Character from The Wire
James McNulty is a fictional character and the protagonist of the HBO drama "The Wire", played by Dominic West.
McNulty is an Irish-American detective in the Baltimore Police Department. While talented in his profession, McNulty's conceited belief that he is more intelligent than his peers and his willingness to ignore the chain of command in pursuit of his own investigative projects mean that he regularly incurs the wrath of his superiors.
When off the job, he has frequent problems involving alcoholism, alimony, child support, cheating and sexual promiscuity, and unstable relationships. He is central to many of the successful high-end drug investigations that take place within the series.
McNulty is loosely based on Ed Burns, co-writer of the series.
Casting.
British actor Ray Winstone was originally considered for the part. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Winstone had difficulty returning to Britain for several weeks due to the subsequent grounding of flights, and dropped out of consideration once he was finally able to return home. Series creator David Simon next considered American actor John C. Reilly, but he declined because his wife did not wish to move to Baltimore.
For his audition tape, West was asked to record a scene between McNulty and his partner, Bunk Moreland. With only a day to record, and no one suitable to record with, he recorded himself reading his own dialogue and left gaps of silence for Moreland's dialogue, reacting appropriately. Simon described watching the tape with casting director Alexa L. Fogel: "We fell around the room laughing, like, 'What the...?'"
Despite the unusual tape, and West's dubious American accent, Simon found his ability to react to non-existent dialogue impressive. Fogel described West as "too young" and "too attractive" to play the character, but found that he understood McNulty's psychology. She took West to do a reading for Chris Albrecht, then the president of HBO Original Programming, who had final say on the casting. Albrecht assented, but told Fogel "You better be right."
Character storyline.
Of Irish Catholic descent, to the point he referred to Bushmills whiskey as "Protestant whiskey", McNulty grew up in the Lauraville neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. His father was an employee for Bethlehem Steel before being laid off in 1973. After a year of attending Loyola College in Maryland (now Loyola University Maryland), McNulty joined the Baltimore Police Department [EOD (Entrance on Duty) date April 5, 1994] when his girlfriend Elena (whom he later married on August 3, 1999) became pregnant.
He has two sons with Elena: Sean James (born on June 22, 1992), and Michael Barnes (born on November 3, 1993). In his first few years on the job, he proved himself as an effective patrolman in the Western District, under the command of Major Howard "Bunny" Colvin. McNulty spent four years in patrol at the Western District before becoming a detective and spending two years in the Escapes and Apprehensions Unit. After assisting Ray Cole in solving a homicide, McNulty was moved up to the Homicide Unit, where he was partnered with Bunk Moreland.
Season 1.
Before the start of the series, McNulty has noticed that drug kingpin Avon Barksdale is expanding his organization's territory, and that his gang has successfully beaten several murder prosecutions. After Avon's nephew D'Angelo is acquitted thanks to witness tampering, McNulty goes over the head of his superior, Major Bill Rawls, and convinces Judge Phelan to call Deputy Commissioner Ervin Burrell to encourage further investigation of the Barksdales.
Because of McNulty's efforts, the Barksdale detail is officially formed. It initially comprises narcotics lieutenant Cedric Daniels and his three detectives: Kima Greggs, Ellis Carver, and Thomas "Herc" Hauk. When Burrell asks his majors and shift lieutenants to send additional detectives for the investigative detail, McNulty is also assigned to the unit.
Daniels and McNulty argue about how to handle the case at their first meeting: McNulty, after seeing an FBI drug sting, suggests surveillance and wiretaps, but Burrell has ordered Daniels to put together a quick and simple case to appease Phelan. Soon after the investigation begins, McNulty learns from his friend in the FBI, Terence "Fitz" Fitzhugh, that Daniels had been investigated for having a suspiciously large amount of liquid assets. McNulty's relationship with Daniels continues to be complicated by their mutual distrust.
The detail is assigned as a prosecutor Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman ("Ronnie"), with whom McNulty is having a casual sexual relationship. McNulty is officially separated from his wife, who limits his contact with his two sons, Sean and Michael.
While at the market with his sons one afternoon, McNulty spots Stringer Bell, Avon Barksdale's second-in-command, and sends his sons to tail him and get his license plate number. When Elena finds out, she seeks an emergency order to stop McNulty from seeing the boys. She is also angry that McNulty continues to see his affair partner, Ronnie Pearlman, casually.
Working on the Barksdale detail, McNulty becomes friends with Lester Freamon, who had previously been exiled to the pawn shop unit for 13 years and four months, as punishment for his insistence on charging a politically connected fence. Freamon often tries to temper McNulty's animosity towards Daniels. Frustrated that Barksdale's dealers do not use cell phones, they decide to clone the dealers' pagers instead. They also work together to convince Daniels to allow them to do better police work.
With the help of Kima, McNulty tracks down the elusive outlaw Omar Little, and gains Omar's respect and cooperation. Omar agrees to testify against Marquis "Bird" Hilton, a Barksdale soldier. His assistance also leads to McNulty's inadvertently solving one of Michael Santangelo's old cases; the grateful Santangelo in turn reveals that he is a mole for Rawls, who is looking for an excuse to fire McNulty.
Kima introduces McNulty to her confidential informant, Bubbles. When Kima is shot in a buy-bust sting operation gone wrong, McNulty is guilt-ridden, although even Rawls assures him that the shooting is not his fault.
McNulty has a frank discussion with Daniels in which he admits that the Barksdale case is no more than an exercise in intellectual vanity and an opportunity to demonstrate the BPD's shortcomings. Daniels tells him that everyone has known this all along, but the case has taken on meaning for those involved.
