TVSquad

In a time when networks are so quick to pull the plug on new series, it is absolutely stunning that two of this season's newest cable series have already been picked up for a second season. What's even more surprising is that one renewed show is Stephen Bochco's terrible Raising the Bar. After setting a record for a series debut on basic cable with 7.7 million viewers, 2.2 million people asked themselves what the hell they were watching, and the series settled into an average of 5.5 mil. But it's only been three weeks?

Surely, more of its viewers will realize that the show is absolutely terrible? From Gosselaar's bleeding heart crying to the bitching between his friends and Jane Kaczmarek's crazy judge, there's more leaps in logic and good sense than in Prison Break. The show makes Boston Legal look like a courtroom documentary. TNT also picked up Holly Hunter's Saving Grace after a respectable summer run.

TNT's original dramas are kind of hit or miss for me. I'm absolutely in love with The Closer, but have zero interest in Saving Grace, despite its good reviews and Holly Hunter's Emmy nomination. It was while I was watching The Closer that I saw the ads for Raising the Bar, TNT's newest series, which premieres on Monday, September 1 at 10 pm. I've got to say, I had the same reaction when I first saw promos for Saving Grace: "meh."

I love a good lawyer show, but there was something about Raising the Bar that just struck me as bland. I really didn't know if I'd even bother checking out the premiere. However, when I got the chance to see the first three episodes, I decided to jump on it. This way I could check it out at my leisure, but more importantly, I could figure out just what the hell is going on with Mark-Paul Gosselaar's hair.

• CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, C-SPAN, and some PBS stations have coverage of the Democratic National Convention all night, and ABC, CBS, and NBC join in at 10.
• At 7, USA has coverage of The U.S. Open.
• At 8, NBC has the season premiere of Deal or No Deal., followed by the premiere of America's Toughest Jobs.
  
• ABC has a new High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8.
• ESPN has Preseason Football at 8, the Chargers vs. the Seahawks.
• BBC America has a new Top Gear at 8.
• Also at 8: TCM has a marathon of Ingrid Bergman films, including Notorious, Spellbound, Intermezzo, and Indiscreet.
• At 8:30, Food Network has a new How'd That Get On My Plate?
• At 9, TNT has a new episode of The Closer, then a new Saving Grace.
• Sci-Fi has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• GSN has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• At 10, Showtime has a new Weeds.
• ABC Family has a new Middleman at 10.
• Discovery has Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein at 10.
  
• There's a new Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on Travel Channel at 10.
• MTV has a new episode of The Hills at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• NBC has Olympics coverage all night.
• At 8, ABC has High School Musical: Get in the Picture.
• TCM has The Big Knife at 8.
• Noggin has a new Go, Diego, Go! at 8.
• At 9, Discovery has a new Raging Nature, then the premiere of Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein.
• TNT has a new episode of The Closer, followed by a new Saving Grace.
• GSN has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• HBO has Thank You Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House at 9.
• Toon Disney has a new Chaotic at 9, then a new Digimon.
• At 10, ABC Family has a new Middleman.
• MTV has the season premiere of The Hills at 10.
• There's a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network at 10.
• Showtime has a new Weeds at 10.
• Also at 10: Travel Channel has a new Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• NBC has more Olympics coverage all night.
• At 8, ABC has a new High School Musical: Get in the Picture.
• Food Network has a new Good Eats at 8, followed by new episodes of How'd That Get On My Plate? and Unwrapped.
• ESPN has more Little League World Series coverage at 8.
• At 9, PBS has a new History Detectives.
• There's a new Monday Night RAW on USA at 9.
• TNT has a new episode of The Closer at 9, then a new Saving Grace.
• MTV has the new movie The American Mall at 9.
• VH-1 has a new I Want To Work For Diddy at 9.
• At 10, ABC has the season finale of The Mole.
• ABC Family has a new Middleman at 10.
• Showtime has a new Weeds at 10.
• Also at 10: Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Check your local TV listings for more.

If you like strong women on TV, the kind you've been seeing on TNT in The Closer and Saving Grace, you'll be happy to hear that the network has more formidible females on tap. TNT has given the greenlight to a new drama called Time Heals. And with the kind of top notch talent behind the scenes, I can't imagine this drama not making it to air.

The guy who is creating the show, John Masius, is an Emmy-winning writer, having grabbed two Emmys when he worked on St. Elsewhere. So, yeah, this is sounding better and better because Masius knows about medical drama and Time Heals is the story of Nancy Hawthorne, a single mother who is the head of nursing at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. She's the type of woman who really cares about her patients and becomes emotionally involved in her job.

Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.

While I'm really, really happy that Burn Notice grabbed the #6 slot this week, I'm a little bummed out that Mad Men didn't make the top 10. In fact, it didn't even make it in anywhere near the top 10, despite getting two million viewers for its season premiere. Still, that's better than the ratings for last season.

1. The Closer (TNT)
2. NASCAR Sprint Cup (ESPN)
3. Saving Grace (TNT)
4. Monk (USA)
5. Hannah & Miley (Disney)
6. Burn Notice (USA)
7. Monday Night RAW (USA)
8. Law and Order: CI (USA)
9. Yankees vs. Red Sox (ESPN)
10. In Plain Sight (USA)

No, it's not another lamentation about those overlooked shows that really do deserve a DVD set, but just can't seem to get them. I've grown accustomed to having Bob's weekly DVD release post arrive like a slap in the face as Beggars and Choosers is not on it, again. Instead, this is about those shows that do get their DVD set, but are late for no good reason at all. At least, not one that I can come up with.

