In Giddy Up America’s Greatest HBO Character of All Time Tournament we are down to the final two characters. It’s Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm versus Omar from The Wire. We’ll get into the match up tomorrow. But first, let’s look back at how we got here.
The Tony Soprano Bracket
Number One seed (and top seed overall) Tony Soprano beat Sookie Stackhouse of True Blood. She didn’t stand a chance.
The Wire’s favorite junkie, Bubbles, a 4 seed, beat out New Zealand joke rockers Flight of the Conchords, a 5 seed, because beating an addiction to heroin is more impressive than beating an addiction to hair gel.
In a battle of the Thompsons of Boardwalk Empire, three seed Nucky edged out his wife, six seed, Margaret.
In the tournaments first upset, seven seed Kenny Powers of Eastbound and Down beat a two seed, Al Swearengen of Deadwood based solely on Powers ability to pull off rocking corn rows.
It was an upset strictly from an emotional sense, as Tony Soprano sent sentimental favorite Bubbles back to Baltimore.
Kenny Powers put up a fight, but was unable to upset another alpha male, Nucky Thompson.
Despite objections from my boss, a passionate Nucky fan, Tony moved on.
The Jimmy McNulty Bracket
The Wire’s Jimmy McNulty beat Murray Hewitt of Flight of the Conchords, an eight seed.
Eric Northman of True Blood, a four seed, beat five seed Vern Schillinger of Oz mostly because Schillinger died in Oz and Northman is immortal. Not totally fair. But neither is raping dudes in prison, which, along with white supremacy, was Schillinger’s specialty.
Six seed Ali G put up a fight and almost won, but ended up losing to three seed Hannah Horvath of Girls.
Larry David, a two seed, started out strong, dispatching The Sopranos’ Paulie Walnuts, a generous seventh seed, with ease.
Jimmy McNulty beat Eric Northman because he’s McNulty and Northman isn’t.
In a tight match up of neurotic New Yorkers, Larry David took out Hannah Horvath in a match up where seniority played a huge role.
Our first truly tough and gut-wrenching match up and Larry David edged out McNulty. David emerges as a force and dark horse in the tournament.
The Tyrion Lannister Bracket
Eight seed, Nate Fisher of Six Feet Under played no part in the Battle of Blackwater Bay. He lost to Tyrion Lannister.
Johnny Drama of Entourage, a five seed, gave it his best shot, but lost to Game of Thrones‘ Cersei Lannister, a strong four seed.
Jimmy Darmody lives. The Boardwalk Empire character and three seed beat Adam Silver of Girls.
Omar’s comin’, Jon Snow is losin’. You looked confused, Jon Snow. Take some time to think about the loss. We’ll be here.
The Battle of the Lannisters wasn’t that close. Tyrion beats his sister, Cersei. As if she didn’t hate him already.
Jimmy Darmody dies. Omar’s still comin’.
Agony. Sleepless nights. Calls for help on the Facebook. Omar beats Tyrion. Could have gone either way. The fact that Game of Thrones is still on ends up hurting Tyrion, which I know, doesn’t seem fair. But talk to Omar about fair. Dude was killed by effin’ Kenard of all people. Kenard.
The Stringer Bell Bracket
Barb Henrickson of Big Love was a late addition to the tournament but an early departure- losing to number one seed Stringer Bell of The Wire.
Powerful women in the greater New York City area duked it out, but Carmela Soprano on The Sopranos was victorious over Sex in the City’s Carrie Bradshaw. Another four seed beating a five seed.
Another upset! Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, a six seed, beat three seed Christopher Moltisanti of The Sopranos in a match up that’s most noteworthy news story was that the seeding in this match up should have been reversed. If you can’t handle some Van Morrison while wacked out on coke, you probably don’t deserve to move on. Plus, she has dragons.
Deadwood suffers another loss as seven seed, Seth Bullock, lost to Ari Gold of Entourage.
Carmela is no match for Stringer. He wins easily.
The Mother of Dragons marches on. Taking care of Ari Gold with the same panache she has while dispatching Moby look-a-likes.
A tough match up, but Stringer beats his third strong female lead in a row.
The Final Four
Larry David beats top-seeded Tony Soprano in what feels like an upset on paper only.
Omar beat Stringer on The Wire and beats him here. Oh, indeed.
Photos: HBO
[…] You can check out a recap of the tournament here. […]