In advance of next Sunday's premiere of the final season of The Wire, the Wall Street Journal's Lauren Mechling examines the series playwright Tony Kushner calls his "favorite TV show." And, he admits, "I watch TV a lot."

The Christian Science Monitor recommends HBO's The Wire as a Pick of the Week, calling the show "a profoundly thoughtful meditation on the modern American city, its institutions, and the underclass." The New York Times concurs, calling it a "sublime epic of urban realism." Season Five doesn't get underway for another couple weeks, so in the mean time, both papers suggest catching up with Season Four, out now on DVD.

The fifth and final season of The Wire debuts January 6 on HBO, with the series' first-ever soundtracks due out on Nonesuch two days later, so now is the perfect time to tune in to The Wire Odyssey, tonight on HBO, and catch up on the previous four seasons of the Peabody Award–winning show. The half-hour retrospective takes a look back at the show Slate magazine has said is "surely the best TV show ever broadcast in America."

Filmmaker/provocateur John Waters has famously depicted his hometown of Baltimore on the big screen throughout his career. It's perhaps no wonder then that he admits to being a big fan of the Baltimore-based show The Wire. He tells the Toronto Star: "I'm addicted to The Wire on HBO. Not only is it set in Baltimore, but it's like reading a great novel."

Featured on today's Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, New York Public Radio, is Felicia "Snoop" Pearson from HBO's The Wire. She's written a new memoir, Grace After Midnight, about overcoming an incredible set of odds and turning her life around. Publisher's Weekly has called hers "a powerful story of someone trying to find her way in a dark world ... Pearson's narrative is spare, even poetic, rendering traumatic moments all the more powerful."

HBO's The Wire has been nominated for Best Dramatic Series by the Writers Guild of America, as well as Best Episodic Drama for the episode "Final Grades," the season finale from the show's fourth season, now out on DVD. The WGA Awards will be handed out February 9 in Los Angeles and New York.

Fans of The Wire in New York City this Thursday may want to head down to J&R Music across from City Hall Park: cast members from the acclaimed HBO show will be on hand to sign copies of the newly released DVDs of Season Four. Slated to be in store on December 13 at 12:30 are Chad Coleman ("Cutty" Wise), Jermaine Crawford ("Dukie" Weems), Julito McCullum (Namond Brice), and Tristan Wilds (Michael Lee).