Keeping up with television shows is a science – your choices need to be calculated and you can miss good shows if you’re not careful. With more than 80 shows presently airing on multiple platforms, and Hollywood actors including Kevin Spacey and Matthew McConaughey and directors such as Martin Scorsese and David Fincher taking to the small screen, scripted television from Uncle Sam is having its moment this summer. The Brits are not far behind as British shows and their adaptations are finding home in the United States.
Most shows making a debut will not get past the first-season mark; some won’t make it past a few episodes. Aaron Sorkin’s criminally underrated and short-lived drama, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip starring Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, is a case in point. Armed with this little fact, here are some potential contenders that might survive the axe.
Plot: Eric Dane stars as Captain Tom Chandler with a crew of 217 sailors under his command on a fictional navy vessel, USS Nathan James. Rhona Mitra stars as a virologist, Dr Rachel Scott, who is one of the few civilians on USS Nathan James.
What’s the catch? 80 per cent of the world’s population is dead because of a mysterious, airborne virus. The captain and doctor will ‘save the world’ or something like that.
Why you should watch it: It is a Michael Bay production and he does the boom spectacle very well. The trailers are super macho, and cast members are stunning, if that helps. This is Eric Dane’s first major role since he departed from Grey’s Anatomy, where he played the role of Dr Mark ‘McSteamy’ Sloan. Rhona Mitra has a series of roles under her belt, with David E Kelley’s Boston Legal topping the list.
Airing Date: June 20 on TNT
Plot: The ten-episode series is based on American novelist, writer and Academy Award-nominee Tom Moretta’s book, The Leftovers. Two per cent of the world’s population including the Pope goes missing without a trail or an explanation. Will the world pick up and move on or champion the dead?
What’s the catch: It is a look at a biblical idea called ‘rapture’ and if it really did happen. Point, HBO.
Why you should watch it: Other than the obvious reason (the plot), the show has been co-produced and directed by Peter Berg of Friday Night Lights fame and co-produced by Emmy Award-winning writer and Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. Justin Theroux is steering the cast. HBO’s edgy and stellar record with successes such as Girls, Game of Thrones and The Newsroom is another factor.
Airing Date: June 29 on HBO
Plot: Son of a fictional dictator from a fictional country goes back home after years from the United States. His American values, an authoritarian father’s dismay and culture shock are some of the running themes.
What’s the catch: The idea is out of the box and sharp enough to work. Given American foreign policy penchant for supporting dictators, it sounds amusing.
Why you should watch it: Gideon Raff. Who is he? An Israeli producer/director/writer who wrote an original show on which Showtime’s Homeland is based. Producers of Homeland, Gideon and Howard Gordon are behind this show. The cast is not exactly familiar, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Airing Date: June 24 on FX
Plot: While the world is ending in The Last Ship and disappearing in The Leftovers, Extant is leading the way to the opposite direction: existence and human evolution. Molly Woods, an astronaut returns to planet earth from a thirteen-month stint in space on a solo mission. She has no recollection of this mission and is pregnant.
What’s the catch: Halle Berry stars as Molly Woods.
Why you should watch it: Steven Spielberg and Halle Berry are serving as co-executive producers and taking a chance on rookie creator Mickey Fisher. The plot may sound a little like Rosemary’s Baby-meets-Gravity-meets-The Astronaunt’s Wife, but the eerie trailer looks promising. Anything that involves space is intriguing, especially now, with companies like Google going to space to provide free internet to far-flung places.
Airing Date: July 9 on CBS
Plot: A series set in the 1980s about personal computers and the companies that helped shape the technological revolution such as Apple and Microsoft. It will be an insider view and is touted as a fictionalised version of events from a time and place where personal computing hadn’t reached its potential.
What’s the catch? It is tech television.
Why you should watch it: Technology is spreading at warp speed. Predator drones and robots are expected to replace human beings in wars and military. Technological nostalgia makes sense in today’s world. Lee Pace of Pushing Daisies fame is leading the cast. Halt and Catchfire along with HBO’s Silicon Valley have not garnered great reviews, but that may change with future episodes.
Airing Date: Currently on-air on AMC
Maheen Sabeeh is a freelance writer who tweets @maheensbh
Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2014.
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