What I'm Watching this Summer

With almost all my regular appointment viewing on hiatus for the summer (or canceled forever, R.I.P. Star's Hollow), whatever shall I watch? Well, it actually hasn't been too hard to sprinkle my TiVo To Do List with a few summer flings, some of which may actually be good enough to watch during the winter months too (if they're allowed to stick around that long)!

Hidden Palms: Ok, so this little summer fling by Kevin Williamson (Dawson's, Scream) is not the classiest show that ever was. It's not quite as sharp and quippy as the first season of The O.C. But it has a neat undercurrent of mystery that Dawson's and the O.C. never had, so it's got enough that's new to keep me interested. I'm hoping the writing will sharpen a little once we get to know the characters and can deal with a bit less exposition. Only 8 episodes on this one though. And I'll be surprised if the CW picks it up (although they definitely need SOMETHING for their schedule, having canceled Gilmore and Veronica Mars).

Falcon Beach: This is one of the shows I probably should just not admit I'm watching. It's terrible. No really, it's terrible. And I watch it every week during the summer. It's in its second season (Why and how? No idea. But I'm still watching...)

Army Wives: This Lifetime original series is really surprisingly good. It's produced by one of the executive producers from Grey's and really well written. It has a great ensemble cast that clicked with me right from the start. (I love Kim Delaney from her role as Rebecca on The O.C.). It portrays a really nice cross-section of army life on one base (different ages, different ranks, different social classes, even different genders and races -- one of the "wives" is a black man whose wife is an officer.)

The Starter Wife: Oh this show is just plain fun. It's billed as a mini-series: 6 or 8 hours I think with no intention of a pick-up, which is too bad. It has a bit of an Ally McBeal sensibility at times because it's funny and has silly dream/fantasy sequences in places. The entire reason this show works is Debra Messing. She's great. She has all the comedic timing she needs, but also has the dramatic, expressive face to pull off this rather melodramatic role without sounding ridiculous.

Deadliest Catch/After the Catch: Ah, the one show I can watch with my boys. We TiVo it and then enjoy it together on the couch before G's bedtime. He's fascinated. After the Catch is a new series to accompany the original; the captains just sit around with host Mike Rowe in a Seattle bar and swap fish stories. And we're fascinated. My dad asked at dinner the other night why anyone watches this. I'm not really sure, but it's just about the best "reality" TV out there. I think it's good because it really seems real. It's just a long documentary, rather than a contrived social experiment or a game show.

Studio 60: I've said my peace about this show. Last night's episode was fantastic. Last week's was not. The week before that it was good. Who knows what the rest of the run will bring, but I'll be watching to find out.

My Boys: The only half-hour comedy on my TiVo season pass list returns in July for a 9 episode run. Can't wait to see what P.J. and the boys are up to!

... and streaming...

The Bachelor: I didn't watch this season. It's not my favorite reality show (because I find it more than a little distasteful to watch this guy "date" multiple women at the same time). But this year's bachelor is hot and ABC posted the last 4 episodes on their website, so I'll watch them and see who "wins."

Six Degrees: This is one of those shows that everyone forgot about. The last 8 episodes never ran on ABC, but they're streaming on the website, so I'll watch them when nothing else is sitting in my TiVo's Now Playing list for me!

All in all, not a bad summer of TV.

S60: K&R ... wow.

Wow. Just wow. I think I get it now. Studio 60 was never supposed to be a funny story about a comedy show. That's 30 Rock. No, S60 was supposed to be about a world where smart people have to try to write some funny lines in the middle of a not very funny world. The sketches weren't supposed to be funny. The show wasn't supposed to be funny. Sure, there are supposed to be amusing moments (back in the day, how many times did we laugh at something C.J. Cregg said or did -- or sang?), but really the tone of the show should have had much more in common with the West Wing from the very start.

Tonight's episode was perfect. Better than the "Disaster Show" episode that I praised a couple weeks ago. It reminded me of the way that the West Wing did drama. There's something big going on in the world -- there's a war in Afghanistan -- but it's connected to the characters' lives in a bunch of different ways, and we get to see how the characters struggle with that and make sense of it (rather than having Aaron Sorkin preach to us about what's right and wrong -- or struggle to make light of it). The vagaries of network politics and ratings just didn't pack enough punch for those of us who live outside of L.A. to make us care, but tonight there was enough there to make me care.

