I used to play a little game with Time Warner when I lived in Maine. Get HBO for six months for shows like True Blood or Six Feet Under and then when they were over, switch to Showtime in late August just in time for Dexter and Weeds. Nowadays, the premium channels are on to me, and insist on delivering great programming year round. As May network TV finales wrap up, I always feel let down and resigned to a summer of crappy Bravo reality shows (minus Top Chef, which is amazing) and catching up on shows I missed the first time around like Alias and Dollhouse. But this year, I feel like there is so much summer TV to look forward to that I can barely keep up. Here is a rundown of some great shows on the way.
Mad Men, Girls, Game of Thrones, Nurse Jackie and The Big C: These shows are a great segue from the network finales to the premium debuts. With just a couple weeks left of each of these shows, I feel better about the fact that I have to wait 6 months to find out who lives on Grey's Anatomy and what happens between Will and Alicia on The Good Wife. Mad Men has been spectacular this season (as always), and Girls is the breakout hit of the year. They are great place holders until we get to the heavy hitters of summer...
True Blood: Premiering June 10, we will finally get to see if Tara lives or dies (unfortunately, I think she makes it) and what Chris Meloni is like as a vampire. Now entering its 5th season, True Blood has strayed so far away from the books that I don't think Charlaine Harris recognizes much of her own original concept. However, by keeping entertainment like Layfayette, eye candy like Alcide and Eric and Arlene's creepy baby, this season looks very promising. And I've made a drinking game out of the weird way that Bill whispers, "Sookie".
Breaking Bad: If you aren't watching this show, go to the video store, logon to Netflix or go On Demand and catch up NOW. Vince Gilligan has done an amazing job of showing the drawn-out, painful deterioration of our protagonist from a loving family man who just wanted to do right by his wife and son to a cold, calculated killer. I love that this show has an end date and that we know at some point Walt will hit rock bottom. I can't imagine a finale more explosive (pun intended) than last season, but if any show can pull it off, this one can. I never thought I would sympathize with a teacher-turned-meth-maker, but this formula (i.e. Dexter) seems to be working for me.
The Newsroom: I happen to be one of the 10 people in the world who actually loved Aaron Sorkin's short-lived show "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". I'm hoping that by living outside of the constraints of network TV and heading instead to HBO that The Newsroom can be everything that Studio 60 wasn't able to be. I'm ok with the fact that the cast strays away from Sorkin's usual crew (Bradley Whitford, Timothy Busfield, etc) and I can't wait to see how Jeff Daniels carries the show along with Emily Mortimer and Jane Fonda. Seriously, I could not be more excited for this show.
Add to those shows the opening of movies like Moonrise Kingdom, Your Sister's Sister and Ted and I think I can break my cycle of spending the entire summer watching 6 seasons of some 90s show that I missed the first time around (although season 3 of The West Wing is next on my Netflix queue). :)
