Summer TV – What I’m Watching / First Impressions

Usually summer is the deadspot for tv, filled with reruns as they start shooting the shows for next fall. But I was actually able to find some decent shows to watch this summer, many of them have just started so I’ve going to give my first impressions of the upcoming season.

Sunday -

Falling Skies (Sci-Fi Drama, TNT)

My third favorite new show behind The Walking Dead and A Game of Thrones actually makes me tune into TNT and it’s not a cop drama. It does remind me a bit of The Walking Dead with the emphasis on survivalism over corny slaying of aliens. They also they screw around and hide what the alien looks like (ala Cloverfield). Also since this show is more survivalist than sci-fi, the show is more accessible to a general audience, so definitely give it a watch.

Entourage (Comedy-Drama, HBO)

So Entourage’s run will come to an end this season with an 8 episode finale starting this Sunday. Last season, it ended with Vince hitting another low in his career as well as all the other characters solving their own personal problems. Hopefully they can bring closure to the series somehow in only 8 episodes.

Monday -

Weeds (Black Comedy, Showtime)

I have no idea why I keep watching this show because it hasn’t really been good since season 2 and now its season 7. The Nancy character is just annoying now since she’s just not likeable anymore. Really what keeps this show going are all the supporting characters of Silas, Shane, Doug, and Andy. I’m hoping on this being the last season, just so I can be done with it.

Warehouse 13 (Science Fantasy – SyFy)

Now in its 3rd season, I friggin’ love this show now. To those who don’t know, Warehouse 13 is sort of like a funny version of The X-Files meets Indiana Jones. Every episode two agents go out to find some random artifact that causing destruction and they have to capture it and bring it back to the warehouse. They quickly solved where Myka went after the previous season’s finale, and now she’s back with the team and add in one new member, a new mysterious bad guy and everything is good again.

Eureka (Sci-Fi Comedy, SyFy)

I really hate SyFy’s scheduling of this show, technically even though its nearly a year later it’s still season 4 for some reason. It makes it hard to remember what happened last time. From the first episode of this half season we know they are still in the “alt” world, but no apparent season enemy/mystery yet. The promise of tonight’s cameo from Felicia Day is an awesome selling point though.

Alphas (Sci-Fi Drama, SyFy)

This new show is the last piece of SyFy channel’s new summer Monday lineup. It’s another try at making a show based on superpowers (Heroes, No Ordinary Family, The Cape). So far it contains the same character archetypes and plot designs as the other ones. Might have to give it a few more watches before you can tell how good it really is.

Thursday -

Futurama (Animated Comedy, Comedy Central)

Futurama is just a good show, nuff said. These new episodes are technically apart of the “second half” of the Comedy Central relaunch season. Futurama is sort of like Family Guy for me, at some point all the episodes will start to seem the same to me.

Friday -

Torchwood: Miracle Day (Sci-fi, Starz)

I became a major Doctor Who fan last year and this will be the first season of the Torchwood spinoff series I’ll see and it blew me away. It’s a lot different from Doctor Who and is more like a thriller-drama than sci-fi. This is actually a really good jumping on series for American watchers just in general since the new partnership with Starz has brought in a bunch of U.S. actors and upped the production value by a lot. This is definitely my favorite show of the summer.

I Don’t Watch, Maybe You Should

• Wilfred (New Comedy, FX)
• Breaking Bad (AMC)
• Louie (FX)
• Damages (FX)
• True Blood (HBO)
• Rescue Me (FX)

What to Watch: Summer TV ’10

Finding good TV during the summer is one of the most miraculous things in the entire world. But two types of shows find their niche in the summer: sci-fi and pay-per-view shows. So here are the diamond in the rough shows that I will probably be watching in the coming days (yeah that’s right, they haven’t even started yet, I’ve resorted to reruns for the past 2 weeks).

Entourage (Season 7) – June 27th, HBO

So last season was all about everyone, but Vince, as the boys return to the A-list. Literally the only times we heard lines from Vince last season was when he was doing a random girl. The show should recenter around Vince again this season, but hopefully expand the storylines they built around the E, Turtle, Drama, Ari, and Lloyd. Already 3 starlets have been announced for this season including Jessica Simpson, Dania Ramirez (Heroes), and porn star/actress Sasha Grey will be Vince’s new girlfriend.

Weeds (Season 6) – August 16th, Showtime

Ok Season 5 spoiler: wasn’t it awesome when Shane killed Pilar with a croquet mallet? But yeah the Botwin family situation will keeps escalating on how bad it could be.

Eureka (Season 4) – July 9th, SyFy

Ok I have to say, Eureka’s scheduling on SyFy is really random, but I’m pretty sure it’s a summer show now. Anyways I’m psyched that it’s coming back and it will somehow fit in and become a full 22 episode season. Last season they introduced a solid love interest for Jack and more shenanigans happened in the town of “smart people”. This season should see more of the same along with an awesome crossover episode with SyFy Channel sibling Warehouse 13 in August.

Futurama (Season 6?) – June 24th, Comedy Central

Thank you Adult Swim for rerunning Futurama for the past decade, to the point in which I’ve seen every single episode at least 5 times. And thank you even more Comedy Central for having the balls to bring it back for 26 episodes (even though only 12 of them will be part of season 6). Will this all work out? Well the 4 movies that came out since the hiatus have been pretty good, so I say they pretty much still have it. It’s totally going to be worth the wait.

Other shows that are good, but I pass on…

• Lie to Me
• True Blood
• Leverage
• Hung
• Warehouse 13
• Mad Men

New Shows I Might Try Out…

• The Good Guys (Fox)
• The Hard Times of RJ Berger (MTV)
• Rubicon (AMC)
• 100 Questions (NBC)
• Rookie Blue (ABC)

Futurama Cast Reach A Deal

In a total sigh of relief today, the cast of Futurama has signed a new deal with Fox to return for the new upcoming season of Futurama. Futurama being one of my favorite shows and a show I’ve seen every episode of like twice now (all because of Comedy Central and Adult Swim reruns) is finally back. Hopefully Futurama will be able to pull a Family Guy and return to its former glory and stay on for more than one season, but only time can tell. But anyway, there was fear among the fanbase last week because Fox was threatening to begin casting for new voice actors if they originals didn’t resign, which would’ve been just regular business in Hollywood, but just wouldn’t feel the same. Both parties came to a midway with the actors accept less than their orignal offer and the studios offering more than their offer. The producers are glad that Billy West, John DiMaggio, Katey Sagal, and the rest are back on board. Anyway Comedy Central has picked up 26 episodes with no announcement of when they will be released, most likely sometime in 2010.

Futurama Cast Article