The summer TV season is over and the new fall one has arrived. That is if there is such things as seasons anymore. Things blur together as not only streaming, on-demand TV happens but first run streaming TV happens too.
I watched a few summer TV shows that were okay. At least four of them won’t be back for another season. “Under the Dome” made it’s way through three summers with thirteen episodes each season. It was never a great show but it was okay. It posed as one of those annoying “The plot of this story is us wondering what is going on in this story” TV shows but it was really about all the characters plotting against each other. It didn’t really matter why the dome was there. It mattered that the dome amped up the drama in a small town. When it took a sci-fi turn in its last season to explain things it was anticlimactic. It was solid but if you missed it don’t sweat it.
Another “What is going on in this show?” show was “Wayward Pines”. There was no dome but there may as well have been. Once again it was a bunch of people brought to a small town and things are not as they seem. Mysterious and oppressive government, missing technology, can’t get out of town, and time travel?!? All the weird stuff that makes for a confusing story. It was okay but I just had to look up the name of it because I couldn’t remember. This was a ten episodes and done mini-series.
The third now cancelled show I watched this summer was “Extant” with Halle Berry. This one made it through two thirteen episode summer seasons. This second season they changed the whole tone and plot of the show. The first season was more conceptual with one plot about creating an artificial boy and another about weird alien life coming to earth. There was a lot of mysterious vagueness. In the second season the did away with all that vagueness and gave us an evil conspiracy and some killer robots. Plus they knocked off Halle Berry’s boring scientist husband from the first season and gave her a new rugged bounty hunter love interest. Or maybe he was a cop. It was the future so who knows? Once again it was a solid show but if you missed it it’s no big deal.
One show I didn’t watch much of was “Daredevil”. Everyone seemed to love it but me. It was on Netflix and was almost universally praised but it didn’t do it for me. First off I don’t much care for origin stories. I find them boring and all the same. They decided to make this a season long thirteen episode origin story so I was out after three or four episodes. It wasn’t terrible. I just didn’t care. I know the story already and to have it told to me over thirteen hours was too much. No amount of brutal, slow motion fight scenes could win me over. I can’t love them all.
I did manage to catch all of the TV show that nobody watched “Welcome to Sweden”. This is a joint US and Swedish made show that is part in English and part in Swedish. Don’t worry, they provide subtitles. It’s a nice little comedy. It’s had two ten episode seasons with ratings as low as things can go on network TV. I think the only reason it got a second season is that it runs in Sweden too so it’s paid for already. I like the show even if no one watches it. It’s pleasant and little zany. Some nice Swedish scenery too.
Another under-watched half hour comedy was “Playing House”. It’s the story of two women who are longtime friends and one comes back to their home town to help the other out. It’s a buddy comedy. With only ten episodes last year and eight this year there aren’t a lot of shows but they’re all pretty good. I like the leads in the show, Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair. They’ve been in stuff before together and I find them funny. I don’t know if there will be a third season of this but I’ll watch if there is.
Another summer drama that I forgot to mention is “Complications”. This one caught my eye because it was from the producer of one of my favorite shows “Burn Notice”. It’s been cancelled after one season so it’s not going to have the same long life as “Burn Notice” but it was pretty good. It was the story of a doctor who saves a little boy’s life out in the street one day. That little boy turns out to be a pawn in a gang war and soon the doctor finds himself to be a pawn too. Not good for him. He tries to navigate his way through the gangs, the police, his family, and his boss all without making things worse. Of course he makes things worse. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a show. It was a solid man-in-trouble show. But now it’s gone.
A not very new show that I’ve been watching this summer is “Parks & Recreation”. It’s a show that was on for seven seasons and I always meant to check it out but never did. I have no idea why. The first five seasons of it were streaming on Amazon Prime so I finally gave it a look and was hooked. It’s a funny show. Lots of smart writing and crazy characters. It’s a show I really should have been watching all along. Good stuff.
And I almost forgot two other shows I watched. One was the much talked about second season of “True Detective”. A lot of people didn’t like it but I thought it was okay. A totally different flavor than the first season (which I liked but the last episode was a letdown). The show might have been a mess but I found it to be an interesting mess.
The other show is the second season of “The Strain”. Vampire fighting goodness. I like my vampires to be evil and not sexy and that’s what we get here. Solid cast with some good writing except for the annoying kid. It’s not the actor’s fault. The writers keep making him do stupid things that get people hurt. He’s more a plot device than a character. Other than that I like the show. It just finished its second thirteen episode season.
So that’s what I watched this summer. “Parks & Recreation” is the best of the bunch with “The Strain” leading the pack of dramas. What did you watch and like?
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