The thing with HBO is that everyone wants to work with them because they give total creative license to the writers/producers on their series and allow pretty unlimited budgets.
That's rare and very cool ... but it also bites them sometimes when shows like JFC go off the reservation (and True Blood is heading down that path too). But I'll take a couple stinkers here and there when their hands off approach nets such gems as Sopranos, Curb, Deadwood, Entourage, Rome, Generation Kill, Band of Brothers, the Wire etc etc etc.