It used to be that "summer season" on TV meant reality show hell - actually, just yesterday I imagined doing a post on how I'm actively not watching the new season of Big Brother - but all that's changed.
In fact, it really used to be that summer meant reruns of all the stuff that ran from September to May, and I must confess I am not alone in wishing that some of this came back, because it would help me to catch up on things I missed. As a kid, my love - indeed, my whole family's like - of Dynasty came because of the reruns of its first season in the summer of 1977 (which I remember vividly because it was also when Elvis died). A summer to catch up on 30 Rock and even, like, you know, Supernatural, would be nice.
But we're not in that world anymore; now TV is supposed to be a year round experience and new series premiere every quarter at least. I blame HBO, which is totally unbound from conventional seasonal schedules and proves it by launching series willy-nilly at all kinds of odd times - brilliantly, one has to admit, using the established hits (like the Sopranos and SATC) to launch the next ones (which is how I found Entourage, among others).
It's gotten so bad in the past few weeks that I've had to stop using my DVR to record my usual mix of political shows, old movies and Law and Order: SVU reruns (hello.. gay, lived in New York, likes politics...? Do I have to spell out everything to you people?). This leads to private wailing of things like "But I can't delete Bringing Up Baby yet!" Anyway, I'm actually so overhwelmed and mpressed with the new TV season I just have to share:
- Mad Men - This show about Ad Execs at the dawn of the sixties has been getting great advance press, and while I was curious, I was also leery, because I've been seduced by AMC before (they did a fantastic series about an old movie studio whose name I can't recall, and which lasted for 30 seconds). I both didn't want to get my hopes up, and I didn't want to fall in love. But last night i had the time, and so I gave it a whirl... and Mad Men is brilliant. The dialogue snaps, the look is flawless sixties modern, and the stories are compelling. Jennifer will love this (though she, and probably Red, will be rightly appalled at the sexual politics... but that, too, is kinda the point). Now if we can just get it to stay for more than 30 seconds... (Thursdays at 10, AMC)
- Burn Notice - Chief among the cable network culprits offering too many series for their own good is NBC/Universal's USA, which seems to have money on trees, or perhaps SVU reruns just pay really well (wouldn't surprise me). Burn Notice arrives on top of The 4400 (which is too complicated for me to watch casually), Psych (which, what little I've seen, I love), The Dead Zone (not my taste), and Monk (also not my taste, but I'll admit Tony Shaloub is marvelous); the combination of spy derring-do, hot looking actors, and Miami is all good... but not great. Now that it's up against Mad Men, I'll probably have to record one to watch the other... in which case I think I'll record Mad Men, because Burn Notice so far seems too fluffy to be long term art. (Thursdays at 10, USA)
- Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All The World - Logo, the Big Gay Network (as opposed to here!, the Sexy Gay Network), has been scoring a series of successes with series. I've mentioned The Big Gay Sketch Show, I think (if not, go), but this new one is even wilder and funnier: a Lego puppet fantasia about a West Coast gay mecca (think WeHo), where our heroes - a fussy Filipino, and a dopey-ish muscle jock - share life, love and a sense of community with each other and their friends. Rick & Steve is probably best explained as the gay South Park, though even that doesn't entirely do justice to its combination of total irreverence and snappy wit. Voiced by a pantheon of gay and gay friendly stars, Rik & Steve is a hoot. (Tuesdays at 10:00, Logo)
- State of Mind - Lifetime Television really upped the ante last week by adding to it's already successful programming of Army Wives (see below) with two additional series, Side Order of Life and this one, about a group of psychiatrists starring Lili Taylor. Taylor alone is the reason to watch this, easily one of the best actresses of her generation; but since she only does quality stuff, the show turns out to be sensitively written and dramatic without feeling overdone (a usual Lifetime problem). Taylor plays a psychiatrist who loses her husband in episode 1, and throws herself into her work, and her sensitivity and intelligence make this better than the usual "my man walked out" premise... which by the way, Side Order of Life doesn't begin to do, and so, despite repeated attempts, I've given up one one and kept the other. (Sundays at 9, Lifetime)
- John From Cincinnati - HBO's latest addition is a surfer-movie-cum-morality-play about an odd guy who just shows up out of nowhere in Venice CA and changes the lives of the surf people around him. If that sounds odd, it's nothing compared to the dialogue, which takes the usual hippy-dippy surfer talk and repurposes as philosophical debate. I'm torn because I want to like it, but I'll be the first to tell you, it's hard to get into. Still, with vets like Luke Perry and Rebecca deMornay as well as typical HBO types like Willie Garson (Stanford from SATC) and Luis Guzman, John From Cincinnati is surprisingly well acted, and it features the blondest cast of newcomers on television, which is saying something. (Sundays at 9, and other times, HBO)
- Army Wives - RedStar gave me this one, from the producers of Grey's, which I initially dismissed as too "ripped from the headlines" to be much fun; never mind me, go watch it. Turns out Army Wives is a Desperate Housewives without the deliberately over-arch and campy feeling: more naturalistic, but focused on the dilemmas these women face with men who do combat for a living, and will often be away (though, interestingly, right now they all seem to be at home). Perhaps the first series to really exploit the fact that Army guys aren't just tough, they're also hot, Army Wives is the rare success of turning America's heroes into America's sex objects... but you know, that's like totally a shallow reason to watch TV. Watch it because the drama is compelling and again, quite subtle for Lifetime... and think of the boys as that extra added bonus. I do. (Sundays at 10, Lifetime)
I could go on... which is my point. What ever will I do when we get to the fall?
but this Big Brother had 2 gays and one bisexual! not the one to skip LOL
Posted by: jinbaltimore | July 22, 2007 at 08:42 PM