Season 8 of 24 has been good. I'd say the second half of this season has been better than nearly every second half of a 24 season; that's usually when things pivot for the worse, but the momentum has been pretty steady this season.
I've been watching Homicide. My dad said it's better than The Wire and let me borrow his collection. Sadly he only has later seasons so I started with S3. It's good for the most part, but at the same time I don't see how anyone can say it's better than The Wire. Homicide focuses entirely on the police department, and the cops aren't even that interesting. You get no sense of the streets, in fact I wouldn't know it happens in Baltimore if the title screen didn't mention it. It might as well be a cop show in Gotham.