Summer standouts

I think I'm in a bit of Olympics withdrawal...there was so much to watch every day but now it's like I don't know what to do with myself! Thankfully the new fall season is starting next week, with Gossip Girl and 90210 coming up first. But the summer really hasn't been all that bad in terms of TV viewing...there was So You Think You Can Dance of course and Project Runway's on again (though this season's been a bit slow somehow) and these three picks:

1. My Boys. This season was way too short and it ended on yet another irritating cliffhanger but it was still really fun. I'm kind of torn about the PJ/Bobby thing. I was secretly rooting for him to be the one on the plane and was so happy when he was but then the anti-climactic way it all played was kind of...disappointing. And here's the problem: I kind of like Elsa and she totally doesn't deserve Bobby dumping her at the altar. I'm not sure that PJ and Bobby are enough of a "they belong together" type couple to make it ok. I wonder how much this is a result of me just liking Kyle Howard in general...I've always rooted for him in all of his failed series (Grosse Pointe, Opposite Sex, Related...) and of course it doesn't hurt that he's playing a really improbably nice and decent filthy rich guy. (The rumors that he's dating Lauren Conrad are a little disturbing though...)

Anyway, besides that, I liked that Stephanie writes the fastest book ever and becomes a semi-celebrity only to end up hooking up with Kenny, who she's always despised. Mike's been more annoying, but Andy's always great and Brendan "pursuing" one of Bobby's friends for a business opportunity did make me laugh. So when is this show coming back??

2. The Middleman on ABCFamily. That other ABCFamily summer series (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is inexplicably getting all the ratings this summer despite it's terrible acting and cliched characters and horrid writing, but this is the show I think people should be watching. It's not for everyone...it's pretty wacky, but it's so much fun. It's based on a comic book series so the details of the world are nicely fleshed out from the beginning. The main character is Wendy Watson, an aspiring artist who finds herself recruited by a superhero of sorts called the Middleman. He's one in a line of nameless Middlemen, and doesn't reveal any other name. He's a straight, square guy, who like, drinks milk and has an endless supply of funny expletive substitutions. The two of them fight a series of wacky and weird alien occurrences. Wendy (often called Dubbie or Dub-Dub) also has her normal life to deal with, including Lacey, her roommate, who has a crush on the Middleman, and Noser, a musician who perpetually hangs out in the hallway outside her apartment. It's just a really fun, quirky show and I hope it can come back for another season!

3. Mad Men. It's back for a second season and as intriguing as ever. The tone of the show has always been a little dark but this season things feel even more unsettled. At the end of last season it seemed like Don was going to be re-committing himself to his family, but he's straying again. But this season Betty's being more assertive. Peggy's even more confident at work and at play, but acting like her surprise pregnancy never happened and the baby being raised by her older sister doesn't belong to her. This week we got a little more insight into what happened to her, and a surprising connection between her and Don. In other news, the office gets a Xerox machine, Joan is over 30 but now engaged, and Pete uses his father's death in a plane crash to try and get new business. I can't help feeling like things are sort of building towards a disaster of some kind somewhere though...