It didn’t take long for the season-three premiere of “Eastbound & Down” to remind us we were watching one of the best shows on TV. Hell, it was the first scene, when Kenny Powers walked through the sand of Myrtle Beach with a rebel flag/weed boogie board, while the Stooges’ “Down on the Street” played.

It was possibly the greatest season opening shot EVER, not only because Kenny admired the base tans of an American-African couple, but also because “Down on the Street” so perfectly matched the show’s dirty, yet sentimental aesthetic. Iggy would be proud, assuming he hasn’t been eaten up by a pack of wild dogs mistaking him for the lean piece of beef jerky he looks like today.

The ideal song/scene match shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, because HBO shows are the best at choosing just the right track for just the right moment, and have been for years. This is a list of the network’s greatest musical moments, composed of both songs written for a show and songs that already existed being used on a show. And no, Journey didn’t make it, but we’ll be alright without them.

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Justin Fenton is a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He must be asked, “Is your city like “The Wire”?” 84 times a day. After something that happened this weekend, he can firmly/depressingly say, “Indeed.”

An hour after sending that tweet, he directed another at Michael K. Williams, the actor who played Omar. It said, “I read Omar was based on several real-life stickup men, but none named Omar Little. Do you know where the name comes from?” The men he’s referring to are Shorty Boyd, Donnie Anders, Ferdinand Harvin, and Anthony Hollie, who all robbed drug dealers between the 1980s and 2000s, according to the Guardian.

I have so many questions: was he getting Honey Nut Cheerios? Why didn’t he have a shotgun? Does he feel like just because his name is Omar Little, he had to begin a life of crime? Did he call himself The King and yell, “I’m coming, yo” when he walked down the street? We need ANSWERS, Fenton…or else.

Not pictured: everything we saw last night

Ed. Note: As someone who’s been a full-time blogger for half a decade, my interpersonal skills have been almost completely destroyed, to the point that I now hate doing things like “going outside” and “talking to people.” But our man Josh Kurp and his fiancee Nadia are still young enough to happily engage in the teeming nightlife of New York City, so I sent them out to capture TV-related costumes last night. From “Dexter” to “South Park” to “Simpsons,” they found plenty. Enjoy.

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So this is cool: while working on an ad campaign for Ciroc vodka, Michael K. Williams convinced Aaron Paul to join Twitter. (Also featured in the “Ciroc Ratpack” campaign: Frank Vincent, Diddy, and… Chad Michael Murray? Who invited that clown?)

In case you’re new to learning actors’ names and need the significance of this spelled out for you: Omar Little — the most memorable character from the best show ever made (“I robs drug dealers”) — was hanging out in Vegas with Jesse Pinkman, a meth cook/dealer on what may be the best show on television right now. Now THAT is a party I want to be a part of. You can’t tell me that jackass Chad Michael Murray deserves that spot over me. No one with three first names should be in an homage to the Rat Pack. “Chad Michael Murray” sounds like a serial killer in Nebraska.

Salman Rushdie is already in my personal doghouse for sullying Padma Lakshmi, but his interview with Haaretz may as well be an act of war. Rushdie, who’s working on a Showtime series, said that he’s watched a bunch of other respected TV series to help with the gig. And that’s when he talked sh*t about “Game of Thrones” and “The Wire.”

Among the shows he’s liked are The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Dexter, and Deadwood, but not everything gets an unequivocal rave from Rushdie, who goes on to say, “There was a series called Game of Thrones which was very popular here in the United States, a post-Tolkien kind of thing. It was garbage, yet very addictive garbage — because there’s lots of violence, all the women take their clothes off all the time, and it’s kind of fun. In the end, it’s well-produced trash, but there’s room for that, too.” [Vulture]

As an expert on sex and violence, yes: there is a lot of sex and violence on “Game of Thrones,” and it’s very appealing. But it’s not garbage. To call “Game of Thrones” “well-produced trash” is to ignore the strong acting performances and the kind of bold narrative arcs that Rushdie’s never been able to create himself.

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