Law & disorder on HBO's 'The Wire'

To nobody's surprise, HBO has introduced another new series, "The Wire," in which morally ambiguous characters find themselves caught in ethically compromised situations. What's a little surprising, at least to me, is that after two episodes I can't decide whether to keep watching. "The Wire" airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on HBO; if you missed Sunday's premiere, it repeats several times this week. The show comes to us from David Simon, whose books formed the basis of NBC's "Homicide" and HBO's "The Corner." Like those stories, this one is set in Baltimore's seething urban core, where drugs and guns and despair interact in violent and sadly familiar ways. The difference this time is that as much emphasis is placed on the lives of the criminals as on the cops. More than that, they reside on the same moral plateau, mere shouting distance from each other, and the law forms a very narrow chasm between them. On the criminal side, we meet D'Angelo Barksdale, a young drug trafficker who aspires to be as cold-blooded and successful as his uncle and mentor, Avon Barksdale. You know just by looking at D'Angelo, played by the appealing young Larry Gilliard Jr., that he's going to suffer some pang of conscience. Even Avon (Wood Harris) doesn't seem like such a bad guy; he cleans up a couple of D'Angelo's impetuous messes and sends him off with some sound fatherly advice. On the police side, the central figure is the less-than-mesmerizing Det. Jimmy McNulty, played by Dominic West. He mumbles a lot, and he does a lot of strange things early on, putting himself in needless danger with both his bosses and an oncoming train. His partner Bunk, played by perennial sitcom buddy Wendell Pierce, offers a semblance of comic relief. In interviews, Simon has called his new show "a drama masquerading as a cop show." I gather that some of the drama will revolve around an act of betrayal: somebody wearing "the wire," or surveillance mike, of the show's title. Without reading too deeply between the lines, it's pretty clear that "The Wire" is about two symbiotic systems that need each other to survive. If that's so, the war on drugs will never end - too many law-enforcement careers hang in the balance. We see this in the show's other potential breakout performance besides Gilliard's: that of Lance Reddick as an ambitious lieutenant stuck between incompetent officers and fickle superiors. I also counted three instances in which drug dealers were called "terrorists" - which to me is Simon suggesting that a perennial War on Terrorism may be the new form of job security at the Pentagon. OK, so "The Wire" has a lot of nerve, and it's comfortable looking at the big picture. It's the little picture that's the problem. The show is willfully depressing. The dialogue, from the David Mamet school, features abundant though not very creative use of profanity. Nobody of any consequence here seems to take pleasure in anything except other people's suffering. Is this entertainment? Your call. But right now, I'd rather watch FX's "The Shield," another series about hard-bitten careerist cops. At least it has a sense of humor. Unlike basic cable, however, HBO shows are not always meant for the immediate gratification of viewers. "Six Feet Under" took some getting used to; perhaps the same will be true of "The Wire," though I can tell already, it won't be that easy. When "Farscape" had its premiere three years ago on Sci Fi Channel, I sensed that it would have some appeal even to people who don't fancy themselves sci-fi buffs. Now the show returns for a fourth season at 9 p.m. Friday, and returning to it, I find the story lines so convoluted that I was grateful for the cheat sheet sent to me by the network. That said, the show - about an American fighter named Crichton who travels through a wormhole and immediately finds himself in some sort of intergalactic car chase - remains one of the most imaginative shows on TV. It's so creative that I enjoyed even those scenes in which I had only the faintest idea who was doing what to whom. In one scene a Muppet-like creature gives our hero a lecture in affairs of the heart: "Oh, Crichton, for once listen. When a woman, whether she's your wife, your lover - or a slave you've purchased to be your wife or lover - leaves you repeatedly, take a hint!" Did I mention the Muppet was holding the severed hand of a female alien while saying this? You just don't see that every day - not even on HBO. "Farscape" is preceded at 8 by the season premiere of "Stargate SG-1." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.