10 Masterpiece Scenes That Prove The Wire Is The Greatest TV Show Ever

HBO’s The Wire is the greatest TV show ever made, and its finest individual scenes prove it. Creator David Simon brought a documentary-like sense of realism to The Wire, but he also has a keen ear for dialogue, so the show is rife with memorable scenes.

It’s more than just a TV show; The Wire is the Great American Novel for the 21st century. From D’Angelo’s poignant chess analogy to the unceremonious death of Omar Little, these are the best scenes from The Wire.

The "F***" Scene

Although The Wire’s depiction of crime and corruption is fiercely realistic, its dialogue is delightfully stylized. Simon laid out his tongue-in-cheek approach to dialogue early on, with a whole five-minute scene in which the only word spoken is “f***” and its variants. As McNulty and Bunk investigate a crime scene, each new revelation comes with an exclamation of “F***,” or “Motherf*****,” or something of the sort.

It’s a funny gag, but it’s also a clever way to show us the closeness of McNulty and Bunk’s relationship. They’re such good friends that they can communicate everything they need to communicate at a crime scene through F-bombs. This scene was a landmark in television history; it marks the moment that The Wire had landed.

Kima's Bedtime Story

Kima always had a strained relationship with her son Elijah, but their story ended on a high note. As he struggles to get to sleep, she puts a fresh spin on Goodnight Moon to wish goodnight to the fiends and the hoppers on the streets of Baltimore. The episode’s co-writer, Richard Price, lifted it directly from his own novel, Clockers, one of the biggest influences on The Wire.

Omar's Death

The Wire completely rewrote the rulebook on TV character deaths when it killed off Omar Little. Usually, when a TV show kills off a fan-favorite character, it milks their demise for all the drama it’s worth, and makes a big song and dance about it. But that’s not how death works in real life.

In real life, it’s much more like The Wire. Omar doesn’t go out in a triumphant shootout with a drug lord; he’s gunned down by a 10-year-old dealer who didn’t think it through. It feels hauntingly real, but it also has a mythic subtext; Omar is struck down when he’s weakened by a broken ankle, much like Achilles.

D'Angelo's Chess Analogy

Simon is a master of finding clever ways to deliver exposition. When D’Angelo explained the rules of chess to his teen dealer squad, he also explained the rules of the drug trade to an unenlightened audience. The analogy is priceless, and it helps to frame the gritty, street-level crime story of The Wire as an epic tragedy.

Stringer & Avon Reminisce On The Roof

Thanks to the electric on-screen chemistry between Idris Elba and Wood Harris, the friendship between Stringer and Avon always felt totally real. This only got more heartbreaking as time went on and they grew apart and betrayed each other, because you could still feel that tangible connection between them. Their rooftop reminiscence is the epitome of that.

Randy Taunts Carver

Randy Wagstaff has one of the most tragic character arcs on The Wire. When we meet him, he’s a sweet, naive, fun-loving kid. But after he’s put in a group home and hardened by the foster system, he becomes a formidable brute; a shadow of his former self. The turning point is when Miss Anna is burned in an arson attack and Carver fails to find Randy a new foster parent.

One of the most devastating moments in The Wire is when Randy taunts Carver. Carver broke all his promises to Randy — to keep him safe, to give him round-the-clock police protection, to find him a stable home — and his best efforts to make up for it have failed. Randy’s mocking taunts are like Carver’s conscience speaking to him directly.

Omar Takes The Stand

What made Omar the breakout character of The Wire was his effortless charisma. Even when he was pointing a shotgun in someone’s face, Michael K. Williams brought an undeniable charm and a great sense of humor to Omar. This humor is exemplified best when Omar takes the stand.

The cops have encouraged Omar to dress nice for his courtroom appearance, but he just shows up with a tie on over his usual street attire. His testimony is equally hilarious, taking the whole truth to a whole new level with his radical candor and jury-swaying jokes.

Wallace's Death

As heartbreaking as Omar’s death is, there’s an even sadder death way back in The Wire’s first season. Wallace is a 16-year-old dealer who’s more interested in playing with toys than supplying his customers. After a guilt-ridden Wallace talks to the cops, Stringer coldly orders his closest friends to kill him.

When Wallace is confronted by his own friends in his bedroom, we don’t see a drug dealer in an armed standoff; we see a child, terrified for his life. A young Michael B. Jordan gave such a powerful performance as Wallace that the fear and the despair and the existential dread captured in this scene all feel totally real.

Snoop Buys A Nail Gun

This scene functions perfectly as a piece of The Wire’s overall thesis, but it also works on its own as a little short film. Snoop goes into a hardware store to buy a nail gun to board up houses full of the bodies of her victims. The contrast between Snoop’s worldview and the clerk’s makes for great culture-clash comedy, but it also highlights that they come from two completely different worlds.

The Final Montage

Whether or not a montage technically counts as a scene, the greatest piece of filmmaking in The Wire is the montage in its series finale. That montage is the closing statement on Simon’s thesis on crime in the American city. The Wire avoided closure through its whole run, so an ambiguous finale felt more ingenuous than tagging on a more definitive ending.

In this final montage, we see where everyone ends up. Some characters got happy endings, like Lester working on his models, but others met a more tragic fate, like Michael becoming the new Omar. The point is that the system prevails, the cycle will continue, and these problems will persist.

Someone like Bubbles might manage to get sober and find a home, but someone like Duquan will take his place, chasing his next fix on the streets. The Wire is the greatest achievement in American television, and its pitch-perfect series finale proves it.