The summer sizzles with hot new shows!

Posted on Aug 19, 2008 in Features

Writers are back at giving the television audiences what they really want, which is less reality TV and more incredible new seasons of their favorite scripted shows.  Writers have worked hard to place thrilling twists and turns in some of our favorite television shows.  The summer has aired some of the most-anticipated season premieres. It seems that summer is no longer the refuge of reruns and reality. There are even more surprises in store for viewers, if the initial episodes are any indication.

ARMY WIVESLifetime’s “Army Wives” is back with their second season on Sunday nights.  The premiere was highly anticipated since the pivotal first season finale ended with a suicide bomber/jealous husband who had followed his wife to a local bar and pressed the button, claiming the lives of who knew how many cast members. As the season began, it was cleverly revealed that it was one of the colonels’ teenage daughters.  The first show started after the fact, before backtracking and revealing that a character that seemed alive was, in fact, dead, and the majority of the episode was an invention of the grieving mother, Claudia Joy (Kim Delaney). This season offers viewers a more heartfelt look into the lives of men and women who are in the United States armed services and the challenges they face. Delaney says that the real military wives receive the show well and are happy that someone is telling their story.  She calls them “unsung heroes.” 

The uniqueness of the show is that it tells the story of the actual women and their roles on military bases.  Some of the women are struggling to raise their families, whereas some are employed base workers.  This gives viewers a glimpse of every angle of life for a woman on an army base. 

The second season is definitely an expression of women’s strength.  However, there is still an amount of vulnerability in the women.  Joan (Wendy Davis) is the character who grew up in a rather dangerous city and joined the armed forces.  She soon became the first African American female lieutenant colonel and began commanding at least 400 men.  She struggled to gain respect from the male members.  Just when she finally felt comfortable with her position, she becomes pregnant.  Her pregnancy makes her feel weak.  However, her troops are compassionate and continue to grow more respect for her. 

The basis of this season is overcoming obstacles.  The show has been saluted by presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain.  Cast members are excited about the new season, especially since the ratings have almost doubled.

PSYCH 

A fun show with a similar bent is the more comedic “Psych,” also returning for a second season, Friday nights on USA. The addictive and LOL-funny show revolves around a faux psychic who uses his impressive “powers” of observation to solve crimes. Its stars the fantastic tag team of James Roday (“Miss Match”) and Dule Hill (“The West Wing”), with able assists from adorable Maggie Lawson (“Nancy Drew”) and two ’80s superstars: Corbin Bernsen (“L.A. Law”) and newcomer Cybill Shepherd (“Moonlighting”) as Roday’s long-suffering parents. The ultimate sign of the success of the show? It’s already being ripped off for an upcoming fall show, the more straight-faced “The Mentalist.”

THE MIDDLEMAN

Along the same lines is the graphic novel-inspired “The Middleman,” which airs on Mondays at 9 p.m. on ABC Family. Don’t let that scare you, though, as this is a fun, fast and furious send-up of the superhero genre, with more in-jokes than you can shake a stick a stick at. Not all of them are easy, either, unless J.R. Bob Dobbs and Luche Libre is big in your household – and bless you if they are. The show revolves around the titular Middleman (Matt Keeslar, of “Scream 3”) a crime-fighter that’s sort of a Ghostbuster for the new millennium. He gets help from the next middleman – or woman, rather – in training, newcomer Natalie Morales, a Latin fireball that’s quick with a quip. It’s a whole lot of fun and deserves to become at least a cult hit – which may well be all it ever is, given the network it’s on. Still, well worth checking out.

MAD MENThe show “Mad Men,” which airs on AMC on Sunday nights, is also entering their second season with great ratings and enormous critical acclaim. The show is set in the 1960s in an advertising company. Don Draper (Emmy nominee for Best Actor Jon Hamm) is the main character, a largely successful ad exec at Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. He is also known to be a ladies’ man, despite being married to the beautiful-but-troubled Betty (January Jones), who suspects her husband’s infidelities. It is interesting to see how these two qualities intertwine every week. 

The men and women of the firm are hugely competitive and devoted. The characters are extremely cutthroat at the firm, whether men or women. In fact, the women are forced to be more ruthless to get ahead, and often have to deal with rampant sexism, which was the norm in the workplace back then. The show also displays the traditional family values that were around at that time, which were a far cry from the splintered families that are the norm nowadays. Back then, you stuck together, no matter how dysfunctional your family was, but you can already see the impending changes on the horizon, even before the tumultuous late ’60s.

