Summer TV usually blows, a wasteland of repeats of shows you avoided the first time around, network burn off of cancelled already shows, and reality shows that wouldn't cut it in the regular season, so there is usually little to watch.
So the TV summer activity is usually killing time waiting for great shows like The Good Wife and Downton Abbey to return. This year we do have the Olympics, though I haven't been watching much so far.
So among Big Brother, its clone The Glass House, America's Got Talent, Canada's Got Talent, etc., I was delighted to find three really great shows to watch.
Sherlock
The second season of the BBC's ultramodern Sherlock Holmes reboot was only three movie-length episodes, but it was smart and mysterious and funny and sometimes sexy. It is in repeats already, and out on DVD, seek it out. Is the best thing I have seen on TV so far this year.
Dallas
After the dreadful reboots of 90210, Charlie's Angels and Melrose Place we all expected this to suck, but it doesn't. The new Dallas is really a continuation of the old Dallas, 20 years later, where the kids are hot greedy scheming 20-somehing's. Evil JR and his eyebrows are back as are Bobby and Sue Ellen. It is rich people fighting over oil, money, and a ranch called Southfork, with a faster pace, more swearing, more skin, and more backstabbing. Love it so far.
The Newsroom
The new HBO show from West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin is smart, fast, preachy, and good but not yet great. If Sorkin can get us to care about the characters like he did in The West Wing, this one will be a winner. Already renewed for season two.
What are you watching this summer?
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