I loved the montage of Harriet and Matt fighting about religion for 8 years, and then the pay-off when Matt says a little prayer, in his own way, for Jordan at the very end of the episode as he and Harry are headed off to the hospital.

I loved that Jordan asked about the cut and clarity of the ring before she said yes, and then teased Danny about the ring size as they wheeled her off to surgery. Not because these lines were funny (though they were) but because they were human and touching and just plain good writing.

And so I wonder what might have been if the network execs and Sorkin's own demons hadn't run this thing off the tracks.

Here's to hoping that the last couple episodes stay this good and then to watching out for Sorkin's next adventure.

TV Squad blogger Jay Black fervently disagrees, although many of the commenters on his blog agree with me.

Channelling the West Wing

Tonight Studio 60 returned to burn off the episodes that have already been filmed, despite the show's sealed fate. And a funny thing happened. The show was good. I chuckled throughout. Another funny thing happened: the show was based on the amazing chemistry of Timothy Busfield and the lovely Allison Janney. And another thing: Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry had the night off. Literally, they didn't even make an appearance. And guess what? Timothy Busfield's Cal should have been the main character of the series. The show might have survived. Or maybe I just love the West Wing's Danny so much that the Studio 60 Danny (Bradley Whitford's character) never really had a shot. Still, I kept hoping that Cal would give Allison a goldfish or something. It was that good.

Updated: TV Squad disagrees. They missed Danny and Matt. (And come to think of it, it probably would have been fun to revisit the West Wing chemistry between Bradley and Allison, too.) But that's the thing about S60: no one seems to be able to agree about what's wrong with it, so no one was able to fix it. I'll just be content to watch the last few episodes, secure in the knowledge that my TiVo is not missing anything better when it records the show in this post-sweeps abyss of a tv schedule.

Studio 60 is dead. Long live Aaron Sorkin.

I was a fan of Studio 60 more than a year ago. A friend of mine's got a guy who knows a guy, so last winter I got to read the script for the pilot called Studio 7 (along with lots of other people who found the script leaked on the Internet at about the same time). I loved it. And then I heard the casting news and I was sold. Love Bradley Whitford. Love Timothy Busfield. Turns out I even love Matthew Perry--I was not much of a Friends fan, so that was as big a surprise as liking Calista Flockhart on Brothers and Sisters.

The pilot was great. As the season started, I disagreed vehemently with the naysayers who whined on the Internet about Aaron Sorkin being too self-absorbed and condescending toward his audience. And I still disagree with them. But despite moments of true West Wing-style brilliance, it turns out this show just doesn't work. Turns out a really serious show about a sketch comedy show that has no funny sketches just doesn't really work. In the show's typically self-aware style, we found out tonight that Matt's obsession with Harriet has irreparably hurt the ratings of Studio 60, which goes for both the one that airs on NBS and the one that used air, until tonight, on NBC.

To paraphrase Lorelei's heart-to-heart with Chris last week, Studio 60 was "the [show] I wanted to want." But we maybe jumped into the marriage the shark too soon. Now it's over. Here's hoping that Aaron comes up with another great set-up, writes a brilliant pilot, and knocks it out of the park on the next go 'round.

By the way, have I mentioned how good Friday Night Lights is?

Another Pitch for Friday Night Lights

Go watch this interview with actors Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton of Friday Night Lights from this morning's Today Show. Then watch Friday Night Lights tonight. It really is the most under-appreciated new show this year. I was pleased to see NBC promoting it this morning on Today. With a little luck it just might get the second season order it deserves. (For the uninitiated who would like to begin at the beginning, the pilot is available as a free download on iTunes. The most recent 5 episodes can be streamed through NBC's site.)

Studio 60, on the other hand, just needs to be put out of its misery. Better luck next time, Aaron! UPDATE: Funny, looks like I got my wish: one more week of S60 before NBC pulls the plug.

Studio 69 on Mad TV

I don't watch Mad TV, and I can't stay up late enough to watch SNL (and never bothered to add it to my TIVO). But every once in a while one of these sketch shows does something brilliant. This is it. Imagine: Aaron Sorkin decided that instead of writing Studio 60, he would create Studio 69...behind the scenes at a show that does live soft porn in front of a studio audience for the benefit of military men everywhere. If you've ever seen Studio 60, you *have* to watch this video (from Mad TV, thanks to TV Squad for the link). Don't worry it's not actually X-rated.