Television

By TERRY MORROW
"The Wire" returns for a fourth season (10 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, HBO), with the point of view changing to four boys in inner city Baltimore.

"We really wanted to reinvent the theme of the show every season," says executive producer David Simon.

"We've always had the idea that there's going to be a new story, a new crew coming in.

By ROB OWEN
ABC's "The Path to 9/11" (8 p.m., EDT, Sunday and Monday), attempts to communicate the results of the 9/11 Commission report in a dramatic, relatable way for viewers. This isn't entertainment per se, but a way to tell the story of events that led up to that terrible day.

By TONY NORMAN
In the opening scene of the fourth season of HBO's "The Wire" (10 p.m. EDT Sunday), Snoop (Felicia Pearson), one of drug lord Marlo Stanfield's youthful lieutenants, saunters down the aisle of a Hardware Barn looking for the perfect nail gun.

While a clerk lists the pros and cons of particular tools, Snoop offers ironic observations about the product's usefulness for "jobs all over town."

Already, attention must be paid, or minor facts, like the androgynous killer's gender, will slip by in the rush of plot minutiae on what is arguably television's most character-rich drama.

It wasn't clear to this critic that the killer was even a woman until Chris Partlow (Gbenga Akinnagbe), her equally remorseless partner in the murder trade, referred to Snoop as a "she" several episodes later.

As what has become HBO's most consistently satisfying show begins its fourth season, viewers know that if they blink, they're going to miss something.

It picks up the story one year after the end of the ill-fated experiment that legalized the drug trade in West Baltimore, and the political fallout is still being felt on the eve of the city's Democratic primary.

Mayor Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman), the city's black incumbent, finds himself fighting for his political life in what was supposed to be a lopsided race against reform-minded white councilman Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen).

Alternating between optimism and bitter realism about his prospects, Carcetti bemoans the fact that despite the power of his ideas, he still "wakes up white in a city that ain't."

Meanwhile, Marlo (Jamie Hector), the drug lord who annexed most of Avon Barksdale's territory after he was sent to prison last season, is stealthily killing his rivals.

Unlike previous turf wars, bodies aren't turning up on Baltimore's streets, giving the political establishment what it wants the most: a deceptively low murder rate at election time.

The centerpiece of the upcoming season isn't Detective Lester Freamon's (Clarke Peters) dogged pursuit of Marlo's organization as much as we'd like it to be.

By RICK KUSHMAN
Fox has a pair of new comedies starting Thursday night, and neither are very Foxish, or is it Foxy? Whatever. They're also not particularly good, though one is at least OK.

The OK show is "'Til Death" (8, EDT/PDT).

By TERRY MORROW
Excuse Colin Ferguson for being a bit anxious, even though his new show is a hit.

"I'm from Canada," he deadpans over lunch. "Our national (pastime) is self-loathing."

Before starring in "Eureka" on the Sci-Fi Channel this summer, Ferguson, 34, took his lumps.

By JUDD ZULGAD
Minnesota Twins television analyst Bert Blyleven has been suspended for two telecasts for accidentally using obscenity on the air before the start of the Twins-Yankees game Sunday in New York.

WFTC (Ch.

By ROB OWEN
Fox is getting its new fall series on the air before other networks, and with "Justice" last week, the network showed some creative promise. This week? Not so much.

"Standoff"

TV dramas do not have to be believable in the strictest sense _ dramatic license, by necessity, must sometimes be taken _ but today's sophisticated TV audience expects dramas to at least be credible within their own universe.

By ROB OWEN
Maybe Frank Welker has an inferiority complex.

"My mother was the only woman to ever have been re-elected to three consecutive terms in the Colorado state senate. My father was nominated for a Nobel Prize for his innovations in physics," said Welker, a well-known Hollywood voice actor.

By DUSTY SAUNDERS
It's time that Hugh Laurie fans forget about their disappointment that he was not nominated for an Emmy and concentrate on the future _ Tuesday, to be precise _ when "House" returns for its third season.

Fans are in for a surprise regarding Dr.

By ROB OWEN
If you're tired of the hoopla surrounding Katie Couric's ascension to the anchor desk at the "CBS Evening News," imagine how she feels.

"I'm really excited to get started, to stop talking about this and actually to start doing the job," Couric said in July.

These days, media self-obsession knows no bounds as outlets feverishly report even the tiniest details of the Couric-led broadcast, from the composer of the theme music (James "Titanic" Horner) to Couric's first big "get" (an interview with President Bush, to air in part Tuesday (Sept.