I started thinking about it last week as I was talking with a friend and we were watching the Hellboy/Chuck promo. She commented that she really should start watching Chuck. In full agreement, I quickly pointed her to the Chuck page on Hulu. But wait, there are only three episodes available on Hulu. I guessed that it must be because they don't want streaming to cannibalize DVD sales. So I headed to Amazon. Chuck isn't out on DVD until September 16th. What the hell?

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Birds of Prey - Complete Series
• Classic TV Commercials - Ones We Never Forgot
• Dallas - Season 9
• Eureka - Season 2
• Evening Shade - Season 1
• Jesse Stone - 4 Pack
• New Adventures of The Long Ranger/Zorro - Vol. 2
• Reno 911 - Season 5
• Saving Grace - Season 1
• Swamp Thing - Vol. 2

• At 8, ABC has a new reunion episode of The Bachelor, then two new episodes of The Mole.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, followed by new episodes of Nashville Star and Dateline.
• TCM has a new Under The Influence with Bill Murray, followed by A Night at the Opera.
• At 9, PBS has a new History Detectives.
• There's a new Monday Night RAW on USA at 9.
• GSN has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• Also at 9: TNT has the season premiere of The Closer, then the season premiere of Saving Grace.
• At 10, ABC Family has a new Middleman.
• E! has a new episode of The Soup at 10.
• MTV has a new Legally Blonde at 10.
• Showtime has a new Weeds at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

The cable networks have been very, very good to women over the last few years. Particularly strong, independent women who are on par, or many times above, the men in their lives. This has been exemplified by characters like Brenda Johnson in The Closer, PJ Franklin on My Boys, Nancy Botwin on Weeds, Patty Hewes on Damages, and the ladies from HBO's Sex in the City.

Last year, someone new joined Leigh, PJ, and the rest of the women of cable. Her name was Grace Hanadarko -- the smoking, drinking, and sexually promiscuous Oklahoma City police detective from TNT's Saving Grace. Grace is played by Holly Hunter, the award-winning actress who has appeared in such films as Raising Arizona, The Piano (for which she won an Academy Award) and The Incredibles. Late last week, Holly spoke to members of the press concerning the second season of Saving Grace (premiering tonight at 10 pm) and what's in store for the hard-living detective.

Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.

1. Emmy nominations. If Moonlight and Jericho aren't nominated for every award, fans are gonna be pissed. (Thursday at 8:30am on E!, ABC, CBS, and NBC. We'll also have live blog coverage here!)

2. Season premieres of Monk, Psych, The Closer, and Saving Grace. Remember when summer was all about reruns? (The Closer and Saving Grace premiere tonight on TNT, while Monk and Psych premiere Friday on USA.)

3. The Gong Show. A remake of the classic show that has three judges choosing the very few talented performers out of dozens of terrible ones. Wait, that sounds like American Idol. (Thursday at 10 on Comedy Central.)

4. TV Squad reports from the TCA tour. Follow us here and on Twitter. All the hip kids are doing it!

5. It's Star Trek Week here at TV Squad. We'll all be dressed as our favorite character as we post reviews, lists, and essays about the original series.

6. Mad Men marathon. The second season starts on July 27, so grab your Lucky Strikes and some bourbon and settle in for an all-day season one marathon. (Sunday starting at noon on AMC.)

All things considered, the summer television season is off to a pretty good start. I've been enjoying My Boys, The Middleman, Fear Itself, and So You Think You Can Dance, to name a few. The schedules might be a little heavy with the reality programming at the moment, but that's changing soon enough. Over the next few weeks we have the likes of Eureka, Psych, Burn Notice, Stargate: Atlantis, Monk, The Closer, and Saving Grace all making their returns.

With those last two in mind, I thought I would point everyone to some handy recaps the fine folks over at TNT put together to get us back up to speed before the shows return on July 14th. Each of the videos manages to crunch the last season down to about four and a half minutes, and I've embedded them after the jump.

Upon seeing the headline that TNT is going to be doing a new version of the UK series Cracker, I suspect I had the same reaction as many of you: Wasn't this show already remade for U.S. audiences? Yes, it was. It happened in 1997 and starred Robert Pastorelli and an unknown Josh Hartnett. They even managed a guest spot for the star of the original, Robbie Coltrane. Unfortunately, it never really caught on, and struggled to make it through that one season.

Granada America still thinks the show can be a success stateside. More specifically, they think it can be a success on cable. As senior VP Julie Meldal-Johnson puts it, "We thought the timing was right and that American cable, edgier and more open, would be a better venue for it than broadcast." And that's the bit that, kind of, sells me on the idea. Cable does offer certain freedoms and TNT does have a pretty good thing going with The Closer and Saving Grace. We'll just consider that Heartland mess a learning experience, for now. Despite failing once, Cracker remains a great story, and I'm willing to give yet another incarnation a go.

I didn't watch the first season of Saving Grace, but over the weekend, I had an opportunity to screen the second season premiere, titled 'Have a Seat, Earl.' The show is gritty and heartbreaking, and it's shooting to the top of my Must-Watch List.

First of all, let's get this out of the way: I want Holly Hunter's body. The girl just turned 50 in March, and her body is as fit and toned as a 20-year-old triathlete. Only better, because she's got all the wisdom of a 50-year-old soul.

OK, on to the story. I won't give a blow-by-blow of the episode, which premieres July 14, 10/9c on TNT, but I will talk about key plot-points, so if you're averse to spoilers, you'd best quit reading here. Don't say I didn't warn you.