a) "Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings"
This is a goofy little show but it's charming, and I like that it harnesses the novelty of silly local commercials while engaging with the tradition and not just ridiculing it.

b) "Combat Hospital"
It's hard to watch a show about surgeons in a military camp without comparing it inevitably and unfavorably to "M*A*S*H," but this taking place in Afghanistan a few years ago gives it its own identity, although it's otherwise kind of a run of the mill ABC medical drama. Nice to see Elias Koteas star in a show, although I'm not sure yet if the role is worthy of his talents. And Michelle Borth is pretty to look at.

c) "Wilfred"
The first time I saw a long promo for this show on FX, I thought it was one of the most bizarre and surprising things I'd ever seen, I didn't know if it was a movie or a sketch or what, I just thought it was hilarious and wanted to see more of it. And that was months and months ago, so I've been trying to keep up my anticipation for this show without building my expectations too high. And so far, I'm really happy with it and like that I can finally watch this crazy show with Elijah Wood and a talking dog.

d) "Suits"
I'm generally pretty indifferent to breezy procedural shows on USA, but the pilot for this show was pretty impressive, set up the whole premise and defined the characters well, hopefully the series can keep up the same pace.

e) "Falling Skies"
I wanted to be excited about this because, like "Walking Dead," it'd be nice to get a good series version of a type of story usually reserved for movies. But man, that longass pilot just bored me to tears and I've only intermittently been able to pay it any attention since.

f) "Jon Benjamin Has A Van"
I will forever love H. Jon Benjamin for "Home Movies" and "Dr. Katz," and "Bob's Burgers" is one of my favorite new shows this year and even "Archer" is growing on me. So I want to wish him well in a non-animated vehicle, but something about this show just feels very slapdash and not as clever as it wants to be, goes very quickly from boring to grating.

g) "Ice Loves Coco"
There's something vaguely depressing about how the majority of interracial relationships depicted on TV these days are on E! reality shows about bimbos and the rappers or athletes who love them. But Ice-T is just too badass and entertaining for this show to be as boringly cookie cutter and scripted as these shows are designed to be, and there's even something surprisingly sweet and real about his relationship with Coco, they have a very genuine affection and rapport that I enjoy watching. It's pretty annoying how every episode's title is a play on the phrase "Baby's Got Back," though -- E! knows that that's not an Ice-T song, right?

h) "Platinum Hit"
With all the singing competitions on the air it's fun to watch a show about the art of writing a song, although it's really hard to tell if any of the people on this show are actually any good or if the state of the pop industry is bad enough that they could write a hit as well as anyone else. That first episode where two of the winning songs were called "My Ridiculous" and "Pain This Club With Amazing" says it all, really -- nothing has been that insane since then, but it's remained pretty entertaining. And though I know I'm being conditioned to root against the typical egotistical reality show 'villain,' I really do hate that Nick guy.

i) "Franklin & Bash"
As far as shows about douchey cool guy lawyers, this show with Zack Morris and Breckin Meyer is at least more appealing than that one from a few months ago with Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell. It's kind of not bad, though.

j) "Love Bites"
This feels like a TV series version of those generic mega-romcoms that have been popping up the last few years like He's Just Not Into You and Valentine's Day -- apparently it's an 'anthology' series focusing on different characters from one episode to the next, so it's really like a short version of one of those movies every week. And no matter how bland and undistinguished it is, I will still probably watch this show regularly just as I watched those movies, because I have a sad romcom weakness and will also happily watch love stories involving pretty ladies like Krysten Ritter or Joy Bryant or Laura Prepon or Jennifer Love Hewitt or Anna Camp.

k) "How The States Got Their Shapes"
Every time I see Brian Unger in some random low profile cable gig I kinda feel bad for dude, who was one of the really funny O.G. "Daily Show" correspondents but just hasn't had the same kind of subsequent career arc as a lot of those guys. This show is a mildly amusing little History Channel trifle, though.

l) "Big Morning Buzz Live"
I have a certain affection for inane morning shows and in a strange way am happy that VH1 has started airing one with a music emphasis. It's a shame they keep letting Carrie Keagan host things, though, she's really just too much of a blank slate to even be a good generic TV host, as hot as she is (and that ill-fitting bob haircut is kind of holding her back in that regard). They already put this on 'summer hiatus' after just a few weeks on the air, although I'm not so sure it'll actually be back in the fall, at least not without being heavily overhauled.

