Summer TV round-up

It's been a good summer for me. Not only did I take most of the month of July off to relax on various beaches and beside numerous pools, I also got to watch several new television shows that I really enjoyed, along with a couple of others who had good sophomore seasons. And of course my summertime beloved - So You Think You Can Dance.

My top 3 summer shows were all newbies, and two of them are clearly geared towards a teen demographic, but you know what? I don't care. And I know I wasn't the only audience member in their childless 40s watching them!

• Chasing Life - an ABCFamily drama about a young woman in her 20s dealing with her father's death and her recent diagnosis of leukemia. The main reason I fell in love with this show is that Scott Michael Foster is one of the leads and I love him lots. Especially now that he's not on "Greek" so has ditched the long hair and pukka shell necklaces. HOT. The main character is played by Italia Ricci, who is a lovely actress that I'm surprised I haven't seen in anything else. This show also let Steven Weber return to television and that is a blessing.
• Finding Carter - Oh MTV, first you gave me my new favorite mid-season show Faking It (coming back in late September woo!!), and now you give me the gift of Alex Saxon (and his glorious hair) as Max, the best dude you'd ever want as your friend, boyfriend, brother, or son. The main plot involves a girl (the titular Carter) finding out at 16 that she was actually kidnapped away from her real family 13 years previously and raised a few hours north by a crazy lady who Carter has believed is her cool single mom Lori. Carter then has to adapt to having not only a twin sister and a little brother, but also parents, Elizabeth a police detective and David a writer who became famous when he wrote a true-crime book about the kidnapping, whom Carter is wary of and angry at for taking her away from her "real mom". I'm not going to lie, most of time you want to punch Carter in the face for being so bratty and obnoxious, but I don't really watch the show for her, I watch it for MAX. 

Dear Alex Saxon, I love you and your beautiful hair. Marry me, please! I first fell in love with Saxon on another teen drama that I love, the excellent ABCFamily show The Fosters. On that show he plays Wyatt, recently dumped boyfriend of the lead character Callie. I was at first very upset over the prospect of Wyatt being written off the show, because I love Saxon's portrayal of him so much. But then Alex Saxon showed up in the very first minutes of Finding Carter, playing the role of Max, who is not very different from Wyatt (a little older, a little dumber, a little more stoned), but better in all ways because of how sweet his dynamic with the Wilson family is on "Finding Carter". Also his hair! HIS BEAUTIFUL HAIR!

• The Leftovers - Oh man, this show. I loved the heck out of Tom Perrotta's book that this HBO downer drama is based from. Although the television show is in ways very different from the book, I felt the stories were in good hands because Perrota has written or has supervised the writing of all of the episodes of this first season. One of the major differences between the book and TV show is the tone. Yes, the book was sad; there was a lightness or a feeling of hope infused in the writing however. The show, especially the first 4 episodes, is unrelentingly dire. And this makes it sometimes very hard to watch. What keeps me liking it and watching it are the performances from the actors. Holy crap, give Amy Brenneman her Emmy now! She conveys so damn much without uttering a word. Also cool to see good ol' Justin Theroux getting some recognition. DC boy made good.