2. Jimmy McNulty
We love this drunken Irish man! If Jimmy wasn't picking up girls in bars or had his hands glued on his pocket sized bottle of Jameson, he was taking a good hard look at the system. McNulty was a complicated character, but he captured the real life tortured soul of a cop in a very troubling city, I wonder what it feels like to work in a real f***ing police department. We rooted for him and we felt letdown when he lost his way. Despite Jimmy's marital faults, it was hard not to love him. Who didn't love that scene when he told his kids to play secret agents as they tailed Stringer Bell at the Farmers Market? He tried to be a good father, but he was good police, and that is what Jimmy McNulty was born to do. He constantly pushed the higher-ups, challenging them to do better until he couldn't take it any more. In probably one of the more fantastical elements of The Wire, Jimmy's faux serial killer plot line was one of the most fun to watch. In sort of a microcosm of Jimmy's life, it started with great intentions and worked for a bit but spiraled out of his control. We leave Jimmy in a good place, he went back to Beadie and wasn't grand jury-ed, that's a win if there ever was.