So what's Arrested Development all about then? Surely it can't be as good as The Wire?
Very different kind of show, but AD for me is the sharpest sitcom ever made. It's about a monumentally disfunctional family who go from riches to rags when the corrupt patriarch gets done for tax evasion. No other show better captures the pompous, brainless insanity of lalaland.
Example: I went to LA several years ago and got dragged to this incredibly tasteless art pageant, where rich people pose as characters in tableaus of famous paintings. I tried to be polite, because it's quite a prestigious thing, but inside I was thinking 'this is the tackiest thing I've ever seen'.
And there's an episode of AD based around this same art pageant, where the patriarch gets a day release from jail to play God in Michaelangelo's The Creation Of Adam, and uses the opportunity to escape... so the tableau is unveiled with a gap where god should be, and one woman in the audience shouts 'Where is God?'. And another one stands up and shouts 'THERE IS NO GOD!!!'.
So yeah, any sitcom that can shoehorn in Neitzsche jokes gets my vote. Check it out. In terms of ambition, acting quality and attention to detail, it's as good as The Wire, definitely.