Summer Doldrums

With the end of the NBA season on Sunday night we're officially in the summer TV doldrums period. The time where there're no sports to watch and when any form of scripted TV generally goes away. At least the second part used to be true. These days some of the best TV actually shows during the summer. The only caveat is that you won't find it on the major networks. Instead, this summer you'll have a much better time checking out HBO, AMC and USA.

Tonight for example there's both Burn Notice and Royal Pains on USA. Burn Notice is McGyver as a spy in Miami, and Royal Pains is the latest show that involves rich people behaving richly. Both shows are good eye candy, have plots just on the good side of inane, and have characters that are all eminently enjoyable. Burn Notice is on its 2nd official season (although season 1 had a pretty long interlude in the middle) and Royal Pains is showing it's 3rd episode tonight. You can catch up with both of them on Hulu, which is god's gift to the bored, and I highly recommend both.

Entourage will be coming back in early July, and if the story goes in the direction last season's finale would suggest, things are looking up for the boys. I understand how it's easier to grow characters when they're facing adversity than success, but two seasons of down times got pretty dull. Now that Vince is going to be starring in Scorsese's version of Gatsby should mean that his career is back on the upswing. That said, I'd take 30 mins a week of Ari, Llyod and Drama just being themselves. HBO generally does marathons of shows as they're coming back, so it should be pretty easy to catch back up a week or two before the season premier.

The last show of the summer will be Mad Men's season 3, which is scheduled to come back some time in August. The characters and writing on this show are easily the best of the four I've mentioned. It's definitely slower, but it's "good TV". Unfortunately, like a lot of other "good TV" out there it doesn't get the ratings to match its awards. Fortunately, it's on a cable channel, so it shouldn't go the way of Studio 60 and other network shows that these days have a much better shot at survival on a cable channel.

If I had more uumph in me right now I'd go on a long tirade about how TV creation, distribution, ratings and marketing need to seriously grow up in the current age of digital distribution. Aside from Lost, which I'm a total junkie for, I can't remember the last time I watched a show live, without at least a moderate tape delay on my DVR. I watch a ton of shows on Hulu, Netflix, or just from my DVR. Unfortunately, as easy as it would be for companies to see what it is that I'm watching (digital footprints anyone?) it seems that unless you have a Nielsen box your viewing doesn't count. As a result, American Idol "wins" the ratings regularly, and quality shows like Terminator get axed. I read somewhere that a network TV show needs 15 million + viewers a week to be considered successful, whereas a cable show is a hit if it breaks the 1 million mark. If that discrepancy means that I'll only like shows on cable in a few years so be it, but with all the new ways companies have to follow my viewership and target me with ads, there's got to be a better way. Now someone just needs to find it (and maybe hire me as their lawyer.... bwahaha)