The Wire
My girlfriend and I are currently geeking out over the HBO series "The Wire", which enters its fifth season starting January 8. It's a pretty damn brilliant police drama that's really more about inner city life and institutional bureaucracy -- though there's certainly some bang bang. We're only through the beginning of season two, but it's making a nice break from the freezing cold of December (that and Thai food delivered).
It makes shows like CSI and Law and Order look like third grade plays put on by the children of vacuous neighborhood halfwits. It's adeptly written by a Baltimore police-beat reporter, who I assume is also on strike right now.
I'm a sucker for HBO series. I've loved Oz, Deadwood, Sopranos (despite the late life-cycle decline), Rome and Six Feet Under. I thought Carnivale was the best thing since the antibiotics. I've got this feeling HBO is starting to cater to the nation's lobotomized, twenty-inch rim majority (Entourage). Maybe Showtime will pick up the slack with great shows like Dexter.
Anyway, for the three of you that actually read my daily cerebral vomit, I'd recommend it. Holy shit, I'm BLOGGING about my favorite cable TV shows. How painfully all-American dipshit of me.