The Summer 7: My Favorite Shows of Summer 2010 by Tina Charles

The Summer 2010 TV Season is quickly coming to an end. And I have to say I think I've watched more television this long hiatus break than ever before. So just as the Fall TV shows start to invade the airwaves here are the seven shows that snapped, crackled and popped on the small screen. They all made my must-see list this summer.

• Leverage, TNT: I decided to make the commitment and start watching TNT's grifter thriller in its third season. I quickly found out that it's a perfect summer show. It's fun, has a great cast, the cases are almost always intriguing and it is generally a great way to spend an hour. Now I'm going to have to make another commitment. I'm going to have to pick up Seasons 1 and 2 and catch up from the beginning.

• White Collar, USA Network: I quickly marathon'd Season 1 in order to watch Season 2 in real time. So happy that I did. White Collar returned and delivered great episode after great episode. Two reasons why I love this show are its stars Matthew Bomer and Tim Dekay. More reasons why I dig White Collar are its supporting cast in Tiffani Thiessen, Willie Garson, Marsha Thomason and Sharif Atkins. I just hope in upcoming seasons Marsha and Sharif will be even more involved in the action and get some back stories.

• Rizzoli & Isles, TNT: TNT's newest hit procedural has also turned out to be a hit with me. Detective Jane Rizzoli and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles are a dynamic duo when it comes to fighting crime. What's even better is that some of the issues that I had with this show at the beginning of the season have finally worked itself out. This show has plenty of potential to live on for a long time.

• Chopped, Food Network: All I know is that this show has such a simple concept and it's provided me with hours of entertainment. The wannabe Chopped champions really earn their 10,000 bucks and I love to see what these cooking MacGyvers can make out of the wildest ingredients. Make a potato dessert? No problem. Shuck a bunch of clams or oysters in the allotted 20 minutes for the appetizer round? No problem. Find a way to make an edible concoction out of curry paste, arugula, peanut butter and pork loin? No problem. Plus it seems that the cheftestants that were part of this summer's lineup were particularly interesting as well as talented. Then Food Network upped the ante by beginning to air the Chopped Championship. We're two episodes in and I'm loving all these champions that have returned for a chance to win 50,000 dollars. The competition is fierce.
  

• Childrens Hospital, Adult Swim: I don't know what compelled me to start watching this web sensation turned Adult Swim newbie, but I'm sure happy that I did. This bite-sized comedy series features an all-star cast. The Rob Corddry-creation reeled in big names like Megan Mullally, Henry Winkler and one of my personal favorites, Ken Marino. And it did something that NBC's Surface wasn't able to do. It got me to like Lake Bell. While Bell left the show at the beginning of Season 2 (although good news, she will be back later this season), we're now getting used to Watchmen blonde babe Malin Akerman. Haven't figured out her character yet but I'll be around to find out. One of my favorite characters from the first and a little bit of the second season is the patient (Nick Kroll) who suffered from the aging disease. Hilarious doesn't even describe him. I hope this series that comes in a little package (each episode is only about 11 minutes long) continues to bring the laughs for a long time to come.

• True Blood, HBO: I've seen Seasons 1 and 2 of True Blood but I watched them both marathon-style after the finales and before the next season started. I never felt the need to watch real time. That all changed with Season 3. Now I am compelled (glamoured maybe?) to watch the over-the-top in a good way happenings of the Bon Temps residents whether they're human, undead, animal-like or even faerie (I still can't forget Sookie's reaction to finding out she was not quite human). Russell has been a formidable villain and his relationship with Talbot was definitely entertaining. Eric Northman just rocks every which way especially when he's in scenes with Pam. I have had a couple issues with Season 3 (namely Sam and Jason's story lines), but it really doesn't matter because everything else was just so damn addictive. The addition and then subtraction of Franklin was simply sizzling and the introduction of werewolf hottie Alcide was quite awesome. I've felt bad for what Tara had to go through and relished the closeness she had with her cousin Lafayette. And I'm really happy Lafayette got some TLC of his own in the form of Jesus. Now it's time for the finale and then we're going to have to say goodbye to a season that gave us Jessica and Hoyt and had one of the most twisted TV sex scenes of all time thanks to Bill and Lorena. Yup, True Blood has been truly blood-sucking good.
  

• Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family: I took an instant liking to this high school soap/murder mystery although I was originally cautious. I wondered how long I was going to be able to handle all the secrets like who this mysterious "A" texter really is going to turn out to be. But the story has developed nicely. I still have no clue whodunit which is a good thing and I really liked the summer finale. Hanna finding out who's terrorizing the friends and then getting hit by a car really drums up the drama and makes me want the winter to get here now so we can continue the action. My issue with this show is how every guy (and some girls) want to date these 16-year-olds no matter how old the guy is. Spencer has moments with both of her older sister's boyfriends? The teacher can't help but be drawn to Aria? I don't know if I'm totally buying all of that business. Regardless, I love the young cast. The adults are some of my favorites (Charmed's Holly Marie Combs, Chad Lowe from Life Goes On and especially Melrose Place's Laura Leighton). I'm not too cool with Bryce Johnson's sleazy cop but no matter, I already love him on Fox's Lone Star. Like many of the other selections on this list, Pretty Little Liars makes the perfect summer show and it'll definitely heat things up when the drama comes back in the winter.
  

