Max and Donny are police officers dealing with the drug network in their precinct. Frustrated by the limitations and regulations of conventional police work, Max regularly steps outside the bounds of legality by pursuing his own tactics, while Donny has been so torn apart by the job that he spends most of his time drunk and lounging around a seedy motel, only occasionally going out on — and usually messing up — the actual police duties given to him by Max.
Carlos is a drug dealer recently paroled from prison, struggling to rebuild his life but caught in a turf war between rival drug kingpins Andre and Eddie. He suffers from stress-induced migraines and stomach pains.
Lucie is Carlos' ex-girlfriend. A former addict who's gone clean and intends to stay that way, she and her daughter Jamie want nothing to do with Carlos after he's released from prison, but they eventually attempt to reconcile.
Giles is Carlos' brother, who works as a security guard at the store where Lucie works as a cashier. Although uninvolved in Carlos' criminal activity, he is gunned down and killed by Eddie's crime network as a warning to Carlos — but Carlos continues to see and have conversations with him after his death.
Karen is Max's wife, whom he married after investigating the murder of her first husband. They have a tense relationship marked by Karen's belief that Max only married her as a "social work" project to save her and her children from Being Black. When married to her first husband, she lived in the same building as Carlos and Lucie.
Jayne is a burned-out legal aid lawyer, and Max's mistress with whom he has regular sex dates at the motel.
Pam is Donny's ex-wife. Since leaving Donny, she and her daughter Emma are living with Jayne.
Hermie and Philippe are Carlos' dimwitted cousins, who invariably mess up anything Carlos asks them to do.
Andre Drug boss with anger management issues. Hands-on, efficient businessman.
Eddie Stubborn, volatile dealer with unknown connections.
Joe, Lucie's brother, is a junkie who's also usually hanging around Carlos waiting for his next fix. Thoroughly addled by his drug habit, he has a difficult time remembering anything — including, as he tells Carol at one point, whether or not he's gay.
Cecil is the superintendent in Lucie's building. Fed up with the crime and violence in her backyard, she is vocal in telling off the neighbourhood criminals.
Andy is Donny's childhood friend, and the manager of the motel. Donny knows, but doesn't care, that Andy is really just the front person for a money-laundering operation.
Carol is Andy's sister. She briefly comes to stay at the motel after having been beaten up, purportedly by her husband, but is in fact a con woman who has stolen $46,000 from Steamboat, a biker and loan shark.
Patrick is Jayne's senile father. He comes to live with Jayne after escaping the nursing home where he had been living.
Sal and Leon are undercover policemen working inside Eddie's crime network.
