HBO and The Wire

I am a huge fan of HBO programming… documentaries, dramas, comedies…ALL OF IT! In fact, I’ve recently become addicted to “The Wire.” This is the best cop show I have ever seen and one of the best shows on television right now– the detectives never have all the answers and every character is well developed and varied. Instead of doing a paper one night—I watched 7 episodes in a row and they are each a full hour long…oops!

In the first season, the cops and the gang (all the characters) are slowly revealed and it becomes evident that every character’s goal is to climb the ladder and gain more power…except for Detective McNulty–who is just a pain in everyone’s ass.

The Sopranos, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras…and even Sex in the City (which is a great show when it’s not in censored syndication).

Which leads me to a major problem: All of my favorite shows are on cable, but not even basic cable…which I can’t afford… but PREMIUM cable…which I REALLY can’t afford.

Which leaves me with two choices: Downloading or buying the DVDs when they finally come out….I do both…but let’s just say I do a lot more of one than the other.

I just downloaded the last four episodes of The Sopranos (and I do actually own the box sets for this particular show). The first of the four episodes had over 100,000 downloads just from this particular bit torrent site. WHOA! Especially considering the fact that HBO (according to my knowledge) hired a private firm to try to diminish illegal downloading of their programming—doesn’t look like that’s working.

If HBO offered their shows streaming on the internet for a monthly fee…I would sign up in a heartbeat!! Although, that would probably really piss off Time Warner Cable and other Cable systems.