Kima Greggs

I love me my Wire, and I've been enjoying the Kotlowitz/James dialogues on the show in Slate but these praise of Kima as a favorite character on the show cannot stand:

Yes, she's beautiful and has that sexy, smoky voice. But she's also another great character who defies stereotypes. A gay detective who loves "men's work" to the detriment of her home life, but who also has to weather the fact that she's a woman in a man's world. She does it with humor and a take-no-prisoners toughness.

Kima, in my opinion, only defies stereotypes insofar as the writers have a weak grasp on what it is stereotypical lesbians would be like. It's almost as if they decided this major character should be a woman, then realized none of the main writers knew how to write a textured woman character, then decided not to add anyone to the staff who was up to the job, then decided the best way to handle the situation would be to write her just like a man, then hit upon the genius idea that they could justify this by making her a lesbian since, after all, lesbians are into chicks too!

Because they're actually brilliant writers, the people in charge manage to actually pull this gambit off without detracting from the show in an especially obvious way, but it's a pretty sorry effort. The other women on the show, meanwhile, tend strongly to either be total ciphers or else (Brianna, De'Londa) these crudely demonic sorts in a way that's badly out of step with the portrayal of the male criminal element. And then there's Snoop, about whom I guess I should think more.

Comments

And then there's Snoop, about whom I guess I should think more.

Isn't Snoop even more of a man than Kima.
Oh and she's gay too.

Posted by WillieStyle | November 14, 2006 10:50 AM

I've always thought that Assistant State's Attorney Pearlman and McNulty's ex-wife were pretty well-thought-out characters with real (and real female) emotions and motivations. Also, Amy Ryan's character is good, too (although that may just be because I'm kind of mildly obsessed with Amy Ryan).

I agree with Matt re Greggs, though.

Posted by Goldberg | November 14, 2006 11:01 AM

What Goldberg said. We barely see Beatie Russell these days, but in Season 2 she was a great character.

Carcetti's campaign manager is also worth mentioning, although she too is gone now. I think what Matt is talking about may really be a dearth of female characters at this point in this season.

Posted by Tom Hilton | November 14, 2006 11:08 AM

I agree with Tom that Carcetti's campaign manager was a great character (esp. w/r/t how she dealt with McNulty). But, I also think she was probably the weakest actor in the show, which was a drawback.

Posted by Goldberg | November 14, 2006 11:19 AM

Pearlman is a very well-realized female character (from this male's p.o.v.), so I think Matt's thesis is pretty much shot. (Am I the only male viewer who has come to find Pearlman totally, and improbably, hot as the seasons have rolled along? That has as much to do with her acting as it does with the writing.) Calling Brianna "demonic" also misses out on a lot that was interesting about her. And then there was that stripper in the first season, who wears a wire for Lester, who was really an interesting flash of sunlight.

Posted by Charlie Murtaugh | November 14, 2006 11:56 AM

Speaking of Beadie Russell, what cannot stand is a sober and domestic McNulty.

Posted by slolernr | November 14, 2006 12:02 PM

And it's hard to imagine it will. Unless McNulty is there to represent the inevitable decline of good cops who find a decent life can't coexist with an occupational obsession. If so, I'd expect one more moment this season when McNulty almost gets involved and then, at the last minute, backs off.

Posted by Ezra | November 14, 2006 12:06 PM

Okay, but isn't part of the point that McNulty's obsession was always Stringer, and now Stringer is gone -- and there's no equivalent replacement worth McNulty's obsession? Wasn't it McNulty who delivered a spiel about how Stringer and Barksdale were worth pursuing, but most crooks weren't?

Without an opponent like that, you can see why McNulty's retired in place.

Posted by slolernr | November 14, 2006 12:12 PM

In addition to the points mentioned above, some of the motivation to make Greggs a lesbian might have been to keep her partnership with McNulty more focused on the work. It eliminates (or at least reduces) the temptation to write in a cliched sexual tension sub-plot.

Posted by MattT | November 14, 2006 12:57 PM

Carcetti's campaign manager is also worth mentioning, although she too is gone now.

Yes, I'll grant everyone the season-three vintage D'Agostino (in season four they didn't really do anything with her, and I thought her post-victory scene with Carcetti was one of season four's weaker moments) but Russell? Pearlman? Y'all have to be kidding me. These are the aforementioned ciphers.

Also, to be clear, I'm not complaining that they made Kima a lesbian; the issue is that the writers' idea of what a lesbian cop would be like is just "a man who looks like a woman" which is silly.

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | November 14, 2006 1:16 PM

Can someone help answer this question......Is Brianna Barksdale male? or transgender........Just wondering.....

Posted by tmex12 | November 14, 2006 1:47 PM

Brianna is anything but a crudely demonic character. Her character was very well written and acted. One could even argue that she was a more nuanced character than Avon.

Pearlman’s more than a cipher IMO; the show has done a pretty good job of portraying the conflicts between her professional ambition, her ethical sense, and her love life.

On the other hand De'Londa is pretty much just a caricature…

Speaking of females, what happened to Marla Daniels? Did she win her council race?

Posted by RC | November 14, 2006 2:02 PM

I'd argue that Pearlman's less of a cipher than, say, Sydnor. Which doesn't change the fact that there aren't any female main characters on the side of the law, but I'd guess that Simon and Burns know the demographics of the Baltimore Homicide Department better than I do. Beadie was probably introduced in part to respond to this criticism but yeah, she is a cipher, now more than ever.

