HBO and Starz Score with Cable TV Hit Shows

Some of the greatest programming ever seen on television comes from hit cable TV shows produced by HBO, Showtime and Starz! For the past twenty years or so, HBO (Home Box Office) has led the way with such cable TV shows as The Sopranos, a show which has won more Emmy Awards than any other cable TV show ever. Tony Soprano and his Mafia buddies really invented the no-holds barred, anything goes format that most subsequent cable TV shows have tried to emulate. Some have been successful and others not so much. Fickle public tastes notwithstanding, the reasons for some of these shows failures or successes have been much talked about and publicly scrutinized.

One of the best shows on HBO was never really a major hit but did pick up a lot of critical acclaim and that show was The Wire which was recently dropped after five great seasons. This show featured a group of detectives and the drug dealers they were chasing in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Led by the great Dominick West and some fine writing, this show never failed to surprise and astound us with its fantastic and highly watchable episodes, week in and week out. It is not easy to keep up this level of superior writing, especially in an hour long show and for that many years in a row.

Another great HBO show that was cancelled after many seasons was Six Feet Under created by the great Alan Ball (American Beauty). That a show about people running a funeral parlor could be so compulsively watchable is a tribute to the great acting and writing that this program had for all of the years it was in existence.

Today, HBO presents such incredible fare as True Blood and Treme, two very different but equally impressive shows. True Blood is about a Southern town that is beset by vampires and other supernatural creatures. The premise of the show is that vampires have now assimilated into human society because humans created a synthetic blood which makes it unnecessary for vampires to kill humans in order to eat. Of course it turns out that this assumption is very nave and when vampires start falling in love with humans, the trouble really begins. The main character is one Sookie Stackhouse and she is the one that falls in love with vampire Bill Compton, a vamp with a heart of gold. This is a great show and should not be missed.

Starz! has its own lineup of wonderful new shows including the bloody and ultra-sexy Spartacus which brings us the continuing saga of the title character as he is enslaved in a suburb of Rome, Capua, and forced to train as a gladiator in the local Ludis (gladiator training facility). This show is truly awesome and I dare anyone to watch more than two or three shows and not get totally hooked. Another great Starz! show is the very funny cable TV program called Party Down about a catering company in Hollywood filled with has-been or wannabe actors. Hilarious!