Similarly, many of the most adventurous films and thought-provoking documentaries emanate not from those corporate behemoths, the Hollywood studios, but from independent producers.

Australia has a new home for this eclectic array of top-shelf programming in the Showcase channel, which launches on December 1 and is available at no extra cost to all SHOWTIME subscribers.

Moreover, Showcase will present original Australian programming commissioned by SHOWTIME, starting with the drama series Satisfaction. Debuting on December 5, Satisfaction delves into the world of five high-class escorts and their manager as they juggle their private lives with their secret profession.

The initial movie line-up on Showcase includes Academy Award winners Little Miss Sunshine and The Last King of Scotland, plus Thank You For Smoking, Marie Antoinette, The Quiet and The Big White.

The feature-length docos are headed by An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s ecological wake-up warning to the world; Mad Hot Ballroom, which follows New York City public school kids as they enter the world of ballroom dancing and reveal pieces of themselves; The Ground Truth, a searing look at young men and women who are called to serve in Iraq, their experiences in the conflict, and the battles they fight when they return home; and Once in a Lifetime, which traces the rise of the New York Cosmos, America's first great soccer team, and its larger-than-life superstar, Pelé.

Among the original US productions acquired by Showcase are several series from US network Showtime: Dexter, The Tudors and Meadowlands; FX Networks’ The Riches; and HBO’s Rome and John From Cincinatti.

Dexter stars Six Feet Under’s Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan, a seemingly jovial blood splatter analyst for the Miami Metropolitan Police Department. At night he turns into a psychopath who slays the serial killers he tracks down during the day. It’s based on the novels Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter and Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay.

"It's not your mother's CSI," Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said in something of an understatement. Critics have raved about Hall’s portrayal of a self-confessed monster who’s cold and calculating but also dryly funny.

The Emmy-winning The Tudors stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the tale of the young, powerful, seductive King Henry VIII, focusing on the tumultuous early years of the ambitious English King's reign.

Peter O’Toole joined the cast of The Tudors’ second season playing Pope Paul III, who is ultimately responsible for excommunicating Henry VIII from the Catholic Church as punishment for the King’s dalliances with Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer).

Meadowlands is almost impossible to categorize, mixing elements of The Prisoner, Outer Limits and Twin Peaks with a highly original take on witness protection programs. Set in bucolic Kent, England, it follows Danny and Evelyn Brogan (David Morrissey and Lucy Cohu) as they arrive in Meadowlands and meet their neighbours: Feral handyman Jack Donnelly, vivacious and overbearing Brenda, and covetous Dr. York, all of whom harbour secrets as potentially devastating as the Brogans themselves.

The Riches stars English comic Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, Irish travellers from rural Louisiana, who along with their three children, go on the run after stealing money from the extended family bank. Somehow they end up masquerading as well-to-do “normal” family, but they soon find that suburban life is more twisted and challenging than any of their previous stings. New York magazine critic John Leonard declared The Riches suggests that “social hierarchies are themselves mimicry, impersonation, and charade; nothing is as it appears (not a lawyer nor an arm); we are surrounded by impostors, subverted by leprechauns, and live in terror that someone will see through the make-believe to who we really are, frauds and fakes.”

Showcase presents seasons one and two of Rome, hailed as an intimate drama of love and betrayal, masters and slaves, and husbands and wives. A joint production between HBO and he BBC, Rome chronicles the epic times that saw the fall of a Republic and the creation of an empire.

John From Cincinnati tells the story of the Yosts, a family of surfers whose athletic talents have seemed for generations to come with a curse attached. Into their world steps a mysterious stranger named John, and things soon begin to happen to the Yosts and those whose lives they touch. Created by David Milch (HBO's Deadwood), and "surf-noir" novelist Kem Nunn, the show’s cast is headed by Bruce Greenwood, Rebecca De Mornay, Brian Van Holt, Austin Nichols and Ed O'Neill.

HBO’s reputation for quality was underscored by the Emmy awards this year, when its shows collected 21 trophies, the biggest haul of any broadcaster. Its swag included six Emmys for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (which airs here on SHOWTIME), three for The Sopranos and two for Entourage. In addition, Extras earned a Primetime win for Ricky Gervais as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; Rome and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts each won three Creative Arts Primetime awards; and Deadwood and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib each took a Creative Arts Primetime award.

HBO’s mandate sums up the philosophy of most of these cable networks. Says co-president Richard Plepler: “We continue to put excellent programming on the network so that its 30 million subscribers feel it is something worth paying for.”

Given such creative freedom and hefty production budgets, it’s not surprising that many film legends, from Steven Spielberg to Tom Hanks, are drawn to making lavish shows for the US cable networks.

Hanks’ production company Playtone and HBO are teaming up to produce a 10-part mini-series based on Vincent Bugliosi's bestseller, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which will air on Showcase.

Bugliosi's book refutes many of the conspiracy theories arising from Kennedy’s assassination and supports the findings that Lee Harvey Oswald acted on his own when he shot the President on November 22 1963.

Hanks and Spielberg were the creative team behind HBO’s Emmy-winning 2001 mini-series Band of Brothers. And they’re collaborating again on The Pacific, a 10-hour HBO mini-series on the US marines who fought in the Pacific during World War II, now filming in Australia.

Truly, it can be said that TV is the new Hollywood.