Summer TV Extra

Good news for fans of three TNT dramas. Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer and Leverage have all been cleared for another season. Read the story here:


TNT Makes It Three -- 'Rizzoli & Isles,' 'Closer,' 'Leverage' | TheWrap.com

First Watch: Rizzoli & Isles by Tina Charles

I'm not someone who likes to be negative so when I don't like a show it's difficult for me. So I'm happy to report I really enjoyed the pilot for TNT's newest crime show Rizzoli & Isles. The two leads know their way around a crime drama. Angie Harmon plays tough Boston detective Jane Rizzoli. Harmon's best known for her three-year run on NBC's Law & Order as ADA Abbie Carmichael. But she has also starred in ABC's Women's Murder Club and let's not forget she cut her investigative teeth as the Hoff's detective partner on Baywatch Nights. Meanwhile, Dawson's Creek alum Sasha Alexander is arguably best known for playing Special Agent Caitlyn "Kate" Todd on the first two seasons of CBS' NCIS. She's the super smart very fashionably dressed medical examiner Maura Isles. All I can think about is the fact that Sasha is "Ducky" on this show. Well, if Ducky were a woman who wears lots of designer clothes and Louboutin shoes. This girl has never heard of Casual Friday.

One of my litmus tests for any new show is the chemistry of the cast. And right away, I'm enjoying the friendship between Rizzoli and Isles. The two are opposites of course: Rizzoli's no frills, one of the guys, and takes the tough cop thing to heart. She definitely seems a little damaged. She has her family around, but as we learn in the pilot she's the target of a serial killer (or two). This guy had gotten the best of her before so she damn well wasn't going to let him get away this time around. Plus, even though Jane's allergic to dogs, she ends up adopting a stray which I guess will serve to help bring out more of her feminine side. We definitely find out much more about Rizzoli in this episode. Hopefully we'll find out more about Isles soon. She's intriguing. Much like Jane, Maura's beautiful and she's smart. Really, really smart. Like reeling inane facts off the top of her head smart. Her inner nerd is offset by her outward model-type looks. She dresses to the nines for every occasion. Like I said, I'm curious to learn more about her background. I mean, she also has a giant tortoise as a pet. Sasha and Angie work well together and I think they'll gel even more as the series continues. Right away Rizzoli and Isles sort of show interest in the same guy (FBI Agent Gabriel Dean), but it's clear Rizzoli is more in need of companionship than the coroner. And Isles helps the flirtation between Jane and the visiting agent progress.

The case is personal for Rizzoli which makes it kind of interesting. What I did love is that for much of the episode the males in her life (her brother, her cop colleagues, even FBI Agent Dean), rally around her and want to protect her from the serial killers who are after her. But in the end, Rizzoli's forced to save herself. I really liked that. At this point, I just really want to learn more about Dr. Maura Isles so hopefully she'll be quickly incorporated into the show even further. This show has the makings of a keeper. I'm going to record the series on my DVR. The cast chemistry has lots of potential, although the dialogue doesn't always seem to snap, crackle and pop. The show tries a little too hard to make the characters quirky but things should settle as the series continues. And I'm curious as to how all the cases are going to play out. But I'm definitely on board for the foreseeable future. It won't be a weekly blog, but if something big happens or I want to highlight one aspect of the show, I'll post a new column.

Cast Notes

Other cast members include: Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos), Bruce McGill (MacGyver) and Lee Thompson Young (Jett Jackson, Smallville, FlashForward). Marisa Ramirez (General Hospital, Miracles, Mental) plays Harmon's neighbor. I'm unclear as to whether she'll continue in that capacity. Bella's dad on Twilight plays the FBI agent in the first episode and he shares a nice chemistry with Harmon's Rizzoli. I love Billy Burke in the Twilight saga so I hope his character comes back at some point. Michael Massee plays one of the killers. He almost always plays a villain, he's really good at being creepy. Supernatural fans will recognize him as Kubrick, Gordon's partner in crime in both "Bad Day at Black Rock" and "Fresh Blood."

Random Thought

• With the presence of Sasha Alexander, I couldn't help play connect the dots between NCIS and Rizzoli & Isles. All I could think of when Dr. Isles said she had to take a trip to Quantico for a different case and the investigation started involving a military green beret is that maybe NCIS could help out or something. They threw around words/terms like "National Security" and "soldier" and "Chairman of the Armed Services Committee." What was I supposed to think? First episode and I'm already looking for a crossover! Earlier, Jane and Maura were trying to decipher a clue and the jumbled up word ended up spelling out Theodore Bundy. You know who played Ted Bundy in a TV movie, right? NCIS' Mark Harmon. Okay the NCIS comparisons end there.

Ratings Update

Rizzoli & Isles had a huge debut. According to tvbythenumbers.com, R&I became "cable's #1 commercial-supported series launch of all time" reeling in 7.6 million viewers. Congrats, TNT!