IMO, these 6 episodes outshine any 6 episodes of the rest of the franchise. I'm glad it's coming back. I thought it might have been a miniseries.

This was nice and weird.

Same people who put together Detectorists. If you like this, you'll probably like that.

If you're more into the "weird," and less into the "nice," there's always Britannia, where the manager of the store, (and the brains behind both this and Detectorists), is an ancient Druid high on various hallucinogens and dealing with supernatural weirdness while the Romans invade England for 3 seasons. It's as if a psychedelic rock band from the 60's made a video about that particular invasion of Britain, and got their buddies for the soundtrack. 

This didn't age particularly well. 

To say nothing of the stereotypes, around a year after this premiered, and five years BEFORE it ended, the war in Iraq post 9-11 started. This opened the US budget and legislative spigot for new war toys. Movies have been made about the fortunes made from the most grotesque amount of black money ever spread around a war zone that were fully based on the situation. 

All any law enforcement agency around the country had to do, to get the latest equipment prior to the war, [anything from military vehicles and weapons, to top level (prior to the USAPATRIOT ACT) surveillance gear and software], was ask for it. This really kicked off full-on militarization of municipal, county, and state police. It was eerily convenient, because in a more peaceful and informed society than after the last major wars, the only job ex- 'roided and amped-up killers can really do without getting arrested is join a police force. (They were then connected with federal military, intelligence, and law enforcement infrastructure via "fusion centers," where agencies with the legal ability to gather certain information on people without probable cause or warrants share that information with agencies and people that shouldn't have access... but I digress). 

A decade-plus after that, Snowden revealed that the capabilities were even more pervasive and invasive than even the most (reality-based) technophobic "conspiracy theorist" imagined at the time.

TLDR: this series was outdated within months, (if that), of the first episode's premier, and ugly things have happened to US policing since. Treme was Simon's masterpiece. The Baltimore shows were just natural offshoots of his work as a police/crime journalist for the Baltimore Sun. It's clear New Orleans is where his soul lives.

@perspicacia wrote:
Was really looking forward to this but what promised to be a great show is completely ruined by overdone bad language and explicit rap music for a soundtrack. Utterly Disappointing

I completely understand how the soundtrack choice can be jarring. I think, done well, it can work, but here I believe it was used to help draw in people who would otherwise not be drawn into a period drama, essentially to make it less of one, so while it may be jarring, it's understandable for a brand that doesn't want to look stuffy and old - and make no mistake, this wouldn't have been made without the Company name's rights-holders, at the very least's, blessing, (if not investment), so this serves double duty as an ad for Guinness.

On the other hand, I don't think you could make an accurate depiction of an Irish brewing family throughout the years without PLENTY of vulgarity, of many sorts. Asking for it not to be there is asking for a story about something else entirely.