Why Isn't The Wire in High Definition?

LOW-FI The Wire

Fans of The Wire, the HBO drama most people only started watching after the New York Times and Slate told them to, are surely disappointed that the show's "Dickensian realism," as its aesthetic is invariably described, doesn't come across in high definition. According to a list provided by HBO, the complete runs of Big Love, Carnivale, Deadwood, and The Sopranos, seasons three through five of Six Feet Under, seasons three and four of Entourage, and even the first season of Tell Me You Love Me (if we wanted to see senior-citizen balls, we'd rent a Harvey Keitel movie) were all given the high-def treatment, while The Wire continues to be broadcast in drab old standard definition. What gives?