My two favorite shows of all time are Breaking Bad and The Wire, and I sometimes wonder which series is better.
On one end, you have Breaking Bad's breakneck pacing and its fascinating characters, and on the other end, you have The Wire's stellar world-building and its nuanced, almost literary host of characters. While I might give Breaking Bad the slight edge, what's giving me pause is one character in particular from The Wire, and that's Omar Little, played by the late, great Michael K. Williams.
Omar, you see, is still one of the best gay characters ever written for television. Sure, the actor himself wasn't gay, but Williams’ commitment to playing a gay character should be remembered forever. Here’s why.
One Of The Best Things About The Wire Is That The Toughest, Most Feared Character Was A Gay Man
“Oman comin’!” Thus is the introduction that Omar would get whenever he’d be walking down the street, whistling, and everyone would run. This is the kind of introduction that you’d see bad guys in the best Western movies get. Plus, with his shotgun, duster, and bulletproof vest, you’d think Omar Little was the most villainous character in the entire series.
However, he wasn’t. In fact, even though he’d shoot people dead, he was the GOOD guy. At least, from a street-level, vigilante perspective. Omar, you see, would rob the drug dealers, and then sell the drugs to other, rival dealers. He also wouldn’t go after civilians, and only administered pain to those who brought pain to the neighborhood or to himself. More importantly, though, to this article, he was also openly gay.
Throughout the series, he had a number of boyfriends. Some, like Brandon (played by Michael Kevin Darnall), were ride or die, even enduring torture without giving up Omar’s whereabouts. Others, like Dante (Ernest Waddell), took much less of a beating, and sang like a canary. Even so, Omar was unmistakably gay and unmistakably feared, and I just love that The Wire, available with an HBO Max subscription, could showcase such a compelling gay character.
I Also Love How Omar Didn’t Into Fit Any Stereotypes…Even Though Other Characters Tried To Make Him Fit Into Them
In the first season, Omar, his lover, Brandon, and another member of Omar’s stick-up crew robbed Avon Barksdale’s safe house, which put a bounty on Omar’s head. However, once Barksdale learned that Omar was gay, he doubled the bounty since he hated knowing that a gay man ripped him off. In every way, Barksdale had issues with Omar because he was gay, and he had no idea how difficult it would be to have him killed, since he initially perceived that gay men were weak.
However, Omar was anything but weak. Cunning, charismatic, and even conniving at times (He could lie on the stand with no compunction), Omar was such a marvelous character because he didn’t fit into any stereotypes, and many of his enemies underestimated him due to stereotypes.
So, even though Michael K Williams played a number of great characters in his lifetime, I think there’s a reason why he will always be remembered for this one iconic role.
In The End, There Still Hasn’t Quite Been A Character Like Omar On Television
I love how we now have a lot more gay characters (actually portrayed by queer actors, no less), but I still don’t think we’ve quite had a character like Omar Little since his debut in 2002.
In a lot of ways, Omar can’t be replicated. The Wire was a show about a lot of things, but its main focus was the city of Baltimore itself. Yet, even with its massive cast and its many themes, Omar is probably the most recognizable character in the entire series, with his homosexuality being at the forefront.
In that way, Omar was a one-of-a-kind presence, and still, to this day, one of the greatest gay characters in television history.
