The Wire: Nice little moments

The payoff watching five seasons of The Wire isn't solely in seeing this Sunday's anticipated series finale. The payoffs were aplenty and they came in those nice little moments sprinkled throughout the show.

Some of my favorites:

• Det. Jimmy McNulty puts on his best British accent to go undercover and bust a white slavery ring. For me the best part was not seeing McNulty get it on with two Eastern European call girls, but seeing Dominic West turn off his American accent and use his own natural English accent.

• Two words: Fuzzy Dunlop.
  
• Back in Season 1, when we all thought Lester Freamon was a dork who made doll furniture, back before we realized how cool he was, there was this one scene when he brings Shardene back to the basement office and closes the door from the envious eyes of the other police.
• Bunk drunkenly explaining that he tried to burn his clothes because he'd slept with a woman who was not his wife and he was trying to get rid of all the trace evidence.
• Pearlman and Daniels having a cozy moment in their bed at the end of the day. Both of them sitting up and reading, talking and laughing. I was skeptical when the storyline of the two as lovers was introduced. I couldn't see the chemistry, couldn't get the attraction. But over time, as with many other storylines in The Wire, the arc worked.

• Stringer Bell holding a meeting with his drug crew and enforcing Robert's Rules of Orders. Poot pisses off Stringer, who charges from behind a podium to yell into Poot's face, while someone else says, "He had the floor!" Probably my favorite scene of all.
• The first time New Hamsterdam came to life. Colvin first had the dealers go there, but there were no customers. So then the customers were routed to New Hamsterdam!
• The ever changing names of the drugs depending on current events or time of year. A couple of memorable ones for me were "WMD" and "Mistletoe" (the latter during Christmas).
• Any shot of the outdoor sign of a hotel that said, "Welcome New Day Co-op."
• Bodie spitting as excellently as a Major League Baseball player.

• Omar going out in his pajamas to buy Honey Nut Cheerios. He pauses to light a cigarette and someone from a second story window drops their stash to him and it lands near his feet. My second favorite scene of all.
• Freamon telling Daniels they can arrest Marlo Stanfield and Bunk has DNA tying Chris Partlow to one of the vacant murders. Daniels's face trying to comprehend all the information he's receiving. I shed a tear of joy.
• A glimpse of Rawls at a gay bar.
• Cutty's womanizing explained away at least twice with the phrasing, "I was locked up for a looooong time..."
• Speaking of Cutty, how he asked Avon Barksdale for money to open a boxing gym for youths. Barksdale asked how much he needed. When Cutty hesitantly said, "Ten thousand dollars," Barksdale laughed and upped it to 15.
• Clay Davis's "Sheeeeeeeeeee-it."

The list goes on...