The detail succeeds in arresting Barksdale soldier Wee-Bey Brice for shooting Kima, Bird for murdering a state's witness, and both D'Angelo and Avon Barksdale. McNulty almost convinces D'Angelo to testify against Avon but at his mother's insistence, D'Angelo takes a 20-year prison sentence instead. When the Barksdale detail closes, Rawls reassigns McNulty to the marine unit, having learned from Sergeant Jay Landsman that this is precisely the BPD unit where McNulty would most hate to go due to seasickness.
Season 2.
While on harbor patrol, McNulty spots the body of a dead woman in the water. When Rawls argues the case is not in his jurisdiction, McNulty spends three hours poring over wind and tide charts to prove the death occurred within city limits.
When port authority police officer Beadie Russell finds 13 dead women in a shipping container on the Baltimore docks, McNulty again intervenes and, with the help of the medical examiner, proves that the deaths were not accidental: the air pipe to the container was deliberately closed off, and, with the help of a mining engineer, the investigators are able to prove that the ship was within the city limits when it happened. The case is given to Bunk and Lester, who don't look forward to investigating these difficult cases. This also angers Rawls because 13 unsolved murders (14 including the dead woman in the bay) ruins Homicide's clearance rate.
McNulty unsuccessfully searches for the identity of the floater. He also finds himself under pressure from Bunk to find Omar, since Bird is about to go on trial. McNulty coerces Bubbles into tracking down Omar, who successfully testifies against Bird who is convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Meanwhile, McNulty wants to salvage his marriage, leading him to sign a separation agreement with generous alimony as a gesture of good will towards his estranged wife so she will agree to get back together. He resolves to give up alcohol and detective work, two of the main reasons for the breakup of his marriage. When Elena confirms the marriage is over, he grows despondent and relapses.
When Daniels's unit is re-formed to investigate stevedore union boss Frank Sobotka, Rawls refuses to allow McNulty to rejoin the team, vowing he will remain working in the harbor for the rest of his career. McNulty seems to accept this with good grace but tries to help the detail unofficially. Daniels persuades Rawls to let McNulty return by agreeing to have his team take on the murders of the 14 women.
McNulty's first assignment is to go undercover as a client visiting a local brothel, where he scandalizes and amuses his colleagues by actually having sex with two prostitutes during the sting operation. He also flirts with Russell, who has been assigned to Daniels' detail, although he seems to shy away from a relationship.
While on surveillance, McNulty watches Spiros Vondas, an associate of an underworld figure known as The Greek, sending a text message. McNulty reasons that the time and location of the text could be used to retrieve it from the phone company's databases, and it is from this message that the detail learns the Greek had shut down his operations.
After McNulty learns from Bubbles that Stringer Bell and Barksdale rival Proposition Joe are sharing territory, he begins investigating them on his own time, convinced that he can gather enough evidence to prompt Daniels to focus the Major Crimes Unit's attention on Stringer.
Season 3.
McNulty continues to work with the MCU but is disappointed that their target is not Bell. He begins looking into the Barksdales anyway, finding out about D'Angelo's death and Avon's early release.
Investigating D'Angelo's death, which has been listed as a suicide, McNulty quickly realizes that D'Angelo was murdered. McNulty reconnects with Colvin to set up the Barksdale organization as the MCU's primary target. McNulty circumvents the chain of command again to set up the investigation, as Daniels is not interested in the quality of the unit's assigned case targets, blaming his rank in the department for his lack of case target interests. Angered by McNulty's attitude, Daniels makes it clear that he's forcing McNulty out when Stringer is arrested.
McNulty begins a casual sexual relationship with political consultant Theresa D'Agostino but ends it when he realizes that she is only interested in him physically and is pumping him for politically useful information about Colvin. Largely due to Freamon's work, the MCU implicates Stringer, but Stringer is murdered before McNulty can arrest him.
After Avon is arrested, Daniels reevaluates his decision to get rid of McNulty, but McNulty, thinking about something Freamon had remarked about to him earlier in the season, realizes he has no life outside his work and graciously declines Daniels' offer to keep him in the unit. He transfers to patrol in the Western District, which he remembers as the happiest time of his life, and begins a relationship with Russell.
Season 4.
McNulty moves in with Russell and her two children, and enjoys his life as a patrolman in the Western District under Ellis Carver. McNulty's beat includes the corner that Bodie Broadus works on behalf of drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield. Both Daniels and Administrative Lieutenant Dennis Mello ask McNulty to do investigative work in the district, but he declines. Mello is disappointed, but Daniels realizes that McNulty has been able to get his life in order while working as a patrolman.
Although other officers make arrests for statistical purposes, McNulty focuses on quality arrests. This is exemplified by the arrest of two burglars who were stealing from churches.
McNulty mentors Brian Baker, a younger patrol officer in the Western District, whom he and Bunk end up referring to as "good police". McNulty also gives up drinking almost entirely, sometimes resolving to stay sober despite pressure from his friends. Bunk and Freamon are amazed and slightly dismayed at how much McNulty has changed, and Elena even expresses regret for having left him.
McNulty soon begins to miss the MCU and quietly begins getting closer to Bodie in the hopes of turning him into an informant against Marlo. After Stanfield lieutenant Monk Metcalf sees Bodie with McNulty, Marlo has Bodie killed as a precaution.
McNulty feels guilty and rejoins the MCU, much