Just because the World Cup is over and the TV season in the United States is on hiatus does not mean the couch potato has to peel himself off the sofa.
It used to be that this was the time of year for less-than-stellar TV series and endless reruns. But that has been changing in recent years, with cable channels offering more original material and TV networks stepping up to the challenge.
Some things remain the same, though, and “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” continues to be an unshakeable mantra.
Vampires are still making a commercial killing, so series creators are finding ways to work them into the small screen. It is the same with werewolves.
This was probably the thought process that led to The Gates, in which an unsuspecting police chief and his family move into an exclusive community that seems too perfect to be true. Guess who, or what, are among the denizens?
Not that imitation is necessarily a bad thing, the only sin really is imitation that fails to ignite interest.
Hence, Pretty Little Liars, despite clearly taking its cue from Gossip Girl, a TV series about privileged kids behaving badly, will likely prove that nubile young girls mixed up in intrigue, sexual and otherwise, will always find an audience.
Amid all the usual fare, there are flashes of something different in some of these mid-year offerings.
Sure, Unnatural History is a cross between Hardy Boys mystery-solving and Indiana Jones-style adventures, but its wholesomeness is a welcome throwback to a more innocent time.
Bonus points must be given to the creators for making historical facts palatable, just like in the hit film, National Treasure (2004).
The most audacious new show, though, is Huge. Set in a fat camp, it puts the touchy issues of weight and self- worth front and centre.
Life! takes you through eight new shows – also including cop dramas Rookie Blue and Memphis Beat, crime dramedy Scoundrels and mystery thriller Persons Unknown – and sifts out the sizzlers from the snoozers.
There are more new offerings coming for couch potatoes.
Look out for sci-fi adventure series Stargate Universe (Syfy, StarHub Channel 526 from next Monday at 11pm); Haven, a supernatural mystery based on Stephen King’s novel Colorado Kid (Syfy, StarHub Channel 526, from Oct 11, Mondays at 10pm); Shattered, about a homicide detective with multiple personality disorder (Universal Channel, StarHub Channel 512, coming at the end of the year); and Caprica, a spin-off from the critically acclaimed sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica (AXN, StarHub Channel 511). Its air dates will be announced soon.
Pretty Little Liars
In a nutshell: Dead girl sends snarky text messages, presumably from the grave.
What: Move over Gossip Girl, there is a trashier and skankier show in town.
First, the similarities. Liars is also based on a best-selling book series about the woes of the popular “it” girls, by Sara Shepard in this case. It even has a Blair (Leighton Meester) lookalike in the shape of Aria Montgomery (played by Lucy Hale).
Both are about teenagers behaving like hedonistic adults but Liars ups the stakes further. In the first episode alone, one high-school girl is locking lips with a teacher, another is eyeing the boyfriend of her older sister and a third is kissing a girl.
Oh right, the story. There used to be a clique of five girls and then one of them disappeared and was presumed dead. So when the other four start receiving messages from the “dead girl” threatening to spill the beans on a shared dark secret, they will fight tooth and manicured nail to protect themselves.
So much mischief and intrigue, so little time. Welcome to your newest guilty pleasure.
Rookie Blue
In a nutshell: New cops learn the ropes.
What: No offence, but another cop show, really?
Cop shows have been done to death and pretty much from every conceivable angle. But while Rookie Blue does not break new ground, it does offer a promising mix of drama from both solving cases as well as the characters’ lives and loves.
In other words, this show is more like Hill Street Blues than CSI.
In the first episode, the personalities of the different cops are quickly and deftly sketched out. Also, by having them take on different assignments, the viewer is given a quick overview of the various duties in a precinct’s police station.
As this is a Canadian series, most of the fresh-faced cast might not be familiar. The exception is Gregory Smith, whom viewers saw grow up on the drama series, Everwood.
Following a new series can be a bit like starting a new relationship and there is always the risk of rejection, that is, cancellation, after you commit. Good thing that Rookie Blue has already been picked up for a second season by the ABC network.
Scoundrels
In a nutshell: Can small-time crooks go straight?
What: When Wolf West (nice to see David James Elliott of JAG playing scoundrel instead of saint) is handed a longer-than-expected jail sentence, it is up to his wife Cheryl (Virginia Madsen) to straighten out the West clan.
With its kooky family members, including a pair of twins played by Patrick Flueger (from sci-fi thriller The 4400) – one a lawyer, the other a lunkhead criminal – this comes across like a less nutty take on Arrested Development.
