The Wire is a show so good that it transcends the usual bullshit discussion of ‘Best show of the decade’ or ‘Best show ever.’ Even trying to put modern well receieved gritty dramas like The Shield or Two and a Half Men up in competition would lead to the slaughter of everyone you hold dear. The Wire is brilliant, The Wire is genius, and The Wire has Omar, the single baddest motherfucker who has EVER been on a television screen.
And now The Wire has Detective John Munch. That’s the character played by Richard Belzer in no less than nine other TV shows, setting a world record only slightly more impressive than doing a Rubik’s Cube in seconds. A recently shot episode of The Wire’s fifth and final season features an appearance by Munch, which is sort of a homecoming – he began life on Homicide: Life on the Streets, a TV series set in the Baltimore murder police unit, based on a non-fiction book by David Simon, the guy who would go on to create The Wire.
Munch’s TV travels took him to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where he spends every week hoping to get some screen time unless of course Stabler is once again pushed to the edge and about to explode. Again. Munch has also appeared on regular Law & Order, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, The X-Files, The Simpsons, The Beat, Sesame Street, The Simpsons and Arrested Development. This one character ties together a dizzying array of programming into one cohesive universe whose continuity will soon be ripe for a Crisis…