A happy Bastille Day to our friends of French heritage.

Not to mention, it’s a little slow on the tube tonight.  And it’s hot.

So go check out the neighborhood pool.  Eat ice cream for dinner (just don’t do that all summer).

And share with us your favorite way to beat the

Continue reading Time to Hit the Neighborhood Pool, Wednesday, July 14

Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay, courtesy NBC Universal

WHITE COLLAR

Friendly Rating: Upper elementary and older.

Safety Rating: Minimal violence, but anti-hero issues.

Quality Rating: Way good.  Seriously way good.

Season Two premieres tonight on USA Network at 9 p.m.

You’ve got the world’s greatest forger and con-man.  You’ve got the only FBI

Continue reading White Collar is Back! Tuesday, July 13

Christopher Gorham and Piper Perabo, courtesy NBC Universal

COVERT AFFAIRS

Friendly Rating: Upper elementary and older.

Safety Rating: Some sexy disrobing and bed scenes, a fair amount of shooting and blood.

Quality Rating: Good, not great.

Series premieres tonight on USA Network at 10 p.m.

Covert Affairs – surprise, surprise – is your

Continue reading Covert Affairs Rather Obvious, Tuesday, July 13

SCOOBY-DOO! MYSTERY INCORPORATED

Friendly Rating: Mostly for early elementary, but not too gag worthy.

Safety Rating: Could be scary for real little ones.

Quality Rating: Standard Scooby-Doo – mostly corny, occasionally genuinely funny.

New animated series premieres tonight on Cartoon Network at 7 p.m.

It’s always been hard to explain the enduring appeal of

Continue reading New Scooby-Doo! Monday, July 12

Aaron Douglas, courtesy CBS

THE BRIDGE

Friendly Rating: Older elementary and up.

Safety Rating: Some violence, but pretty bloodless.

Quality Rating: Too obscure for its own good.

New series premieres on CBS tonight  at 8 p.m.

A lot of times, when I look at new series, I don’t like to read the show

Continue reading The Bridge to What? Saturday, July 10 at 8 p.m.

Joe Morton, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Neil Grayston, Eric Cerra, Colin Ferguson, courtesy NBC Universal

EUREKA

Friendly Rating: Elementary and older.

Safety Rating: Some violence, mostly in the form of things going boom.

Quality Rating: Finally, a smart show celebrating smart people.

Fourth season premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on Syfy.

You can’t help but

Continue reading Eureka! It’s Back, Friday, July 9

Cast of Glee, courtesy Fox Networks

So Glee cleaned up on nominations for the Emmy Awards, which were announced this morning.  The show raked in 19 nominations, the second-highest number for the year.

Most of the nominations were the usual suspects.   HBO picked up a boatload again, including 24 for miniseries The

Continue reading A Few Notes on the Emmy Awards, Thursday, July 8

THE CHOIR

Friendly Rating: All ages.

Safety Rating: Some muttered cursing, I think.

Quality Rating: Quite excellent.

Documentary series premieres on BBC America at 10 p.m. tonight.

Choir director Gareth Malone is on a mission to bring choral singing to the world, one high school and village at a time.  Obviously, this is a

Continue reading The Choir Sings, Wednesday, July 7

Joanne Kelly, Saul Rubinek, Eddie McClintock, courtest of NBC

WAREHOUSE 13

Friendly Rating: Elementary and up, depending on individual constitutions.

Safety Rating: Lots of things going boom, some blood.

Quality Rating: Fun and smart, what more could you ask?

Season Two premieres tonight on Syfy at 9 p.m.

The final scene of Raiders

Continue reading Warehouse 13 is Back! Tuesday, July 6

Courtesy PBS

Programming notes here.  The line-up of televised Fourth of July celebrations on the various networks are mostly live, so there are no review screeners.  But then,what’s the likelihood there’s going to be inappropriate content in any of these things?

Good question, actually.  What you call inappropriate and what I call inappropriate

Continue reading Fourth of July Fun, Friday, July 2 and Sunday, July 4