West Baltimore vs. West Beverly

A couple of weeks ago, Bill Simmons complained about seeing the actress who played Cheryl, Kima's ex-girlfriend on "The Wire," in a commercial for Viera televisions:

Am I the only one who feels like nobody from "The Wire" should ever be allowed to work again? I feel like all of the "Wire" characters were real people -- I can't handle seeing Kima's ex or Murray the lawyer or Clay Davis in 30-second ads. I just can't.

If seeing third and fourth-tier "Wire" players pop up in ads is freaking the Sports Guy out, I wonder how he's reacting to the news that Tristan Wilds has joined the cast of The CW's "Bevery Hills, 90210" remake. On the one hand, Simmons is even more of a shameless "90210" fan than I am, so seeing Wilds get work on a show he's sure to tune into could be a plus. On the other, based on the above quote, I worry that Bill is looking at the Larry Bird picture on his nightstand and crying, "Why, Basketball Jesus? Why!?!?!?!!?!?"

And yet I can kind of see Simmons' point. More thoughts coming up just as soon as I buy a shotgun...

I spent most of the run of "The Wire" lamenting the fact that the likes of Clarke Peters and Andre Royo and Sonja Sohn would never again find a movie or TV part remotely this good. The deck is so stacked against actors of color, let alone actors of color whose most high-profile work was on a show whose existence Hollywood was barely aware of, that I would get frustrated imagining their struggle for good work in the future.

But, like the Sports Guy, I do tend to freak out when I see certain actors from "The Wire" pop up elsewhere. My daughter's going through the obligatory Disney princess phase right now, which means we watch "Enchanted" on at least a bi-weekly basis (and even that pace requires a lot of parent-child negotiating), and every single time Isiah Whitlock Jr. pops up as the husband in Patrick Dempsey's divorce case, it unnerves me; I keep expecting him to look at Amy Adams and throw out a "Sheeeeeeeeit!" When Andre Royo popped up on a few episodes of "Sarah Connor Chronicles," I began wondering what life as a dope fiend would be like under the rule of SkyNet. (If nothing else, what would they call the different brands of dope? Die Humans Die? You'll Be Back?) I would never begrudge work to anyone involved in the Best Drama Ever, but it can be awfully disconcerting.

Now, I don't react this way to everyone from the cast. It's primarily the people who I never saw before "The Wire" (or didn't remember before "The Wire"). Frankie Faison, Wendell Pierce, Chris Bauer, Wood Harris are all actors I had seen in prior roles, so as great as they were as, respectively, Burrell, Bunk, Sobotka and Avon, I'm able to make the character/actor distinction in a way that becomes harder with the likes of Royo or Dominic West.

At the same time, I didn't immediately hollar "Omar coming!" when Michael K. Williams turned up (as a cop!) in "Gone Baby Gone," nor am I troubled by Lance Reddick's presence as one of the new bad guys on "Lost," even though "The Wire" was my first real exposure to either one. Maybe the issue isn't whether I knew the actors before they played a cop or a slinger or a soldier, but how good (and relatively "Wire"-appropriate) the new role is. Williams fit right into the brooding world of "Gone Baby Gone" (which co-starred Amy Ryan, after all), and while "Lost" is a stylistic and thematic 180 from "The Wire," it's a great show in its own way, and doesn't feel undeserving of Reddick's talents in the way that putting Wilds on the new "90210" seems to be.

What does everybody else think? Again, I don't think anybody wants to deprive these fine actors of employment opportunities, but is there a part of you that wishes, like Simmons, that you never saw any of them again?