You can't ever accuse David Simon of not having a plan. The man created The Wire, which is perhaps the greatest television series of all time, and now he's working on Treme, another brilliant series for HBO. But while The Wire ran for five seasons, Simon says he's shooting for four with Treme.

"The writer-producers met twice over the hiatus for a week at a time and plotted all the storylines and determined that two more seasons was the optimum for the vast majority of characters, for the theme, and practical for the history of post-Katrina New Orleans," Simon told Hitfix, ". . . we would have a hard time finishing in three, or, unless some other avenues for storytelling revealed themselves organically, extending the drama to five seasons."

HBO seems to be on Simon's side, though no official renewal has been made for a fourth season. As programming co-president Richard Plepler told Variety earlier this year: "Here's what we have said to David. We want David to finish his novel. He's writing a novel (with 'Treme'). We, as beneficiaries of his art, want him to finish the completion of his artistic expression."

Treme's third season will premiere in 2012.