Summer TV Roundup

The new network seasons are about to start and the short summer season is wrapping up. Let's take a moment to see how we did this summer.

First of all, USA Network seems to have perfected the summer series. Only one of the shows I've been watching this summer is from another cable channel (Eureka is on the SciFi channel) and both channels are actually owned by NBC/Universal, which just goes to show that someone over there has figured out a plan that works.

Monk
Not since MASH have I seen a show that is simultaneously funny and sad. Until I watched Monk. Tony Shaloub's defective detective is as nuanced as any character can be and this season was on an even keel with the previous episodes. For awhile, it seemed as if they had dropped the Trudy (Monk's deceased wife) storyline but they picked it up with flying colors for the finale. For a show full of laughs, once again both Lori and I were crying at the end of the season finale. Bravo, Monk! Looking forward to new episodes in January.

Psych
If Psych wasn't designed specifically to be paired with Monk, some USA network executive is the matchmaker to TV shows. The show centers on slacker Shawn Spencer who has a talent for detective work a la Sherlock Holmes. But because he's looking for the easy (and perhaps fun) way through life, he leads the police to believe he's a psychic since the clues to solving the crimes seem to always be over their head. Shawn is accompanied by his childhood friend, Gus, who plays the straight man to Shawn's antics and the dynamic between the two of them keep things going even in shallowest of mysteries. Psych is zanier, and not nearly the heartstring-puller that Monk often is. But its goofy antics, obscure 80's humor and likeable characters keep Lori and me coming back for more. The season finale hinted at a possible future romance between Shawn and Juliet (aka Jules) to whet our appetite for the new episodes expected in January. We're looking forward to them.

The Dead Zone
Perhaps the first of the USA summer series, The Dead Zone started out strong and only got better. Until this season. What happened? Most of the characters from the show are gone. Walt was killed off in the first episode! Bruce left town only to be visited once this episode. The kid who played J.J. has been replaced with another actor and nobody noticed (shades of Darren on Bewitched). Purdy disappeared (I guess he'll re-appear in the season finale). Stillson is no longer the guy who's going to destroy the world. I know they changed filming locations but if you're going to do that, at least take the cast of the show with you! That said, the stories this season haven't been that bad. There's been this thread weaving through them concerning what Walt was investigating when he was killed which brings Chris Bruno back an episode here or there to be present in Johnny's visions. But it's not the same. And what's up with Sarah? She wanted to be with Johnny all this time and now that her husband is gone and suitable time has passed for her to move on, she's going to go with Stillson (who she knows, according to Johnny, is going to destroy the world... or maybe he's not anymore)? I have yet to watch the season (series?) finale, but it just seems silly that she's going to move out because Johnny kept one thing from her. He's come clean. He was keeping it from her so as to not hurt her. And she can't forgive him, after how many times he's saved all of their lives and despite their relationship for years before he went into a coma? She needs to grow up. Her son needs a dad (Johnny's really his dad anyway, which isn't a show secret anymore either). It just all seems dumb. I'm hoping the finale resolves everything satisfactorily because I have a feeling The Dead Zone might actually be dead after this season. Here's hoping they have one more season though to at least make sense of this one.

The 4400
Here's another show that started out promising. In this case, it was a miniseries about 4400 people over the years who were abducted and then brought back all at once, none of them aging a day. As the series went on, we learned that it was not aliens, but humans from the future, who had abducted these people and their motives are still a mystery. And I mean, still. Four seasons later. The returnees, also known as The 4400, each have a special ability and the world becomes a different place. Last season, things shifted even more as a shot was developed that could give a person a 4400 ability... or kill them. 50/50 chance. This changed the stakes some and gave this season all sorts of directions to go. However, a lot of this season seems to have been business as usual. I have yet to see the last two episodes and it does seem that things are starting to move faster with Tom being one of The Marked (essentially possessed by a future human to advance their agenda in the present) but, like The Dead Zone, I have to wonder if this show will ever rise again to what it once was. Something about all of it reminds me of The X-Files... another show that was great until it sank under the weight of its own mythology. Still, I hope it gets picked up for another season. I'd like to see The 4400 redeemed before it disappears into television obscurity.

Eureka
The SciFi Channel's only entry on my list is actually pretty good and it seems to be getting better in its second season. The idea is that there is this secret town in the midwest where all of the country's greatest scientists live and work on new technology. Admitedly, this leaves open all sorts of opportunities to have a technology-runs-amuck-story-of-the-week situation. Which happens. But its the twists on the formula and the quirky characters that make this show work. There are still a few more episodes left in the season (it actually overlaps a little with the new fall season) so I'm not sure how it'll wrap up but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Burn Notice
Every once in awhile you see a commercial for a show that looks like it might be fun. Indeed, Lori spotted the commercial for Burn Notice first and told me, "Hey, I saw a commercial for a show you would like today." And boy was she right. Michael Weston was a spy (presumably) for the U.S. government until he was uncerimoniously "burned" or cut off from the spy community. He was left with nothing but the clothes on his back, no money, credit, job experience he can talk about, etc. in Miami which, perhaps coincidentally, is his home town. So at least he can cry on his mom's shoulder, right? Not exactly. His mom is bitter that he's been gone for the past ten years, his brother is a slacker, the only guy who will talk to him from his spy days is keeping tabs on him for the CIA and he's blessed or cursed (you decide) by the constant companionship of a trigger-happy ex-IRA operative girlfriend who clearly wants more from him than he's able to give. The result is a strange cocktail of Magnum PI, Alias and maybe the first couple season of MacGyver. Already picked up for a second season, Burn Notice is fun, smart and fast-paced and it's worth a a few summer nights.

And things are about to get much busier. I'll be back soon to look ahead at what I'm looking forward to this Fall season, both new and returning.

- Paul