I’ll go first:
- Tony Soprano - The Sopranos
- Enoch “Nucky” Thompson
- Thomas Shelby - Peaky Blinders
Not the main character but Gus Fring was a remarkably intelligent gangster.
Basically all of the high up characters in the Gilliverse are super smart. Mike, Walt, Jimmy, Lalo, Gus, Hector. Eladio and Tuco are the only ones I can think of who ever exhibit any amount of stupid
Walter White. What other mob/cartel boss could actually engineer their criminal product?
Always the accountant.
For sure Thomas Shelby
SPOILERS but Reason why I knocked Tommy Shelby down a bit is because my wife and I are rewatching it now, and I kinda thought Tommy telling John it’s okay that he threatened the sons dad was dumb. That event got Grace killed.
It has been a bit since I did a full rewatch, but fair enough. I will add it to my todo :)
Stringer Bell in The Wire is clever, though he still makes a few mistakes
Not a main character per se, but Stringer Bell from the wire.
Tom Hagen from the Godfather (not a show, but whatever!)
Just got to the end of season three of the wire. Not Stringer Bell.
Genny and Ciro in Gomorrah, and Don Minu in ZeroZeroZero.
Probably some supervillain. It’s pretty easy to write a character that thinks impossibly far ahead if you don’t mind being campy.