m) "Single Ladies"
VH1's new southern black girl "Sex And The City" ripoff, which is as stupid as it sounds but is still pretty watchable just for how Stacey Dash continues to defy logic with how good she looks at her age. It was pretty ridiculous when she had 2 love scenes in a row set to different Alicia Keys slow jams. There was a pretty hilarious subplot for a couple episodes involving Mac Miller in Saigon-on-"Entourage" storyline.

n) Too Big To Fail
HBO putting together a topshelf cast with a big screen director to examine the 2008 financial meltdown may be the most highminded, upscale ripped-from-the-headlines TV movie ever, but it can't quite escape feeling like a ripped-from-the-headlines TV movie. It's nice and well made and interesting, but it's basically the kind of dry, dull, slightly clumsy fact-based affair The Social Network could have been if the behind-the-camera talent hadn't willed it into feeling cinematic.

o) "Why Not? With Shania Twain"
I find something mildly fascinating about Shania Twain's gargantuan success and subsequent disappearance from the music industry, and how this show is tracing her weird tentative post-divorce steps into making music again.

p) "The Killing"
I don't think I was paying close enough attention to this show to really notice most of the plot holes and sloppy writing until it was pointed out on the internet, and it became apparent how shoddy the show was in some ways, in spite of the good cast and involving atmosphere and aesthetic. I'm not even really mad about the 'cop out' season finale like some people are, although it definitely dulled my enjoyment overall, just because it was kind of a cheap way to end things.

q) "Workaholics"
This show grew into something pretty solid over time, really enjoyed the chemistry of the cast and total don't-give-a-fuck vibe of the whole thing.

r) "The Glades"
I didn't know this show existed until I started watching another A&E show, "Breakout Kings," and saw ads for its second season all the time. But they put the whole first season on demand, so I ended up kind of binging and watching it all in the space of like a week, even though it's not that good, just catching up and enjoying having a lot of episodes of something mildly pleasant to watch. It's growing on me, there have been some really entertaining plots now and then, but the female lead, played by Nikki from "Lost" of Nikki & Paolo fame, is pretty weak.

s) "Regular Show"
I always have the vague impression that there are some perfectly good non-Adult Swim shows on the Cartoon Network but never really know which ones to check out. Have been watching this a little bit and I like it, it's definitely lightweight and silly but it has a nice little absurd bent and some kind of clever slacker comedy elements to it.

t) "Luther"
It was neat to see Idris Elba actually play a British character for once, but this show never really clicked for me, and one thing about Brit shows is that when they only make 6 episodes of a show, it's even harder to get into a groove with it.

u) "Louie"
I've always been kind of down on this show, for all the critical adoration it still just feels like a threadbare assemblage of standup routines and half-assed dramatizations of the ideas therein. But I'm starting to at least get a little more comfortable with that format in the second season. I've made peace with "Louie" basically being "The Seinfeld Chronicles" without the ensemble or ambition to eventually grow it into "Seinfeld"-level greatness.

v) "The Big C"
I thought this show got pretty good by the end of the first season and was kind of looking forward to the second season, but then the premiere kinda annoyed me off the bat with some stupid dream sequence and talking to dead people-type schticky scenes. But it looks like that was kind of a one-off and the second season is back to making the most of the show's pretty solid ensemble cast and finally moving the story forward from the stasis it was kept in for most of the first season.

w) "Hoppus On Music"
I am pretty annoyed that Fuse took a show that worked really well and messed with the format, reducing it from an hour to a half hour and eliminating a lot of the fun segments and comedic elements, including co-host Amy Schumer. Lame.

x) "Men Of A Certain Age"
Earlier this year the 2nd season of "Men Of A Certain" age just kind of abruptly stopped after a few episodes -- as it turns out, ratings were so bad compared to the 1st season that TNT decided to just stop and re-launch the remaining episodes as a 'new season' in the summer. That was kind of frustrating, but in a weird way the break was well timed and the first episode back was a really good one that kind of felt like a season premiere, even if it probably wasn't by design.

y) "True Blood"
I really lost interest in this show last year, but the premiere of the new season instantly had me back on board with that jump forward a year in the timeline, which felt like a great way to reboot everything and kind of get a lot of various plots out of ruts they'd been in for too long.

z) "MTV Unplugged"
Man, they're not even trying anymore, that Lil Wayne episode was just a Lil Wayne concert with his backup band, who are practically a metal band, playing with no acoustic instruments. Why even call it "Unplugged"?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 07, 2011 at 11:08 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.