Jon Stewart’s off directing a movie, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” won’t be back until next year and the fall TV season’s months away.
But just because it’s summer doesn’t mean we’re limited to an endless round of “reality” and vaguely generic cop shows from Canada. Not only is John Oliver likely to prove a worthy caretaker for “The Daily Show,” but there’s plenty of good (and some even great) television around, if you know where to look.
I’d start with these five:
1. “Ray Donovan”
Liev Schreiber stars as Ray, a Hollywood fixer who can’t fix everything, starting with his own South Boston family — especially his father, Mickey (Jon Voight).
You may have seen it described as “The Sopranos”-meets-“Entourage,” but I’d throw “The Fighter” in there, too.
Created by Ann Biderman (“Southland”), “Ray Donovan” moves from furious to funny and back again so fast your head will spin. Good thing the rest of the cast, which includes Paula Malcomson (“Deadwood”) as Ray’s wife, Elliott Gould as one of his employers and Philly’s Katherine Moennig (“The L Word”) as one of his associates, are fast on their feet. They’ll need to be to keep up with Schreiber and Voight (whose character would give Livia Soprano a run for her money in the “Jeopardy” category “Seriously Scary Parents”).
“Ray Donovan” is exactly what “Breaking Bad” fans need to keep from going crazy until Bryan Cranston’s Walter White returns in August. Premieres: 10 p.m. June 30, Showtime.
2. “Breaking Bad”
Eight final episodes in the story of a high-school chemistry teacher with lung cancer who started cooking a little meth and turned himself into a drug kingpin.
If you’re behind, you have almost nine weeks to get ready. Don’t be one of those people who “discovers” it on DVD or Netflix long after it’s gone. Because that really would be bad. Returns: 9 p.m. Aug. 11, AMC.
3. “The Bridge”
A dismembered body found on the U.S.-Mexican border makes reluctant partners of El Paso detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger, “Inglourious Basterds”) and Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir), of the Chihuahua State Police, in Juarez, a working relationship not made any easier by Sonya’s by-the-book approach, which appears to be a function of her Asperger’s.
Ted Levine (“Monk”), as her lieutenant, finds himself again playing a character dealing with a brilliant detective who has certain limitations. But “The Bridge,” adapted by Meredith Stiehm (“Cold Case,” “Homeland”) and Elwood Reid (“Cold Case”) from a Scandinavian series, is miles more ambitious than “Monk” and considerably darker. I can’t wait to see where this “Bridge” takes us. Premieres: 10 p.m. July 10, FX.
4. “Under the Dome”
Stephen King’s 2009 book about a Maine town trapped under an invisible, dome-like force field becomes a summer series with some memorable special effects - keep your eyes on the cows - and a story that blends conspiracy and human drama. No, not like “Lost,” but not quite like anything else you’re likely to see on TV this summer.
Oh, and its stars include Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad”), who plays a councilman who may know more than he’s telling about his town’s plight. So there’s that. Premieres: 10 p.m. June 24, CBS.
5. “Dexter”
There’s nothing like having the finish line in sight to focus a show, and as TV’s most sympathetic serial killer enters his eighth and final season, expectations are high for a finish worthy of Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter, who play Dexter and Deb Morgan, the brother-sister duo who now share blood in a way Deb, at least, never imagined they would. Returns: 9 p.m. June 30, Showtime.
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