Major Crimes detail are dealing with more work for less pay as the city undergoes another major budget crisis.

Alongside the crime and politics, the editorial staff of the city's major daily paper, the Baltimore Sun, tries to manage covering a breaking scandal while coping with their own issues of layoffs and corporate belt-tightening.

The drug dealers, on the other hand, seem to have a surplus of cash and no way to launder it. But wealth doesn't buy brains or sensitivity: One crew is set to murder someone who falsely accused Marlo, the local kingpin, of being gay. To them, the punishment clearly fits the crime.

Say what?
"The Wire's" emotional and street-smart honesty mandates some less-than-positive statements about gays: The word "fag" and other disparaging terms are maliciously bandied about by some of the hoodlums and bigoted cops. Omar and Greggs, at least, have enough integrity and respect within their communities that most of those epithets give way to deference. (A running gag in Season 4 was that whenever Omar walked to the drug store, a network of corner kids sent word to clear the streets lest Omar take a mind to kill someone.)

Detective on the DL
Realism means that the lines between good and bad or even likeable and detestable are shadowy.

One of the truest portrayal of gay characters is one non-portrayal: Rawls (John Doman), a higher-up in the police and a pain in the ass for most of the detectives. Rawls has spent most of the series in the closet, with only vague references to his sexuality (shots of him in gay bars, gossip written on bathroom walls).

A bigwig in government who hides his orientation behind a jackass-conservative exterior as if that ever happens

Grade: A-
Airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on HBO.



This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 11, 2008