And I'd definitely agree with RC on the topic of Brianna, who may have been a bit "crudely demonic" in her only major S1 appearance but really improved in S2 and S3 as she rethought her initial choice to tell D'Angelo that he should stay in jail.

Posted by AP | November 14, 2006 2:43 PM

I agree with MattT - they had to find someway out of the box they had created with A) McNulty's doggishness and B) Kima's attractiveness. Making her gay had some additional side benefits (like the scene is season 2 with Kima, Prez and Sheryl at the strip club...)

A show of hands, am I the only one who thinks that Snoop is kinda hot?

Posted by Pooh | November 14, 2006 2:44 PM

But I do agree with everything you say about Kima-- hardly a stereotype-shattering, boundary-breaking character.

Posted by AP | November 14, 2006 2:44 PM

I don't agree that Kima's character has been consistantly poorly written, but this season has certainly been a low point. The unexplained disappearance of her girlfriend and her daughter so far have, I think, a lot to do with that: I wonder if they weren't able to re-hire the actress for this season?

Pooh: if by "hot" you mean "terrifying", then yes.

Posted by Doctor Memory | November 14, 2006 2:53 PM

A show of hands, am I the only one who thinks that Snoop is kinda hot?

You're a brave man; I'd been considering posting about this but didn't. I think the actress's name is Felicia Pearson, and she is actually kinda pretty.

And I'd say the Pearlman character is pretty good and nuanced, but every scene she's in is "driven" by a male counterpart, and never by what she's up to.

Posted by ogged | November 14, 2006 2:58 PM

I think the actress's name is Felicia Pearson

And what's more terrifying is that to some degree she's playing herself, from what I've read...

Ogged, I posed the same question at "Heaven and Here" and no one would answer...of course that could that I'm stuck watching broadcast and they all watch Monday night's on HBO OD...

Posted by Pooh | November 14, 2006 3:03 PM

And what's more terrifying is that to some degree she's playing herself, from what I've read...

Well, the character's name is the same as the actress's name...I don't know how much one can really deduce from that, but it does make one wonder.

The unexplained disappearance of her girlfriend and her daughter so far have, I think, a lot to do with that: I wonder if they weren't able to re-hire the actress for this season?

Unexplained? Um, not if you watched Season 3. Remember Kima feeling trapped with the whole baby thing? Remember Kima sleeping around on Cheryl? I think this is one of those cases where the Wire writers figure we can fill in the blanks.

Posted by Tom Hilton | November 14, 2006 3:17 PM

I wonder if they weren't able to re-hire the actress for this season?

She was in last week's episode for a minute.

Well, the character's name is the same as the actress's name...I don't know how much one can really deduce from that, but it does make one wonder.

Various mini-bios of Pearson indicate that she is from B-more, used to be a banger, and did time of some sort.

Posted by Pooh | November 14, 2006 3:20 PM

I posted a link to a profile of Pearson in the last Wire thread here (or maybe the one before that). She was discovered in a club by the guy who plays Omar (Michael K. Williams) and yeah, she was pretty scary in real life too, but now she's all sweetness and light.

Posted by ogged | November 14, 2006 3:53 PM

"It's almost as if they decided this major character should be a woman, then realized none of the main writers knew how to write a textured woman character, then decided not to add anyone to the staff who was up to the job, then decided the best way to handle the situation would be to write her just like a man..."

Dear god, if more writers would just settle for this stopgap, the entertainment world would be a much less frustrating place for women. We might actually see female-centric plotlines that weren't about love, death of relatives, or fighting sexism. I mean, I'd pay good money to see women in typically-male plot lines about things like personal honor, professional integrity, dealing with anger/revenge/aggression issues, going out on a limb to defend an unpopular idea.

Note to writers: please. You have permission. Just go ahead and write us like men with boobs. Seriously. We are not that fundamentally different. You do not have to do your writing in a health spa while getting your toenails painted in order to really grok us.

Posted by NK | November 14, 2006 6:55 PM

Here's a question: is Kima written 'just like a man', or is she written as a woman who adapts to an overwhelmingly male environment? The latter might sound like a dodge, but I think there's an argument to be made for it.

Posted by Tom Hilton | November 14, 2006 7:38 PM

Right on, NK. If a female character is well-written and responds like a real person to her circumstances and to other people, then she'll be a more believable character and woman than if the writers try to write "a woman character."

Posted by flippantangel | November 15, 2006 3:00 PM

An interesting insight into the female policeman as written for the screen was recently given by Helen Mirren whose Jane Tennyson on Prime Suspect is written by a woman. Mirren suggested that she learned some mannerisms by talking to female bobbies and detectives. First, she was told, "Never let them see you cry," for the obvious. Second, she learned that she was never to stand with her arms folded. That was said to be a weak position--likewise she should be the first to touch another, to stand and jesture with her arms open, to approach people confidently. She learned from policewomen that such was the way to express power and power was the goal. Kima, written by a man or a woman seems to present a sense of her own power. She is successfully portrayed as a woman who, yes, is acting like a man, not a hale and hearty, well-met guy, but a person seeking power by her presence, her obvious intelligence and her stand offish but powerful body language. Angie Dickerson she is not, but that does not mean she is inauthentic.

Posted by Ernie Fazio | November 15, 2006 3:58 PM

What about Assistant Principal Donnelly? Is she a cipher?

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