In Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Berlin Johnson showed how television drama had become more complex over the decades, and made the contrarian claim that popular culture was making us smarter. The Wire, which returns tonight, ought to clinch the argument. The HBO drama, about crime and politics in Baltimore, is so convoluted that it takes several episodes, and sometimes several viewings, to make sense of the plot. And that's what's so engrossing: the show is a puzzle as much as it's entertainment. Bonus for media junkies: much of the action in this, the last season, takes place at the newsroom of the city's dying newspaper, the Baltimore Sun. One of the characters is a familiar figure in American publishing, the corporate executive who tells his dispirited reporters to do "less with more." 9pm, Sunday nights, HBO. Trailer after the jump.