On Sunday night, Jan. 6, HBO will broadcast the first episode of the fifth, and last, season of The Wire. To assure fans: The show continues to offer perhaps the most loving and damning portrait of Baltimore ever put to film, from the cops to the teachers to the drug dealers to the politicians who make that city the charming disaster that it is. And as a bonus, a parade of favorites from past seasons (hey, was that Nicky Sobotka?) will be trotted past, like perps on a walk, before the final goodbye.  read more »

The larger point is that the only way blacks seem to make it on television as an ensemble is playing sports or on a comedy. The great dramas that have gripped television culture in the last ten years are white. The HBO all-you-can-eat tables of American life, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Big Love, Deadwood and so on, are white. I guess only white people have dark currents and struggles in their lives. Or more likely, we're scared of those currents, are conflicted about blacks and crime. I'm told that Deadwood creator David Milch wanted to do a 60s black radical drama, which given his track record would surely be startling and loving and black to the eyeballs, but I'm still waiting.

In the April 10 issue, the Observer reported, based on documents obtained by the Rocky Mountain News, that the Times might take advantage of a window in its agreement with Discovery Communications that would allow the paper to sell its stake.  read more »