THE WIRE

This show is simply too well done to miss. Here from SLATE:

In The Big Idea, Jacob Weisberg shares his love for The Wire, which he calls "surely the best TV show ever broadcast in America." The HBO drama confronts the political realities of the black underclass with the subtlety and eloquence of literature, prompting many critics to compare it to Charles Dickens' work. "In our civilized age, we do not send 12-year-olds to work in blacking factories as the Victorians did. Today's David Copperfield is instead warehoused at a dysfunctional school until he's ready to sling drugs on the corner, where his odds of survival are even slimmer." Starting Sept. 18, Slate will hold weekly roundtable discussions of the latest Wire episodes