ABC
It’s (almost officially) summer, which means the beach that is network television is thick with smoke from the bonfire of summer-burnoff shows. Last weekend saw the return of Kings, which may or may not get the chance to air its remaining shot episodes on NBC, depending how the ratings hold up; the final episode of Pushing Daisies; and—while it’s not officially a burnoff yet—another episode of ABC’s The Goode Family, which, between being debuted after the regular season and then summarily being moved to Friday night, is not exactly getting a ringing vote of confidence.
Which is too bad, because I could see this being one of those shows that hits its stride just as it’s taken off the air. Friday’s episode was the series’ best yet, and one that showed that the premise about a family trying to live up to its lofty ideals could just have legs. I’ll assume no one here watched, but Helen received a visit from a Myanmar refugee she had sponsored since she was a teenager, only to find that the things her Third World friend longs for in the United States—electricity-guzzling appliances, piles of meat at the supermarket—are precisely the ones that Helen spurns; meanwhile, Gerald tries to decide if it’s worse to hire immigrant garden workers (and thus help their boss “exploit” them) or not hire them and thus leave them broke and unemployed. (“Do you think Al Gore has a staff of people who work for him?”) Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll get a chance to see where this series ultimately would have gone. Care to pick it up, Comedy Central?
Are you still keeping your fingers crossed for any summer burn-off shows? Tell us, or share your thoughts on the first True Blood of the season—I won’t be blogging it separately, though I may do the occasional episode—in the comments.