subject: Detective Bunk Moreland In The HBO Series The Wire [print this page] Detective Bunk Moreland In The HBO Series The Wire
Role: A smart detective who knows how the game works and understands the chain of command in the BPD. Bunk Moreland is Jimmy McNulty's partner in the homicide unit, but he does not exhibit McNulty's same contempt for authority (or at least he does not act on it). Over the course of the show Bunk does some of the best police work of virtually any homicide detective in Baltimore's Police Department (perhaps matched only by Lester Friedman).
Like Jimmy, Bunk also has various indiscretions with women and problems with alcoholism, but these seem minor when compared to the personal problems of his partner.
Bunk has a wife and three kids (who he hilariously pretends are the orphaned young children of a murdered witness when trying to coerce a confession out of D'Angelo Barksdale).
Played By: Wendell Pierce, who also stars in the brand new HBO show from David Simon called Treme.What Seasons: In seasons 1 - 5.Favorite Moment: Bunk reminiscing with and lambasting of Omar during season 3.Favorite Quote: "Makes me sick, motherf*, how far we done fell." - This is the tale end of a quote in which Moreland proclaims that Omar and the whole game today simply disgust him. Omar says that Toesha (one of his crew) was not a victim since she was part of the game; Bunk says that this is totally ludicrous and that there used to be a time when every single dead body mattered.Best Foil or Rival: Jimmy McNulty. Bunk Moreland is the more ethical McNulty (emphasis on "more") and he is a Jimmy McNulty who recognizes the chain of command. Perhaps not quite as sharp as Jimmy, Bunk exhibits a perseverance (as revealed by the DNA analysis that he follows from season four into five) which allows him to to put away one of the coldest killers in The Wire.Critical Analysis: (see above)
