Summertime, and the Shows Are Still Addictive

While our usual appointment television shows are on summer hiatus, we thought that we wouldn’t be watching much television this season. But that was not to be the case! We have been sitting on our couch in the A/C this summer watching these guilty pleasures:

Project Runway, Weds @ 9pm, Bravo. No other show would make us turn on the Miss Universe pageant to see if a contestant was wearing the right gown. We are doubly intrigued by the teaser for this week’s episode which hints that a contestant is getting kicked off (for the first time in the show’s history).
Life on Mars, Mondays @ 9pm, BBC America. We are not big fans of procedural police drama, but this isn’t your mama’s cop show. Our hero is hit by a car in 2006 and finds himself in 1973 as a new transfer to his precinct. But is he really there? Or is it all in his head while he lies in a coma? Add this sci-fi element to a cop drama with really decent plotlines, and voila. We just read that David E. Kelley will be making an Americanized version of this show, and we hope he takes EW’s casting advice.
And finally, um, So You Think You Can Dance, competition show Weds @ 8pm, results Thurs @ 8pm, FOX. We got sucked in during the auditions and have been eagerly looking forward to it each week. Yes, we feel guilty about it (obviously), but as we love Strictly Ballroom and Fred and Ginger movies, we love the dances these guys and gals can pull off each week (except for Ivan; we can’t stand him).

Is there a summer show you have been sucked into?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Elizabeth S. in Other on August 1, 2006 12:22 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

bob

I started watching Saxondale on BBC2 recently (downloaded) and it's pretty great so far. It's Steve Coogan of Alan Partridge, etc., but this character isn't so 2-D and easily despised (as Partridge).

Also, I think they were running Spaced (1999/2001) and The Thick of It (2005) on BBC America recently, both of which are gold.

McChris

Lordy, lordy, lordy, I ignored it until this summer, but "Rescue Me" is brilliant! (Of course, this is the first summer in many years that I've had a TV.) I started watching FX's original dramas for the campy fun of "Nip/Tuck," but I think "Rescue Me" is a genuinely good show. The characters seem psychologically "real," and many of the situations seem familiar from my own life. Even the title sequence is worth watching over and over again. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it.

I think "Saved" is boring as all get out. The past two weeks, I've turned it off half-way through.