Little channel that could
For the last 5 years HBO has been the major reason why we've had a television in the house. The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Rome, all amazing, all among the best television I've ever seen. Shows I don't love as much like Sex and the City and Entourage are at least amusing and more clever and better written then anything you'll see elsewhere. Even the failures like John From Cincinnati and Tell Me You Love Me have at least been interesting failures. Now though, they don't have much of anything interesting on, and Showtime is giving them a serious run for their money. Dexter has come up on strong for a second season, and after a rough start Weeds is back to its previous (no pun intended) high. The biggest, most pleasant surprise has been Californication. I thought it was OK when it first started, but I really only kept it on the recording schedule because its such a pleasure to see David Duchovny do comedy. It's since grown into an great show, hilarious yet poignant at the same time. It looks like their time on top will be short lived though. After the current line up is over Showtime is pulling out another season of The Tudors, their vision of Henry the 8th's court populated by underwear models. HBO on the other hand will be pulling out The Wire, which is still the best television show that has ever been made in my opinion, and down the road they still have their adaptation of the Song of Ice and Fire in development which I'll just have to watch. Which ever one winds up on top though, It's nice having such a wealth of smart and interesting TV for once.