State Sen. R. Clayton "Clay" Davis

A Baltimore state senator with a honeyed drawl and a hand out for everyone, Clay Davis glides through the statehouse and the streets alike, trading favors, skimming money meant for the poor, and greeting every crisis with a drawn-out "Sheeeeit." He wears corruption like a fine suit—unbothered, practiced, entirely at home in it.

Isiah Whitlock Jr. turns a stock political grifter into something operatic, stretching vowels and vowels of contempt into pure music. The show gives him just enough menace beneath the charm to make clear he's dangerous, not merely ridiculous, and Whitlock plays both registers at once—so the laugh he gets never quite lets you off the hook.