Television: Summer TV 2011

The lines are starting to become blurred, but there are two (for now) distinct seasons for TV watchers... Fall and Summer.  Some shows are trying to smudge things a bit by starting early.  Covert Affairs, my favorite from last summer's lineup, is already on its fourth episode this season, while Warehouse 13 hasn't even started yet.  And Rubicon, a sleeper from AMC last year, didn't even start until August 1st, and I don't expect it to change that.

So far this summer season, Covert Affairs is meeting my (rather high) expectations, considering it had quite a first season to live up to.  Teen Wolf, on the other hand, is disappointing.  I was hoping for lighthearted comedy with a supernatural theme, but apparently someone has passed a law in California that you can't have a paranormal teen show without a crap-ton of angst, midnight black sets where you can only see 50% of the action,  and child actors.  And with sixteen year old actors comes sixteen year old acting skills.  Bleah.  Sure, at sixteen I was no Lawrence Olivier, but then I wasn't trying to peddle my acting on a major network.

On the SyFy front, Eureka, Warehouse 13, and a new show I'm trying out, Alphas, all premiere on July 11th, while Haven will premiere on the 15th.  Alphas looks to be a combination of NUMB3RS and what Heroes should have been, a national special-human taskforce that takes on cases the FBI and other agencies can't solve.  They're not radioactive mutants or people affected by some weird eclipse, they're non-neuro-typical naturally-evolved humans who can do certain things better than typical humans.  This is something I can relate to with my recent Asperger Syndrome diagnosis.  Even if you're not neuro-typical, you can still function (and at some things quite well) and have an impact on society.  I'm curious to see how they play it.

There was a rumor going around that "The Walking Dead" had its premiere pushed up to July, but that has since either been changed or disproven, however you want to look at it, and we will not be seeing our favorite zombie apocalypse story back again until October, which I think sucks.  There is a ton of wonderful material in the comic books to cover, and at only six episodes per season, this is going to crawl along like a zombie geek with its legs missing.  Their only saving grace is the largely-confirmed rumor that Stephen King and his author son Joe Hill will be co-writing a script together whenever their schedules will allow.

Television: Summer's End

Big summer-season finales going on for the shows who didn't rate being in the fall line-up.  Covert Affairs wrapped their season with a possibly-fatal gunshot while boarding a helicopter.  Will Ben Mercer live long enough for us to find out what he's up to?

I've been enjoying Lyndsay Wagner's role on Warehouse 13.  It's too bad they don't seem to be interested in expanding it very far.  I would almost prefer her character to be the current Big Bad Evil instead of Ms. H. G. Wells.  Imagine the damage a medical doctor could do with W13 knowledge?

The Gates has been picking up for me.  Rather than the episode four revelation being a death-knell, it has led to some interesting plot developments.  The loss of Paul Blackthorne's character "Christian" brought an end to what I thought was an interesting exploration of addiction patterns, and began moving into adoption issues.  Meh.  And while it's trying to be a show that highlights relationships and communication in a supernatural setting, they seem to move past each point they're trying to make so fast that it really doesn't have time to sink in.  Maybe being limited to 13 episodes in a season causes this.  It's certainly been the case for HBO's True Blood this season.

Speaking of which, Alexander Skarsgaard is one sexy man, even dipped in concrete.  It's too bad this season spent so much time on inconsequential matters, like football players on V, that they had to flash through the main events.  At least Sookie has stopped being an idiot for the time being, although that maniacal cackle while using the garbage disposal makes me question her sanity.

Less than a week to the season premiere of Supernatural, and the advance trailers are making this season look really, really good.  They seem to really like evil Sammy, and since good Sammy is kind of a pill, I don't mind that in the least.

Television: Bitemarks and Brouhaha

You know you're watching too many vampire shows when you find yourself comparing and contrasting the bitemark effects.

I'm not sure I'm liking what's going on with "True Blood" this season.  Once again revealing the differences between female (book author Charlaine Harris) and male (HBO series writer/producer Alan Ball) writers, Alan Ball has taken a street-savvy-but-romantically-inexperienced Sookie Stackhouse from the books and turned her into a stupid, whiny woman who doesn't have the sense not to scream for help when she's in a house full of sleeping vampires and werewolves.  Get a female writer on staff, Alan, because you're being a chauvinistic dick.

Meanwhile "The Gates" has ramped up their own revelations of how their Vampire and Werewolf societies work and interact.  The police chief is now aware of the werewolf community... I wonder how long it will take him to realize what's going on with his wife and make the revelation to her as well.

"Covert Affairs" has emerged from its infancy and revealed itself to be a straight-up espionage thriller, without the distracting and annoying mystical trappings foisted on us by "Alias" or the constant (but still appreciated) comic relief present in "Chuck".  Piper Perabo has proved she can carry the drama and action required for this role, at least to me, and I now count the show as one I am eager to watch.  Since the show's cast is mostly a "who's-who" of actors from most of my past favorite sci-fi series, they had me half in the bag from the beginning, but it's nice that the production quality seems to be properly supporting such diverse and excellent talent.  I've had my eye on Christopher Gorham since his guest role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and lengthier role on "Odyssey 5".  Add in additional cast members such as Kari Matchett (Invasion), Peter Gallagher (Rescue Me), and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) and you've got a pretty good recipe.

AMC's "Rubicon" is harder to gauge.  It's less a "flash in the pan" action thriller, and more a slow-burn conspiracy/intelligence drama.  The problem with this kind of show, the slow-burning kind, is that it will probably take an entire season to get really, really grippingly interesting.  The pilot led me to believe it would have at least one "Aha!  Aren't I clever for figuring it out too?" moment in each episode, but instead it's turned into a drama/documentary on the realities of intelligence analysis.  Rather dull.  It has enormous potential, but when it's this slow to find its gear, they may lose their audience and be off the air before things get good.

"Fringe" will be returning to the air on September 23rd, just a short month away.  I cannot wait to find out what happens with Olivia... and Olivia.  If you don't watch the show, don't worry, that's not a typo.  And I can't wait to see Walternate get his comeuppance.

School here in our district starts on Monday.  Expect my posts to start showing up at an earlier hour from now on, since the woogie will be back in school.