Sundays, 10 p.m.
(HBO)

Ah, The Wire. So gritty. So raw. So completely, heart-poundingly, couch-grabbingly engrossing, some might even say it is the best show on television. One has to give props to any drama featuring a crop of mid-pubescent actors that are far scarier than their adult counterparts. The youths playing student street hoods manage to overshadow even the staple-gun wielding killer Snoop, who merited a full story about on-screen terror in the Times last month. So then the question remains: Who the fuck are these kids? Some hopeful (delusional?) fans have claimed that the underage actors are real Baltimore kids, born and bred in the drug-addled trenches.

But let's be honest. Most baby-pushers with street cred don't have SAG cards. These kids are pretty far from the hood, unless it now includes Century City. Some might find this disappointing, but to my mind it makes their acting performances all the more amazing. Check it:

• Julito McCullum: Plays Namond Brice, the 14-year-old son of imprisoned Wire regular Wee-Bay. He has appeared in the spelling movie Akeelah and the Bee and the mini-series Miracle's Boys, directed by Spike Lee for The N network. Chances are he isn't standing on the corner handling "packages" like he does on HBO.

• Jermaine Crawford: His character, Dukie Weems, lives with drug addicts and goes to school Pigpen dirty. In his more sanitary real life, Crawford is a scholar of the bard, having appeared in A Midsummer's Night Dream at the historic Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. He is also a youth spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association. Kind of a far cry from a near-homeless kid who smells bad.

• Tristan Wilds: Plays the quiet bad ass, Michael Lee. Off-set, he knows McCullum from Miracle's Boys and has done on-stage time with Phylicia Rashad. His hometown of Staten Island is no Beverly Hills, but it's no West B-Mo either.

• Maestro Harrell, aka good-kid-turned-school-snitch Randy Wagstaff. He is the most experienced of all, having played the young Cassius Clay in Ali and appearing in Barbershop. He even did a turn as Simba in The Lion King on Broadway. Snuggly!—Melissa Walker

LINKS
• The Wire cast and crew
• Snoop
• The Lion King