Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM are launching a new premium cable channel next year that will likely strip Showtime of much of its theatrical movie content. Showtime was originally a sister company to Paramount until 2006 when Viacom president and CEO Les Moonves split the two companies into separate entities.

One of the reasons cited for this move was by the Showtime's vice president of corporate public relations Stu Zakim. He stated that the network no longer wanted to pay "outrageous license fees" for theatrical content.

This is actually a natural progression for the bigger name cable channels. As they develop more original content, they no longer need to rely on the movie studios to provide content for them. This is a far cry from the early days of cable television when HBO and Showtime were known as the channels from which you could watch R-rated movies in the comfort of your own home.

(S04E08) "We got our thing, but it's just part of the big thing." -- Zenobia.

Mr. Prezbo, as his students call him, is doing much better with the blackboard math story-problems now that he's had a couple months experience teaching. At least there is some awareness of what's happening up front in the classroom. Kids are paying enough attention now to notice the chalk "dinks" he makes out of habit around the correct answer! However, the other teachers tell Prez the hard facts, it's not about learning: it's about training by rote for the "Leave No Child Behind" standards test, and funding.

One of the most fascinating things was experiencing police work through Carcetti's eyes on his various fact-finding excursions. Fun to see Kima take pleasure in catching the Mayor-Elect try to get away with putting an empty coffee pot back on the burner. "Oh no, fuck that," she says. "You finish a pot, you make the next one." It's also enjoyable to watch The Bunk put the screws to Old Face Andre, even the it pisses off his sergeant. I found the touches of humor more-than-usually welcome this week, because things turn serious, and seriously depressing, with Carcetti's trip to the Eastern. Rip-and-run policing only succeeds in impounding a bicycle, depriving its owner of job transportation.

(S01E11) Matthew 22:10: The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.

A big Irish wedding, and Freddie Cork finally makes a move, ordering a hit on pain-in-the-ass Michael (Jason Isaacs), after going back and forth every other week over whether they are friends or enemies. The first surprise is Pete, who appears at the wedding all cleaned up -- this, after the last time we saw him, snorting coke outside an AA meeting with Eileen Caffee (Annabeth Gish). Judging from the selection played at the wedding, music stopped developing around 1983. (Spoiler -- a big one -- after the jump.)

(S04E01) "Lambs to the slaughter here." -- Maria Donnelly.

During the opening credits the show's traditional theme song plays, but this time it's sung by a chorus of children. As in previous seasons, this is about the only soundtrack music we will hear until the final credits. The Wire doesn't use strings to tell us when to feel pathos, or synthesizers to build suspense. It trusts and depends on the drama and the truth of its characters to tell the story.

Welcome to The Wire: The Next Generation. Some old favorites are back -- though just as dispersed as we left them at the end of season three. We get to check in with some of them, but much of the focus is on new characters we meet for the first time and will be the heart of this year's story. This makes tonight's episode a pretty accessible place enter the story, even if you've never seen The Wire before.

We've waited a long time for season four of The Wire, both with anticipation and apprehension. In anticipation, because the show has been so unbelievably good up to now. And apprehension, because most series fall off in quality eventually don't they? Maybe the wait will have been worth it, if only that it has given many new viewers the chance to discover the series on DVD. The first two seasons have been out for awhile. That's how I found it, at that is the reason I ordered HBO for the first time in my life this summer. The Wire seems positioned finally to receive the accolades it has long deserved.

(S01E03) Matthew 13:57: "And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.' "

But this one could have been: "What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? "(Matthew 16:26) as Tommy slices off yet another piece of his integrity in order to address another political expediency -- this time a garbage strike, the full impact of which is well shown in an effective opening montage.

Series creator, Blake Masters, said (in his interview for the official show podcast) he finds the global politics of The West Wing boring and that the world of local politicians, say, working to get a new park put in their neighborhood, is the really interesting stuff. That's got to be a minority viewpoint.