"Torchwood," "Nurse Jackie," "Rescue Me," "Web Soup": Summer's Best TV

amp160amp160The annual orgy of fall season premieres seems less exciting with each passing year Could it have anything to do with the fact that summer television keeps getting better and better Here are the best of the seasonamp8217s new and returning series so far along with a couple of teases about the treasures to comeamp160Torchwood BBC America premieres July 20 Letamp8217s begin with the best Torchwood Children of Earth is the television event of the summer In fact this is one of the finest television productions you will see all year Itamp8217s a fivenight fivehour miniseries or maxiepisode that will thrill veteran fans of this Doctor Who spinoff all over again but those unfortunate souls who have yet to discover the adventures of cocky omnisexual alien fighter Captain Jack Harkness the multitalented John Barrowman will likely be dazzled by it as well Happily the selfcontained storyline is easily accessible to newcomers Harkness has faced dozens of deadly threats from other worlds during the first two seasons of this series and on Doctor Who too but never one as grave as in this tale in which the menace is directed at all of the children on Earth The expression amp8220We are comingamp8221 will haunt you for weeks to come Thatamp8217s all Iamp8217m going to say about it for now except for this important footnote Fans of this franchise who think they know all there is to know about Harkness and his teammates will learn a whole lot more about all of them right out of the gate To put it another way you donamp8217t know Jackamp160Nurse Jackie Showtime Edie Falco is delivering the performance of the year as a compassionate and indefatigable wife mother and medical professional in this extraordinary hospitalbased drama that is so wellcrafted it makes a timeworn genre feel positively new Every actor on this show is doing extraordinary work so much so that each character comes across as someone I have never before seen in a television series Nurse Jackie Peyton is about as flawed as they come carrying on an affair at work with the doctor who feeds her drug addiction but the flawless Falco makes her deeply interesting and deserving of the vieweramp8217s sympathy and respect Iamp8217m not quite sure why Jackie feels the need to get it on with another man because her husband is a smart sexy hardworking guy But I can roll with her because watching this woman maneuver through the many complexities in her life several of them selfimposed is endlessly entertaining and never less than rewarding The July 13 episode with guest star Judith Ivey is about as perfect a halfhour of television as you are likely to find Showtime has perfected the art of the halfhour comedydrama with Weeds United States of Tara and now Nurse Jackie Itamp8217s a genius format Whereas most hour dramas have me watching the clock every episode of these three series leaves me wanting moreamp160Americaamp8217s Got Talent NBC Now that Fox has decided to run So You Think You Can Dance in the fall Americaamp8217s Got Talent is the only summer broadcast hit that has not been moved into the SeptemberMay season by its network CBSamp8217 Survivor ABCamp8217s Dancing with the Stars and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Foxamp8217 American Idol all began life as summer shows As tempting as it is to suggest that sorely struggling NBC relocate Talent into a potentially more profitable position Iamp8217m glad it has chosen to maintain this welcome summer tradition Idol and Dancing are exciting popculture phenomena and they are two of my favorite shows but I canamp8217t recall ever being genuinely moved by anything I have seen on either one of them By contrast I canamp8217t get through an hour of Talent especially during its audition weeks without a lump rising in my throat I was floored by the talents of 13yearold dancer Arcadian Broad 14yearold singer Thia Megia and supernaturally skilled illusionist Drew Thomas but I am all about chicken catcher and aspiring country singer Kevin Skinner He may prove to be our Susan Boyleamp160Web Soup G4 Major entertainment magazines are only now catching on to the appeal of Eamp8217s The Soup and its talented host Joel McHale amp8211 two years after this column called much attention to both So pay attention when I tell you that G4 a sister network to E has a brand new winner in Web Soup a weekly summation of what its instantly ingratiating host Chris Hardwick calls amp8220the