Summer TV

[dougo]

I was thinking my DVR would empty out with the summer TV schedule, so I've been recording a bunch of movies. But I hadn't realized how much the summer season has become a real season these days. I've been watching The 4400 (actually still catching up from last season), Entourage, Rescue Me, SuperGroup, and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, and starting soon are Big Brother, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (really happy this didn't get canceled like I thought!), Venture Brothers, and Monk.

SuperGroup has been pretty entertaining. It's a reality show about 5 rock stars who live together for a couple weeks, write a few songs, and prepare for a concert at the end of the season. Hijinks ensue. It sounds kind of dumb, but they picked an interesting set of rock stars: Ted Nugent, Scott Ian from Anthrax, Evan Seinfeld from Biohazard, Jason Bonham (current drummer for Foreigner, and son of John Bonham from Led Zeppelin), and Sebastian Bach from Skid Row. The ego-clashes are fun to watch, but it's also interesting to see them having to deal with the machine of the music industry, from the douchebag manager to the clueless stylists and promo people that get thrown at them.

I have mixed feelings about the upcoming Big Brother season. As game shows go, it's definitely the most strategic and interesting, even more so than Survivor. They're doing an All-Stars thing this time, though, which might be great if they bring back the best and smartest players, but it seems more likely they'll pick the most "colorful" players, i.e. the annoying dimwits. At least they usually do a good job with refining the game rules each season, so I'm hoping there will be some interesting twist besides just being All-Stars.

Coming up this fall, sadly a bunch of shows I had been enjoying were not renewed: Heist, Invasion, Sons & Daughters, Arrested Development, Out of Practice. There's some chance Invasion will get picked up by another channel, maybe Sci-Fi or USA, but I'm not holding my breath. But I'm glad to see that The Unit, How I Met Your Mother, and What About Brian will be returning. I haven't gone through all new show descriptions yet, but let me know if there's anything I shouldn't miss.

Comments

[jtemperance.livejournal.com]

I've been liking "The Thick Of It" on BBC America. It helps to watch with closed captioning turned on though.

[petdance.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get past the first episode of SuperGroup. Perhaps it's becasue it follows all the standard reality show staged non-interesting forced conflicts.

Amy and I love Kathy Griffin, and D-List does not disappoint.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I actually missed the first episode. Maybe the second one is better. It isn't until the 3rd or 4th that Sebastian Bach really goes nutso.

[lolathehated.livejournal.com]

i.m SO angry that invasion didn.t get renewed. i flipping LOVED that show. although the show they put in midseason, the evidence, wasn.t so bad either. stupid tv.

but that.s coming from me, who LOVED push, nevada which lasted like seven episodes.