The fifth and final season of The Wire is now airing. This season adds the layer of the Baltimore Sun newsroom to the mix. Clark Johnson (Meldrick Lewis from Homicide) plays the city editor. This material is certainly dear to series creator David Simon’s heart as he was a Sun crime reporter for many years.
The end of HBO’s best series will also signal the end of a string of signature series for the network. With The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood and Rome all in the can, where does one turn for high quality television?
It looks like now might be the time for perennial upstart Showtime to take over. I’ve enthused about Weeds before. And I just recently discovered Dexter in which Michael C. Hall (David Fisher from Six Feet Under) plays a serial killer who works for the Miami PD. This is a gruesome series but the writing is excellent and the show is very entertaining. I’ve also heard good things about The Tudors but to be honest, I don’t think I’m enough of an anglophile to get into that. 
I tried Tudors (and I’m into the the dissolution, tyrant king – you should read the C. J. Sansom historical mysteries, they’re pretty good) but didn’t get into it. It’s just not that good in comparison to the shows you mentioned. I even found weeds a little too precious but that was watching a bunch of episodes one after the other. I’m looking forward to the wire. I loved Clark Johnson in homicide.
Weird, I didn’t get an email alerting me to your comment…
Another Showtime show I want to check out is Californication with David Duchovny…
Californication is great if you’re into dark humor and tons of sarcasm. Comparing it to Dexter, I consider it to be more of a comedy. Season 1 was great. I never did hear if they will be doing more or not though.
I’ll probably check californication out shortly. I understand showtime got sued by the red hot chili peppers re: the show’s title…wonder if that will affect further production?