Internetamp8217s freshest droppingsamp8221 What better way to sort through the thousands of viral videos uploaded online every week than by letting a television show do it for you Even better Hardwick and his team divide them into such categories as amp8220Things You Canamp8217t Unseeamp8221 and amp8220The Greatest Web Video Ever This Weekamp8221 for easy comic consumptionamp160Attack of the Show G4 Now this is awesome Attack of the Show is already a daily mustsee experience for any selfrespecting digital or Web culture aficionado or nerd but later this month it is going to meld with the annual fanboy and amp8211girl gathering that is ComicCon for an unprecedented live twohour telecast of one of the Conamp8217s many SRO panels The Star Wars Spectacular AOTS hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn will moderate Thatamp8217s happening on July 25th at 2 pm ET Itamp8217s a big month for AOTS which marks its 1000th telecast later this week July 9 with a live twohour specialamp160Burn Notice USA Network Jeffrey Donovan Gabrielle Anwar and Bruce Campbell appear to be having more fun than anyone else on television during the third season of USAamp8217s highoctane actionadventure about a mysteriously ousted government agent fending off dangerous old enemies and potentially deadlier former employers with a little help from his friends No guilt about it Watching Anwaramp8217s supremely selfconfident Fiona Glenanne blow up or gun down the bad guys is one of the summeramp8217s great pleasuresamp160True Blood HBO Alan Ballamp8217s sexy gory sexy violent sexy dark sexy scary sexy funny sexy and disturbing expansion of Charlaine Harrisamp8217 novels about the erotic relationship between psychic waitress Sookie Stackhouse Anna Paquin and centuriesold vampire Bill Compton Stephen Moyer has improved markedly in its sophomore season with the addition of the scintillating Michelle Forbes as the enigmatic Maryann Forrester a supernatural temptress who befriends the locals in the tiny Louisiana town of Bon Temps and brings out the nasty in all of them Sheamp8217s also a monster or demon of some kind that butchers people on the side but sheamp8217s much more fun to watch when sheamp8217s working her mojoamp160Rescue Me FX The musical sequences with Steven Pasquale while well produced are starting to wear thin but in every other way the fifth season of FXamp8217s hotblooded drama about New York Cityamp8217s bravest and the women who love them has surprisingly emerged as the seriesamp8217 best to date Tormented by refreshed memories of 911 and haunted by the ghosts of the many males he has lost over the years his sweet young son his argumentative brother his unloving father and his beloved cousin alcoholic firefighter Tommy Gavin is hitting the bottle in a big bad way In a recent sequence more horrifying than anything ever seen in True Blood Gavinamp8217s alcoholinduced psychosis prompted him to light a blow torch and burn a hole in his inner thigh Denis Learyamp8217s unflinching portrayal of a man being destroyed by his demons is simply stunning Callie Thorne as oversexed and emotionally damaged 911 widow Sheila Keefe is doing her best work ever and Pasquale deserves special recognition as dimwitted Sean Garrity forced to contend with his ferociously flawed mother and brother and take a lot of goodnatured shit from his buddies while fighting kidney cancer and dreaming that he is a talented song and dance manamp160Also hot this summer TNTamp8217s The Closer even though it has been bogged down by an illadvised subplot about Deputy Police Chief Johnsonamp8217s dying cat Showtimeamp8217s Weeds more happily harrowing than ever now that Nancy MaryLouise Parker is carrying a murderous mobsteramp8217s child Syfyamp8217s Warehouse 13 an easy to take sciencefiction adventure that invites goodnatured comparisons to The XFiles and BBC Americaamp8217s upcoming Being Human about a vampire a werewolf and a ghost who live together and cover for each other when their darker halves get the best of them Itamp8217s kind of like Melrose Place but with more realism amp160

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"Torchwood," "Nurse Jackie," "Rescue Me," "Web Soup": Summer's Best TV

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Ed Martin

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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"Torchwood," "Nurse Jackie," "Rescue Me," "Web Soup": Summer's Best TV

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