This show has been awarded with the Golden Globe for Best TV Drama. Season two is expected to be better than ever, and has thus far lived up to the hype, thanks in large part to the exacting writing by former “Sopranos” scribe and show creator Matthew Weiner. Thanks to his painstaking eye for period detail, you can practically smell the whiskey and stale cigarettes.

The SECRET LIFE OF AN AMERICAN TEENAGERSpeaking of modern family dynamics, there is a brand new show that expresses the controversial side of families today. “The Secret Life of an American Teenager” follows a high school girl who becomes pregnant at 15. It is a detailed account of the different problems that adolescents face in the modern age. The show airs on ABC Family on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. This is a show that parents and teenagers can watch together and discuss.

This show follows the controversial movie “Juno” which was released in 2007, which dealt with similar issues. The movie was very controversial because people felt that it was promoting teen pregnancy and was too casual for its own good. Unlike “Juno,” the show seems to go into more detail and show the hardships of being a teenage faced with crucial decisions. It also gives more insight into the affect it has on the family as a whole and how it affects other teenagers around the protagonist. It also worth mentioning to ’80s fans the presence of Brat Pack ringleader Molly Ringwald (“The Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles”) as the mother of the troubled teen.

BURN NOTICE

Another show with several ’80s connections is USA’s Thursday night actioner “Burn Notice,” which returns for a second season after a hugely successful initial run. The cast includes the always-welcome B-movie fixture Bruce Campbell (the “Evil Dead” trilogy) and Sharon Gless (“Cagney & Lacey”) among the cast, as well as ’90s refugee Gabrielle Anwar (“Scent of a Woman”), a should-have-been that never-quite-was a big star. All of the above are in fine form, particularly the delectable Anwar, who is like a living embodiment of that “Chicks Who Love Guns” segment in Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown,” only with even heavier firepower.

The plot revolves around a former spy (Jeffrey Donovan, formerly of “Crossing Jordan”), who has been “burned” or let go without explanation by a high-ranking member of the government. With no identity and no money, it’s as if he never existed. So, he does odd jobs for money, most of which include heavy firepower and neat “MacGyver” like concoctions and gizmos, while at the same time trying to figure out who “burned” him. Joining in the fun this season is another cult fave, Tricia Helfer, of the new version of “Battlestar Galactica,” as someone who may have a connection to whoever burned Donovan. The end result is a fun-if-disposable ride that should please fans of this sort of thing handily.

TNT’S TUFF GALS

The biggest and most anticipated shows, however, are Monday night’s tag-team success on TNT, “The Closer” and “Saving Grace.” The former had the highest premiere for a summer show ever and regularly slams the competition weekly. Both “Closer” lead Kyra Sedgwick and “Grace” lead Holly Hunter were nominated for Best Actress Emmys, which doesn’t hurt. Given the actresses’ long and illustrious careers, it’s nice to see them get parts they can really sink their teeth into.

“The Closer” is an entertaining crime procedural with Sedgwick as the Deputy Police Chief (and Southern transplant to L.A.) Brenda Johnson that viewers took to right away. It’s easily the best role the underrated Sedgwick has ever had, and well deserved at that. She’s fantastic on the show, as is the ace supporting cast, which includes “Spiderman” refugee J.K. Simmons (aka J.Jonah Jameson).

On the equally well-cast “Grace,” Hunter has the role of a lifetime – and in her case, that’s saying something – as Grace Hanadarko, a dubious Catholic, who communicates with a redneck angel named Earl (amusing Leon Rippy) who tries to steer her in the right direction. Not an easy task considering how Grace pretty much stays drunk and flailing through a rapid succession of men, including her married partner Ham (Kenny Johnson, late of “The Shield”). Indeed, Hunter spends a considerable amount of time partially undressed and spouting as much foul language as the censors will allow. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. All in all, it’s kind of like a saucier “Touched by an Angel,” where the protagonist rarely learns anything the easy way.

The summer shows cover a wide spectrum of issues that are far more reality-driven than anything you’d see on so-called reality TV. Viewers can get a better understanding of how troops and their families cope with that lifestyle, understand the struggle our very own teenagers are having and also take a blast into the past. However, whatever your taste may be, there is truly something for everybody. Who said summer TV had to suck?