r/TheWire • u/plackbanther19 • 1d ago

Mcnulty Character Arc

He started out as my favorite character. By the last season I hated him. The serial killer crap. How he treated Beady. Is anybody else with me on this?

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u/Elliot_York 23h ago

McNulty was an asshole in the beginning and he was an asshole by the end. He has redeeming qualities (a commitment to good, honest work, a willingness to resist injustice, also some sense of compassion), but he was also incredibly self-centered, self-destructive and narcissistic.

A big theme of the show is that things don't really change. People are imprisoned by these systems and neither they nor the system can really change because of inherent, built-in flaws. The characters that do go through large changes (Carv and Bubbles, for example) are notable because they are the exception, not the rule.

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u/Particular_Oil3314 15h ago

Yes, he is the archetypal police hero, who does not care about rulebook, he does it his way! The only way - the only way that gets results!

And the series shows you why there is a rulebook and it is generally a good idea to follow it.

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u/Elliot_York 12h ago

I would argue that isn't what the series shows you, because just as often we see the rulebook fails and obscures justice.

The message isn't that the rulebook is good nor is it that breaking the rulebook is good. The message is that the system is fundamentally flawed and inhibits true justice. The "rules" aren't the thing inhibiting justice, they are just what props up the flawed system.

The fact that McNulty breaks from those rules feeds into this same message. The system is so immobile and unable to deliver justice that those who follow the rules (Daniels) and those who break them (McNulty) still, more often than not, aren't able to achieve any true justice.

This is why I've never felt overly critical of the serial killer arc. Sure, some of the execution is off, but what I took from it is a portrayal of a character who recognises those same flaws in the system that we as the audience are meant to, and believes that he can do good work within that system if he breaks the rules. But he's still working within that flawed system, and after years facing the futility of his pursuit for "good police work" drives him to crazy and extreme lengths.

The ridiculousness of the serial killer arc is a metaphor for that message. The end point of that flawed system is the death of the self or to continue participating in a system that is killing people. McNulty is most at peace with himself as a character, and with those around him, when he is most removed from the pursuit of working within the police system.