As someone who likes to watch America’s quality TV exports, I have to confess I’ve dropped the ball of late.  Madmen?  Haven’t seen it.  Battlestar Galactica?  Likewise.  I put the blame on me not having Sky Plus.  These programmes are always on when I’m out or watching something else.  One day I’ll get Sky Plus and things will be much easier.  In the meantime I’ll just have to try to catch up with these shows on DVD when I get the chance.

Madmen and Battlestar Galactica may be good (so I’m told) but sitting in a completely different league above them (again, so I’m told) is The Wire.  Having been described by The Guardian as “The most critically acclaimed TV programme in the history of the medium”, The Wire has certainly collected a lot of fans among TV connoisseurs.  The question, then, is why is it languishing in relative obscurity on FX, a channel that very few people in the UK can receive?

Admittedly, in the USA the show is on HBO – a pay TV channel that certainly isn’t in every home – so its audience there can’t be that great.  A lot of HBO hits have certainly made their way to mainstream success here though.  Sex and the City and The Sopranos are among the shows that started as US cult hits before becoming big here.

So, how come The Wire hasn’t followed them?  You’d think that a show so beloved of the critics would be a prime target for Channel 4 (or maybe even the BBC) to bring to a mainstream terrestrial audience.  There is a problem though, the final season starts this week on FX.  What channel is going to take a series into its fifth and final season?  Would they really go back to the start and show it from the beginning of season one in this age of easy internet piracy and cheap DVDs?  Would it be worth it?  Probably not.  Should Sky (owner of FX in the UK) have moved The Wire to a primetime slot on Sky One a few years ago?  Probably.

The sad truth is it looks like this apparently brilliant show will be denied the audience it deserves thanks to a combination of bad timing on the behalf of terrestrial TV commissioners and the failure of Sky to capitalise on the show’s momentum.  Me?  I think I’ll be turning to the miraculous combination of DVDs, Handbrake and my iPhone.