The great summer of original programming on the broadcast networks has amounted to essentially one thing: crappy reality shows. I'm grateful for the efforts of network executives to give me an excuse not to leave my apartment this summer, but I refuse to sit through one more episode of The Casino or Big Brother 57. So, for quality programming with an actual script and intentional acting, I am forced to turn to basic cable. (Not that cable is crap-free in any way; memo to VH1: I do not love the '90s.)
Amid all the reality show repeats that first aired on broadcast networks are three fine, new dramatic series on basic cable; series that, strangely enough, are getting good ratings and critical attention. Imagine that! With quality, intelligent programming, cable networks have gotten people to watch TV over the summer. Who knew?
Maybe "intelligent" is a little too strong a word to describe sci-fi drama The 4400 (USA, Sundays, 9 p.m.), but if it's not quite as cerebral as some sci-fi, it's at least making the effort to get there and posing enough interesting mysteries along the way to make it worth watching. The concept is striking: 4,400 people, all of whom have disappeared in the last 60 years, suddenly reappear in a flash of light near Seattle. None of them have aged, and none remember what happened to them. As they attempt to reintegrate into society, some exhibit special powers. This being the post-9/11 world, the 4,400 are tracked not by the FBI, CIA nor some made-for-TV government agency, but by the Department of Homeland Security (lovingly referred to on the show as "Home Sec").
The two agents assigned to the 4,400, Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Diana Scouris (Jacqueline McKenzie), are the poor man's version of Mulder and Scully from The X-Files, only not as witty. That could sum up the whole show, whose executive producers include two veterans of the Star Trek franchise and one from the recent version of The Outer Limits. It's total sci-fi cheese, but entertaining cheese, and despite some low production values and wooden acting, it's still more compelling than yet another reality dating show.
The post-9/11 angle in The 4400 is subtle, showing just how much our perspective has shifted, but it's far more pronounced in two other new dramas. The Grid (TNT, Mondays, 9 p.m.) is a gritty, semi-realistic look at fighting terrorism internationally, with a cast of American and British law enforcement officials (FBI, NSC, CIA, MI-5 and MI-6, but sadly no Home Sec) tracking an al-Qaeda-like force as it plans attacks in various countries. Produced in conjunction with the BBC, The Grid is a limited series with a decidedly British flair, and benefits from a generally balanced perspective and a minimum of sentimentality. Dylan McDermott's FBI agent Max Canary does have an unfortunate monologue in the pilot about his best friend who died in the World Trade Center. But that detail is then used well as motivation, and manages to feel more like character development than a gimmick, unlike a similar move used on last year's ABC midseason mob drama Line of Fire.
The terrorists, too, get something that resembles character development, although in the end, of course, they've got to be the bad guys. It'd be worth seeing The Grid continue past its six-episode run if the producers can maintain the balance of realism, action, character and a certain obligation to show the devastating effects of terrorism.
In a strange bit of synergy, the lead character in the firefighter dramedy Rescue Me (FX, Wednesdays, 10 p.m.) also lost a best friend in the World Trade Center, and stranger still, also will end up dating that friend's wife in a future episode, as Max Canary does with his friend's wife on The Grid. Something is in the water in TV land, and it smells a little like survivor's guilt. Rescue Me is, in many ways, the other side of the post-9/11 coin to The Grid, with the latter focused on those who fight terrorism, and the former on those left to pick up the pieces in terrorism's wake. Denis Leary stars as New York City firefighter Tommy Kelly, the same sort of foul-mouthed, flawed-but-decent-hearted public servant he played on ABC's short-lived The Job, in which he was a cop. Rescue Me is essentially The Job, but with fire and more swearing.
Created by Leary and Job co-creator Peter Tolan, Rescue Me packs more drama than the half-hour ABC show did, and generally has a more balanced tone. While Leary is known for his vulgar comedy, and he displays plenty of it here, there's just as much heartfelt drama, especially in his talks with the ghost of his dead buddy. Critics have gone a little overboard in praising Rescue Me, which still needs time to develop its supporting characters and see if it can maintain its often brutal tone without numbing its audience, but it's certainly the best show to debut this summer, for whatever that's worth.
It's also a show that would never end up on network TV, and not just because the first episode has "shit," "pussy" and "asshole" uttered more than once in its first five minutes. It's too raw, too experimental, too likely to flounder a bit before finding an audience. Unlike all the crappy reality shows we're expected to watch, it's actually true to life.