Sad to say, there's really nothing on the channel to keep me as a subscriber at this point (and there's certainly not anything recent in their programming that makes me even a little hopeful about its future).

Oh wait, I just saw that Simon and Burns are doing "Generation Kill", a mini series about Iraq coming in July. That just might keep me holding on.

Yeah, and he is also supposedly doing a new series set in New Orleans. I haven't heard anything about a time line or what channel it is on, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was on HBO. Simon has praised the network because it allows for shows like The Wire to exist; major networks would never put up with something like that.

HBO appears to be finished.

A major factor in what they greenlight now appears to be budgetary - "John From Cincinati" was surely attractive because it was so much cheaper to produce than "Deadwood" - a period piece with costumes and new sets to build vs. something shot in L.A.? Easy decision for a network facing revenue loss.

& don't get me started on "In Treatment" or "Tell Me You Love Me," or "Big Love," all of which are clearly VERY cheap to produce, at least in comparrison to the on-location, sprawling, cinematic shows like The Wire & The Sopranos.

Also, I must say I am dissapointed that HBO is not going to continue to produce shows in the tradition of "The Wire"/"The Sopranos"/"Deadwood," ie. extremely ambitious, cinematic shows that take the major genres of Hollywood cinema & turn them on their heads, using pulp fiction & american myths to dramatize who we are, where we're going, what we want.

The best American filmmaking of the 2000's has been on HBO, and I am sad to see HBO won't be striving for that anymore.

That said, "Generatin Kill" might be great.

John Adams might be good, but I am depressed:0(