> Idris Elba does an excellent job, but it’s a little easier for him since he’s given the most slang and dialect to use.
Strangely, most of the significant characters in the drug trade are missing a Baltimore accent. I'm not really sure what accent Idris Elba is going for though it sounds vaguely New York City, while Method Man clearly sounds like a New Yorker when his character is from Baltimore. Wood Harris, who played Stringer's partner Avon Barksdale, sounds like he's from Chicago. The only ones speaking in a Baltimore accent are Proposition Joe, Slim Charles, and Snoop Pearson.
I'm not completely sure was it planned, but Stringer Bell was a character who attended community college, got his food from an organic food market, didn't want to be connected with the street. Almost like "coastal elite" and the New York slang would make sense there.
>With respect to accent, Aidan Gillen is not great. It’s not quite “Littlefinger on the Chesapeake Bay”, but he never sounds comfortable in the accent.
To be honest, his accent/affectation in Game of Thrones also always sounded kind of forced and uncomfortable to me. Still love his performance in both shows, though.
And yet Dominic West/Jimmy McNulty and Idris Elba/Stringer Bell are English and Aidan Gillen/Tommy Carcetti is Irish.
Idris Elba does an excellent job, but it’s a little easier for him since he’s given the most slang and dialect to use. Dominic West sounds American at least, but to people who know it, he doesn’t really capture the ‘Bawlmer’ accent. With respect to accent, Aidan Gillen is not great. It’s not quite “Littlefinger on the Chesapeake Bay”, but he never sounds comfortable in the accent. That it's easily overlooked is a credit to the overall greatness of the show.