In fear of sounding like a Larry King column or *gulp* Jay Mohr, I don’t give you links but a few thoughts on this summer’s TV.
First, too much reality TV on the networks. Yes, it’s cheap, but seeing silly premises like a tennis player choosing between 20 year old women and 40 year old women shows that even reality TV is running out of ideas. How many different varieties of dating shows do we need? And even NESN, the Regional Sports Network co-owned by the Red Sox and Bruins has gotten into the act with its stupid show, Sox Appeal. I don’t want to see couples trying to find love at a Red Sox game. Stupid. Silly. Sucks.
Second, the cable networks are taking risks. Shows like Meadowlands on Showtime and Damages on FX have come in and done pretty decently for their respective networks. Meadowlands, a British import may not be the best show that Showtime has offered, but it was fresh and gave viewers enough to come back every week.
Damages is in the midst of one of the more interesting storylines I have seen in a while. If the series keep up the quality of the first three episodes, then Damages has the potential to be one of the best shows in recent memory.
But this month brings us the Season Premieres of the groundbreaking South of Nowhere on The N and the always entertaining Weeds on Showtime.
For me, seeing these two series return is like seeing two good friends coming back from vacation. South of Nowhere picks up from the prom shooting of last season’s finale. We didn’t see much of Spashley together in S2, but from what I’ve already seen of the S3 premiere, we get more action between Spencer and Ashley than the entire 2nd season. As it stands, Ashley fucked up the relationship after not calling Spencer following the death of her adopted brother, Clay and she seemed to be intrigued by hanging out with her old boyfriend, Aidan. Where will this lead us? And I hear a new girl helps to throw a monkey wrench into the Spashley relationship. This should lead to fireworks. If you need to get up to speed on the show, the After Ellen site has a nice section on South of Nowhere with recaps of the first two seasons and yes, the show is available for download on iTunes. It’s how I managed to get hooked on the show.
Weeds left us off last season with Nancy’s pot deal going bad and Silas missing. This cast with Mary Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Nealon, Tonye Patano and Romany Malco is one of the best on TV. Last season was lots of fun and a breakout season for the series. Here’s hoping the new season which premieres on Monday will be just as fun.
These series will help tie me down until Prison Break returns later this month on Fox and Curb Your Enthusiasm premieres in September. In the meantime, Spashley will get me through very well, thank you.
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