Thought it’s always been a hard call for me between The Sopranos and The Wire as the best show on television (I usually give a slight nod to The Sopranos for its attention to detail, unparalleled directing and overarching story-lines), it’s not debatable that it seems to have always been the bastard stepbrother, not getting it’s full due.

While I initially resisted the show because I have a quirk about jumping in late, I queued up Netflix and got up to speed, and in the process, supremely hooked.

Though like many on a message board I frequent, prefer the action and street-thug aspects of the show, I found every season to be equally rewarding on all fronts; intellectually, emotionally and from a sheer entertainment standpoint. It has everything.

This season promises to be particularly watch-worthy as it covers a subject I’ve been following closely the last year, the newspaper publishing industry. It is sure to feature touch-points on the decline in readership, and the growth and subsequent stagnation in online revenue, among the immediate issues concerning Baltimore proper. It’s a fair call to guess it will keep close tabs on our favorite characters like Clay Davis, Omar, Snoop, McNulty, Bunk, and of course, the ever-unlucky Bubbles.

The series premiere of the final season airs Sunday night, January 6 at 9PM on HBO.

The cable channel AMC has caught my attention with it’s new foray into series television. Its show “Mad Men” from Sopranos alumnus Matthew Weiner last season was excellent, on par with the quality of that legendary crime/family show. HBO passed on “Mad Men,” which left it in the capable hands of AMC.

Now, it introduces us to “Breaking Bad,” a show about a high school chemistry teacher named Walter White, who is liberated through a terminal diagnosis. Drugs, guns, high drama and suspense. Looks like my kind of show. We’ll see if AMC can keep the quality level high or if “Mad Men” was a fluke.

Check out the superbly-designed promo site by mono and Unit9.