Based on the New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune, the premiere is snappily paced and Madsen is fun to watch as a harassed mother trying to hold it all together.
She came to fame in the 1980s with teen flicks such as Electric Dreams (1984) and is also remembered for her turn in the slasher film Candyman (1992).
Her career was resuscitated with an Oscar-nominated performance in the wine country drama, Sideways (2004), and this should cast her in the limelight once more.
This is the second time ABC is attempting to retool this series for an American audience. A 2008 pilot named Good Behaviour was not picked up. Guess bad behaviour is always more attractive when it comes to entertainment.
Persons Unknown
In a nutshell: Seven abducted, to what end?
What: It is always a good sign when a series poses interesting questions because that means viewers will want to stick around for the answers.
The set-up here is intriguing: Seven people, seemingly unrelated, are abducted from different places and then brought to what looks like an abandoned film lot.
Why have they been kidnapped? Who is monitoring their every movement? And why are they being served food in a Chinese restaurant?
The obvious reference here is the recently concluded sci-fi thriller Lost, in which a group of people marooned on an island have to figure out why they were brought there. There is even a close-up shot of an eye opening, echoing the very first scene of Lost.
Will viewers have the patience for another drawn-out mystery, though? Cast-wise, this series also lacks the draw of familiar names. Hopefully, the title will not turn into a bad joke about the series’ audience.
Huge
In a nutshell: Big – and proud of it.
What: If there is one group that is under-represented in the TV land of beautiful people, it is overweight people.
No wonder when Camryn Manheim won an Emmy in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her work on the legal drama, The Practice, she exclaimed: “This is for all the fat girls!”
Perhaps spurred by the success of the reality series The Biggest Loser, there is now a scripted series where the overweight folks are front and centre.
Star Nikki Blonsky is best known for her role as Tracy Turnblad in the film version of the musical Hairspray (2007). She brings a deliciously acerbic zing to the role of Willamena Rader, who is bundled off to fat camp by her parents. Will, as she prefers to be called, is big and sassy and refuses to be ashamed of her size.
At the end of episode one, she decides that she wants to stay on at the camp, and it should be interesting to see how she will continue to rock the boat.
Unnatural History
In a nutshell: National Treasure – high-school edition.
What: Henry Griffin (Kevin Schmidt) is not your typical teenager. He has travelled all over the world and gone on all sorts of adventures. And then his parents decide to send him to a regular high school in Washington DC.
All that esoteric knowledge he has gathered comes in useful, however, when he decides to solve the mystery of the death of his godfather, aided reluctantly by his cousin Jasper Bartlett (Jordan Gavaris).
If Pretty Little Liars feels like poison to parents, then this wholesome adventure and mystery series packed with factoids should be the perfect antidote.
The Gates
In a nutshell: Vampires and werewolves in suburbia.
What: Plus-sized folks are near invisible on the goggle-box but the undead are getting overexposed.
The Twilight juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down while The Vampire Diaries and True Blood are carving up the audience share on TV.
The Gates wants a piece of the action but there is too much going on and it ends up feeling scattershot.
Nick Monohan (Frank Grillo, right, in green T-shirt) is the new chief of police in an exclusive gated community and it seems like the American Dream come true for him and his family. Cue alarm bells.
First day on the job and he has to deal with a missing person, last seen outside his new neighbour’s house. Meanwhile, his teenage kids have problems of their own to tackle at school.
There is the sinister adult conspiracy and a teenage romance angle, except that it all seems too familiar, like a cut-and-paste job of other series.
The Gates could well be shut out of viewers’ affections for all things undead.
Memphis Beat
In a nutshell: Maverick cop sings the blues.
What: Good news – Jason Lee (right) is starring in a new series right after the redneck comedy, My Name Is Earl, ended last year.
Bad news – Memphis Beat is not very good.
The title and opening credits promised a sense of place, the American South, and there was some of that but the pilot simply was not very compelling.
Dwight is the old-hand detective used to doing things his way and inevitably, there is a clash between him and the new lieutenant (Alfre Woodard). So far, so predictable.
It was also not clear whe- ther the fact that Dwight literally sings the blues in a pub was a one-episode gimmick or a recurring element of the series.
Whatever it is, things need to click and soon, or Memphis will be taking a beating in the ratings.
(ST)