Omar Little

I had several characters on my mind to choose from, but finally i went with Omar Little from HBO's " The WIRE " to be the first character i talk about.

The Only reason is that : Omar is the toughest Character out there.

 

• Omar Comin : When your on the street, walking, hustling, selling drugs or what so ever and you hear Omar Whisling, just start running coz Omar is Coming.

•  He is loved because he is meaner, funnier, cooler and braver than any other character you've ever seen on TV. He is unpredictable, complicated and brilliantly strange. Amid all the show's vicious drug dealers, corrupt politicians and compromised cops, Omar is the only figure who adheres to a strict, if perverse, moral code. He also has a way-cool facial scar. But simply, Omar Little is the most unique character in the most unique television show of all time.

• Omar was not supposed to live long : "They originally said seven episodes and you're out of here," says Michael K Williams, the man who plays him, "but after the first few weeks filming, David Simon and Ed Burns [the shows creators] came up to me on set and said they loved the passion I was bringing to it. They said they wanted to expand the role and told me to go and watch The Wild Bunch. They'd based a lot of the character on those old westerns." His croaking drawl is just like Omar's but the stuff he says isn't. Its strange to hear him self-deprecate, guffaw and use phrases like: "Dance was my first passion." Nevertheless, Williams' performances are heavily informed by his own eventful upbringing. "I grew up in East Flatbush in Brooklyn which was an intense neighbourhood filled with different West Indian cultures, he says. I never dealt drugs or went to jail but I was always getting myself in what I call knuckle-headed trouble. Jumping into situations I could have avoided. The gangsters knew who I was and left me alone.

• Barack Obama : Barack Obama recently named Omar Little as his favourite character in his favourite show. "That's not an endorsement," the American president added carefully. "He's not my favourite person but he's a fascinating character." Barack was right. Of all the brilliantly drawn, authentically complex and relentlessly captivating characters in this show's sprawling cast, he is surely the most engaging. 

• Omar is different : Compared to most of the violent street kids caught up in The Wires drug game, Omar cuts an almost Wildean figure. He swaggers through the streets of Baltimore like a gun-toting dandy in his long coat and fancy headscarves. He is poetic, lacing his dialogue with old-fashioned, incongruous phrases like "indeed", "do tell" and "I think not". He is a mine of insight and wisdom on the ugly, broken world he lives in.

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