Baltimore's travel bureau, if Baltimore has a travel bureau, might just want to give up and adopt the slogan ''Danger! Don't Come Here!'' Barry Levinson's Baltimore films, a series of backhanded compliments to his hometown, have been relatively benign, but there has also been that nasty crime wave featuring the city: ''Homicide: Life on the Street'' in the 1990's; the HBO mini-series ''The Corner,'' about drug dealing, in 2000.

This weekend, things get even uglier. On the big screen, a chunk of the city is destroyed by a nuclear bomb in ''The Sum of All Fears,'' based on a Tom Clancy novel. And on television, HBO again puts Baltimore's drug traffickers in the spotlight with a new series called ''The Wire.'' What would H. L. Mencken make of it all?

Even Mencken, often called the Sage of Baltimore, might not have been sage enough to decipher the opening segment of ''The Wire,'' which has its premiere on Sunday night. The show seems to go out of its way to be choppy and confusing, not giving viewers the traditional ''This is who's who and what's what'' opening. ''The Wire'' is determined to be as different as possible from ''Law and Order,'' ''C.S.I.'' and all the other network police dramas. Some viewers may find it a little too different; others, though, may be grateful for the change.

The 13-episode series was created by David Simon, who shared an Emmy for writing ''The Corner.'' The idea is to take a good, long look at one drug-dealing universe, from all sides: police, dealers, users.