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Monday, July 31, 2006
The dregs of summer TV … sigh
I may have confessed previously that I’ve been surprised by how many of the new fall shows I actually liked this year as I waded through two dozen previews.
Now I’m wondering if the pilots really were that good or if I’m just appalled by what passes for prime-time entertainment on the networks this summer. I’ve found plenty to like on cable and PBS (tonight’s new “Mystery” is “Inspector Lewis,” which sounds like a winner). But the networks just keep heaping really bad reality shows onto their schedule.
Take tonight, for example. If you aren’t a fan of TNT’s “The Closer” and “Saved,” here’s what you have to look forward to: back-to-back episodes of “Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox; an ABC lineup that includes “Wife Swap,” “Supernanny” and the debut of “One Ocean View”; “Treasure Hunters” and the new “Star Tomorrow” on NBC; and a load of regular series reruns on CBS.
Just so you know the depths to which we have sunk, let me describe the two new reality shows for you.
“One Ocean View” (9 tonight on ABC) plucks 11 attractive young folks from New York City deposits them in a handsome summer house on Fire Island. Add a few tropical drinks and some tanned flesh and this is what ABC calls summer entertainment.
Housemate Miki explains in the opener that these young professionals are searching for “fun, romance, maybe even falling in love.” There’s an exotic dancer, business owners, a Wall Street lawyer and a couple that has recently broken up.
The result is supposed to be a sexy, real-life melodrama, but these folks are just shallow and exceedingly dull.
NBC’s new “StarTomorrow” (7 p.m.), dubbed an interactive music competition in publicity, is the umpteenth singer/band search competition. You’d think, given the clunker ABC entered in this genre (“The One,” which distinguished itself by coming in eighth in its time period on opening night, behind all mini-networks and several cable networks), the genre would get a rest. You’d be wrong.
At least NBC’s newcomer will take place mostly online.
Even sports options are pretty limited in this pre-football, post-basketball season. There’s baseball, more baseball and a bit of tennis and golf. But when ESPN tries to pass off darts and poker as sports, well, you know it’s time to shut down the set and read a book.
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