Submitted by: kirkland on Tuesday September 05th, 2006 at 10:41 AM EST

Critics call it the best show on American television, but "The Wire" always seems to have to fight for its life -- few people watch it and it often depresses those that do.

After all, it's a program that revolves around a devastated Baltimore slum, a place of boarded up, abandoned houses whose denizens are drug dealers, drug users, thieves, police and innocent bystanders caught in the cross-fire. Hope is an emotion that exists primarily to be crushed.

Off the air since 2004, "The Wire" returns to HBO on Sunday Sept 10 for a 13-week fourth season, and its creator, David Simon, a former police reporter who covered the mean streets of West Baltimore, says he doesn't know what will happen after that.

» Full story @ Reuters