While the “Sex and the City” movie plays on at the sin—sorry, cineplex, Showtime steals a bit of HBO’s thunder by importing a spicy and worthy successor from England that might make Carrie Bradshaw blush. I know she’d be hooked.

Secret Diary of a Call Girl is, like Sex, that rare show that can balance sophisticated humor with graphic vulgarity. It’s titillating without being truly trashy, because it also has heart—for that, thank Bil-lie Piper (formerly of Doctor Who), who brings wit and warmth, but also a crisp and unpredictable edge, to the tricky role of Belle by night/Hannah by day.

An elite London call girl, Belle seduces the viewer by letting us in on her trade secrets: talking directly to the camera (“I never actually ‘sleep’ with clients”) and shooting knowing glances, as if to say: “Can you believe this?”

We often can’t. Her torrid misadventures have a comically surreal quality, and yet the character is grounded in a pragmatic realism. “For me, the perfect partner is one where I never have to be myself,” says Belle, who finds it hard to relax in her everyday existence as Hannah, contending with a curious ex-boyfriend and an estranged family.

Her conflicted life makes Belle/Hannah the perfect companion to Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), the harried suburban mom–turned–pot dealer of Weeds, which returns for Season 4 with much changed. Nancy and her family have relocated to the coast near the Mexican border. She’s a fish out of agua, bitterly connecting with her late husband’s family while becoming an awkward tool for sinister drug smugglers. Suspenseful and outrageously amusing, Weeds continues to grow on me.

Secret Diary of a Call Girl   Series premiere: Monday, 6/16, 10:30/9:30c, Showtime

Weeds    Season premiere: Monday, 6/16, 10/9c,

SIDEBAR: CAMP ROCK

By the time the tween target audience finally gets to see this summer’s most anticipated teen TV musical, they may feel they’ve already experienced it. Which they have. And will they mind? Probably not. But you can’t help wishing Disney had raised the bar at least a bit.

Camp Rock (which will also air on ABC, Saturday, 6/21, 8/7c, and ABC Family, Sunday, 6/22, 8/7c) clones the High School Musical formula down to its snooty blonde villain. It seems a rather pale shadow and not nearly as fun—despite the presence of Joe Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers, channeling young Joey Lawrence) as the heartthrob, a spoiled rock star who learns to get over himself while the spunky heroine (Demi Lovato), a cook’s daughter pretending to be otherwise, learns to be herself.

It’s all very sweet and tuneful, and took me back to my days as a Hayley Mills groupie. But even she had her clunkers—which didn’t stop me from watching.

Camp Rock  Premiere: Friday, 6/20, 8/7c, Disney Channel