Summer TV season offers up fresh entertainment
May 18Summer is right around the corner, and we all know what that means: lazy days, no homework and countless hours of guilt-free television binges. Luckily, just as your Netflix favorites are beginning to feel stale and over-watched due to excessive procrastination during finals, TV's best networks are roaring back with their annual assortment of summer debuts. Here is a rundown of the upcoming season's potential hits and misses. The inventive and promising Although summer television usually offers ample fluff and a general lack of substance, there are a few novel ideas in the mix this year. Premiering first is "Penny Dreadful" (May 11 on Showtime), a gothic horror series in which literature's creepiest villains, including Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and characters from "Dracula" (1897), are all brought together in Victorian London. The show promises excess violence and drama, along with what Showtime describes as a "literary flourish." On the lighter end of the spectrum is "Almost Royal" (June 21), BBC America's first-ever original comedy series. The show will follow two British aristocrats as they visit the United States for the first time, and will provide an optimistic contrast to the dark sci-fi drama and fellow BBC America staple "Orphan Black" (2013-present). The star-studded Viewers will be treated to celebrity-heavy casts this summer, with everyone from Halle Berry to Chris O'Dowd gracing the small screen. Many of these are shaping up to be promising comedies or at least lighthearted guilty pleasures. Among these big-name projects is Amy Poehler's "Welcome to Sweden" (premieres July 10 on NBC), which will star the comedienne's own brother, Greg Poehler, as a devoted husband who follows his wife to her new job in Stockholm. So far, everything Poehler has touched has turned into TV gold, including "Parks and Recreation" (2009-present) and her latest success "Broad City," so fans can likely expect good things from this new venture. Next up is the debut of "RIOT" (May 13 on FOX), an improv comedy show produced by Steve Carrell's Carousel Television. The network says this show will literally test the players' minds and bodies "as they face song, dance and sketch challenges, all while navigating the ... set, tilted at a 22 degree angle." Following in this gimmicky vein is CeeLo Green's "The Good Life" (premieres June 23 on TBS), a new (and admittedly scripted) reality show that follows the singer and his friends in their journey to release a long-awaited album. Perhaps the most highly anticipated of these celebrity-sprinkled premieres will be "Extant" (July 9 on CBS). This new sci-fi drama features Berry as an astronaut who returns to Earth and attempts to reconnect with her loved ones. With Steven Spielberg as the executive producer, "Extant" will certainly add some gravitas to this summer's lineup. The intriguingly weird With every new TV season comes a fresh batch of oddball shows that make us wonder whether there was any real demand for these pilots or if our favorite networks have just run out of ideas. Either way, for those with loads of free time and no shame, this summer will provide a good amount of bizarre reality fodder to keep viewers laughing and scratching their heads. Most notable of these premieres might be The Discovery Channel's "Alaskan Bush People" (May 6), which centers on a family living in the wilderness of Alaska's Copper River Valley. This clan, comprised of a husband, a wife and seven children, is so removed from society that six to nine months may pass before the group has any contact with outsiders. After the government seizes their cabin, these so-called "Alaskan Bush People" move even further into the wild. As an added bonus, they refer to themselves as the "wolf pack." If this show is ridiculous enough, it might just rival the success of A&E's "Duck Dynasty" (2012-present). At the very least, it's guaranteed to provide some good laughs. Finally, this summer marks the arrival of VH1's brainchild "Dating Naked" (July 17), the title of which is not a metaphor: Contestants will, quite literally, shed their clothes to go on two dates in a remote location, after which they will choose the most worthy suitor. The network is attempting to pass this off as a genuine human interest piece, describing the premise as "what it really means to be naked in the search for love ... no clothing, no jewelry, no phones or conventions of society. Just you." Nice try.
