I Know What I'm Watching This Summer

The summer series (virtually invented by USA) is back with the return of The Dead Zone and The 4400, both of which I enjoy. My other favorites are also on the cusp of returning. Add to that two new entries: The Starter Wife (a Debra Messing-starring miniseries that Lori and her mom both liked... and even I looked forward to) and the new Burn Notice and it looks like my mostly mindless summer viewing is set.

The Starter Wife
Lori dug this roughly six hour miniseries about a Hollywood wife, basically the brains behind the studio exec, who gets traded in for a younger pop tart. Snarky writing ensures that hilarity ensues. I think it's still airing on USA and, knowing them, they'll probably have a marathon of all of the episodes at some point. Pretty fun, mindless, shallow Hollywoodsy stuff.

The Dead Zone
Returning against all odds and amidst rumors of its demise, the Anthony Michael Hall starring series based on the Stephen King novel gets a slight make over as the first new episode kills off a series regular. The aforementioned decommissioned character is still omnipresent though as repurcussions of his/her death ripple through the other remaining characters (I say "other remaining" because two other series regulars seem to have simply disappeared from the series as well). The other strange change is the fact that now Vice President Greg Stillson (the always supurb Sean Patrick Flannery) seems to no longer be the bad guy... or at least he isn't as bad as he once was. It seems The Apocolypse is no longer on the horizon! What the heck? Anyway, the writing on this show has always been top notch, so I'm going to trust them to take me somewhere worth going. I'll be interested to see how all of these threads come together. If they fail to come together... well, in that case I'd be surprised if Johnny Smith gets another season. Which would be too bad. New summer episodes of The Dead Zone are currently airing Sundays on USA. Check local listings.

The 4400
Before there were Heroes (but not before there were X-Men), there were the 4400 people who were abducted over the years and returned to Earth four years ago, each with some sort of strange ability. Last season, Jordon Collier (the always-intense Billy Campbell) apparently returned from the dead and made "4400 abilities" more common. All you had to do was take a shot and you had a 50/50 chance to get an ability. Of course, if you didn't get an ability, you died. This raised the stakes in this once-freak-of-the-week series and I think, based on the first two episodes this summer, it's for the better. Again, sharp writing makes up for the substantially lower cable budget so I'm watching with eyes wide open to see where they take me. So far, I haven't been disappointed. New summer episodes of The 4400 are currently airing Sundays on USA. Check local listings.

Burn Notice
Here's a new idea. Take the guy from Touching Evil. Make him a secret agent who gets fired (a "burn notice" is put out on him) and thus cut off from all of the resources he normally has at his disposal, including his bank account. Strand him in an exotic locale. Oh, the budget doesn't allow for the exotic locale? Okay. Strand him in Miami. Then throw in Bruce Campbell as the out-of-work-spy best friend to get all of the real geeks to watch and mix it up with a hypochondriac mom (Cagney and Lacey's Sharon Gless) who wonders what's wrong with her as she chain smokes and some Magnum PI-like over-the-top narration. The result? A pretty funny, if somewhat identity-deprived, quasi-spy show that, despite its first episode taking place during Christmas, is perfect summer viewing for the likes of me. Only one episode has aired at the time of writing this (roughly 90 minutes). You can probably find it in rerun on USA. New episodes air Thursday nights on USA. Check local listings for times.

Eureka
It's been almost a year since this quirky sci-fi dramady about a hidden utopia made up of the country's most gifted scientists originally aired and I'm looking forward to where they're going to go this time. Airs Tuesday nights starting 7/10 on SciFi (the only one of these shows NOT on USA, although they're both owned by NBC-Universal).

Monk
The defective detective is back. Although the mysteries have never been too tough (think two steps up from a Scooby Doo mystery), the real joy of this show is watching three-time Emmy-winner Tony Shaloub do his Monk thang. It's hilarious. And rightly so since this show is much more a comedy than it is a crime drama. Shaloub does a wonderful job of walking the line between pathetic victim to selfish victim. Whatever the case, Adrian Monk is still the victim except when he's solving the crimes. New episodes air Fridays on USA starting 7/13. Check local listings.

Psych
If ever there was a series designed to play along side Monk, it would have to be Psych. And despite the fact that this series was likely such contrived, I still find myself looking forward to the next episode. The idea is this: N'er-do-well Shawn Spencer is a young man with a gift for observation a la Sherlock Holmes (or Monk, but without the disorders) that was nurtured by his police detective father from a young age. He's so good, in fact, that no one believes him when he tries to help the police solve a crime. So, in order to bring the bad guys to justice and thus help the coppers, he pretends he is a psychic (a la Johnny Smith on The Dead Zone). And to perpetuate his success (as well as future episodes of the series), he starts a psychic detective agency and drags his straight-man childhood chum along for the ride. To give you an idea of the tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek feel of this hybrid comedy, Spencer names his new psychic detective agency Psych (as in you've been psyched out). New episodes air Fridays alongside Monk on USA starting 7/13. Check local listings.

Of all my summer shows, Lori probably likes Monk and Psych the best. She also enjoys The Dead Zone. The others? Not so much. But she still watches them with me.

So now you know what I'm watching this summer. What are you watching? Grass grow?