The weather is beautiful and how seriously television-obsessed am I that good weather gets me all excited for good summer TV?
I saw a commercial for TNT’s The Closer (July) and Kyra is just as cute as a button. Now here’s a show I think I’ll end up buying on DVD. I’ve actually never watched the first season, so I’d like to see it, and I love the characters so much, I wouldn’t mind watching seasons 2 and 3 again.
HBO’s Big Love has been in the news because of the real-life raid of a polygamist sect in Texas. No info about when the new season begins, but I’m starting to look forward to it.
Tonight, the season 1 encore of Burn Notice begins (every Thursday at 11 p.m. on USA). I missed Burn Notice last summer, but I’ve only read terrific things about it. Usually, that means a show is pretty decent. I actually did try to watch the first episode online several months ago. I was only slightly entertained until about twenty minutes in when the lead, Michael Weston, takes a call from his mother. I don’t remember what she said, but his reaction to that call hooked me. Nothing like an international spy with mother issues. Unfortunately, my connection failed after that. So I’m giving it another go by taping it every Thursday night. Of course, I can just buy the DVD set in June, but my concern about buying a DVD set for a show I haven’t watched is that this could easily be a great show I just don’t get (coughTheSopranoscough). I like shows about spies, but what if this turns out to be really male-oriented? (Internet Movie Database has a bunch of quotes from Burn Notice I find amusing.)
I have the same concern about Mad Men. What interests male reviewers may not interest me, no matter how great it is. A show about advertising executives in the 60s “when guys wore narrow-lapelled suits, guzzled bourbon before and after meetings, and smoked like a Neil Young guitar solo” just doesn’t scream Must-See TV for me. Mad Men is another show everyone is raving about, but the rave reviews seem almost nostalgic (even though the reviewers are probably in their twenties and thirties) for the days when white men ran Madison Avenue without fear of sexual harrassment lawsuits and lung cancer.
I’ll have to take a look to see if any female reviewers love this show… Here we go: Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times – I assume Alessandra is a woman – says of Mad Men “Everybody read Reader’s Digest. Jews worked in Jewish advertising agencies, blacks were waiters and careful not to seem too uppity, and doctors smoked during gynecological exams. Women were called ‘girls.’ Men who loved men kept it to themselves. The magic of “Mad Men” is that it softly spoofs those cruel, antiquated mores without draining away the romance of that era: the amber-lit bars and indigo nightclubs, soaring skyscrapers, smoky railway cars and the brash confidence that comes with winning a war and owning the world. It’s a sardonic love letter to the era that wrought ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit’ and ‘The Best of Everything,’ but homage is paid with more affection than satire.”
I don’t believe I’ll see the “magic” or “romance” in this show, but I’m willing to try. The season 1 encore of Mad Men begins this Sunday (every Sunday at midnight on AMC). The encore has actually been airing for a while, but it starts at episode 1 again this Sunday.
(A review from LA Weekly in which the reviewer says Mad Men gave him the creeps. Parts of the review, however, raised my interest.)
I’m mildly looking forward to the return of Entourage. After diligently taping every episode last season, I missed the season finale and didn’t care. I realized I’m only watching for Jeremy Piven and his assistant. (I loved Jeremy Piven when he had a two minute scene in Singles and when he starred in PCU. It’s a pleasure to watch his wacky self in a role that was made for him.) But I do enjoy the inside look at the life of a newly successful actor and his coattail-riding crew.