McNulty Was the Worst Good Cop in TV History — And That's Exactly the Point

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McNulty Was the Worst Good Cop in TV History — And That's Exactly the Point

2026/06/10 Report

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McNulty Was the Worst Good Cop in TV History — And That's Exactly the Point

Jimmy McNulty was brilliant at his job and catastrophic at everything else. The Wire spent five seasons making sure you understood both of those things equally.

As a detective, he was genuinely exceptional.

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Patient when he needed to be, instinctive, capable of following a thread through bureaucratic obstruction that would have stopped anyone else cold. When McNulty was locked onto a case, the Barksdale investigation, the Marlo case, you believed in him completely.

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