It seems to be an accepted fact among my colleagues and friends that I’m not particularly fond of scorching temperatures – which is rather interesting considering that summer is one of my all-time favorite seasons. You see, I am a big fan of summer television. In fact, I honestly believe it’s the best form of broadcast programming. While there may be some individuals who don’t particularly share my sentiment, I stand by my unadulterated belief. Simply put, summer TV is damn awesome.

Don’t believe me? Take a gander at your local listings.

I’ve always found diversity to be the spice of life. To that end, I’ve become hooked on several dissimilar, yet remarkably entertaining, shows this summer. The USA Network has become known for offering television programs that are light and fluffy. I’m a big fan of Royal Pains which is one of the shows that I’ve been watching on the network. In fact, it’s become a part of my Wednesday night staple along with the hilarious Baby Daddy on ABC Family, and the always funny The Soul Man on TV Land. On Saturday mornings, my television is locked on Cartoon Network for Beware the Batman, and my Sunday evenings are spent watching Devious Maids on Lifetime.

You see? There really is something for everyone.

Perchance the same can be said about the regular television season – you know, the one that commonly starts in late September and ends in May. Last season, I had trouble finding a new show to watch during the fall and spring. I gave Arrow a shot but that fizzled like a can of Mountain Dew. I even tried Scandal, but it just didn’t do anything for me. While there was honestly a broad selection for me to choose from, I couldn’t find a program that I could enjoy. This certainly isn’t the case for the summer though.

One of the things that I find so amazingly appealing about summer shows is that they have a shorter concentrated season generally consisting of about 13 to 14 episodes as opposed to the standard 24. Television shows that have more episodes usually have to stretch plots out which can become dull, tedious and rather protracted. Does Lost ring a bell? However, by having a shorter season, I find that the pace is sharper and the story flows a bit smoother without having to add in unnecessary filler storylines.

This certainly seems to be working for Devious Maids which has been having one hell of a season on Lifetime. One of the show’s main storylines involves a murder mystery that has been playing out over the course of its 13 episode season. The writers have found a way to cleverly craft the story without having it drag. I think that’s worthy of note. However, sometimes a shorter season can leave one yearning for more.

Such is the case for TV Land’s The Soul Man which is wrapping up its 10 episode second season on August 28. The sitcom, starring Cedric the Entertainer and Niecy Nash, hasn’t earned a third season pick up just yet which is one of the reasons I wanted a longer second season. I’m bummed that it’s ending so soon, and it’s causing me to wonder just what I will replace it with. The fact of the matter is that summer TV lasts only during the, well, summer. Fall TV is on the horizon, and while I am looking forward to the premiere of Almost Human on FOX, I just feel that the fall isn’t the same.

There’s a certain quality to summer programming, an amusing charm. It’s kind of like cotton candy – not much to it, but fun to eat. Summer TV is entertaining. It’s a good way to kick back after a hard day and unwind with a few laughs. Perhaps that’s what I enjoy about it the most – the fact that it’s simple, concise and downright amusing.

Now, that’s what I call hot.

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Earlier this week, CliqueClack hosted a giveaway celebrating USA’s hit new show Graceland. But the new undercover cop drama isn’t the only show the network has starting up this week. This weekend, we’re also adding giveaways for Royal Pains and Necessary Roughness.

Up first we’ll turn to everyone’s favorite concierge doctor, Hank Lawson. It isn’t always easy playing doctor to the 1%, but Hank manages to get the job done. Here’s all of the cool swag we’re offering up to celebrate his return Wednesday night, June 12th:

Royal Pains Season 5 Prize Pack

• Royal Pains Bocce Ball Set
• Royal Pains Canvas Bag
• Season 1 DVD

To enter, reply to this post before Sunday June 16th at Midnight Eastern telling us your favorite thing about Dr. Hank Lawson. The winner wil be chosen at random after the contest closes.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3KaP8s8SU

More about the season five premiere:

In the rousing summer return, Mark Feuerstein stars as Dr. Hank Lawson, the go to “doctor for hire” in the Hamptons, who finds that life out east isn’t always as perfect as it may seem.  After spending the winter recuperating from brain surgery, Hank (Mark Feuerstein) is ready to return to work on the first weekend of summer – or so he thinks.  With their Hamptons medical concierge service, HankMed, busier than ever and Boris’ (recurring guest star Campbell Scott) death still a mystery, Hank finds himself relying on Jeremiah (new series regular Ben Shenkman) in a very surprising way. Evan’s (Paulo Costanzo) rescue of an influential neighbor (recurring guest star Frances Conroy) has unexpected consequences for his future.   Paige’s (Brooke D’Orsay) work at an auction house gives her an eye-opening look into Boris’ estate.  A newly single Divya (Reshma Shetty) finds her plan to focus solely on work hitting an unexpected snag after the return of an ex. And a change in ownership at the local hospital brings new complications for HankMed.

Being something of a television junkie, I like to keep up with what’s going on in the entertainment industry. However, what’s surprising is that I don’t follow a lot of TV shows. I only keep up with a select few. Fortunately for me, one of those programs is the always entertaining Royal Pains on the USA Network. Since January, I’ve served as CliqueClack’s resident Royal Pains reviewer and it’s been a real pleasure.

However, I’ve seen a shift in opinions regarding the quality of the fourth season that recently ended. Generally, the individuals that read my reviews usually see eye to eye with me. Lately, however, we’ve had different opinions. That’s fine. After all, variety is the spice of life. Nevertheless, I feel as though some fans of Royal Pains may have been a little hard on the recently passed fourth season. In fact, I think it’s probably one of the best ones of the series so far. Now, I know I’m going to get some flak for that and that’s cool, but just go with me on this, okay?

The fourth season of Royal Pains faced a few obstacles — namely how do they move forward without actress Jill Flint? Her character being written off the show seemed to ignite something within hardcore Royal Pains enthusiasts. Either they were stunned by the fact that one of the show’s original longtime leads was being dismissed or they were amazed by the fact that Hank would definitely be getting a new love interest. Quite frankly, I couldn’t have cared less. In my reviews, I often said that I thought Jill was wallpaper. Last season, she contributed absolutely nothing to the show. To be honest, her absence hasn’t really been an obstacle for the show moving forward. On the contrary, I think it gave the writers a chance to really come up with some new fun stuff.

Let’s take the character of Dr. Jeremiah Sacani for example. Anyone who has been keeping up with my reviews knows that I’m a big fan of the character. I think Ben Shenkman does a fantastic job playing him. Word on the street is that Shenkman was only supposed to stick around for four episodes. It’s a testament to his likeability that he’s still employed. Jeremiah has breathed a breath of fresh air into the series and having him around only enhances the show. He brings a different kind of vibe, and this is what a show needs when it’s going into its fifth year. However, it’s not just the character that intrigues me, it’s his relationship with Divya.

Some fans have complained that Divya’s storylines tend to always revolve around her issues with her parents. Well, quit your complaining! Reshma Shetty is awesome! In the fourth season, Divya finally received a love interest. Granted, he may have two-timed her, but it really was a new plot for her. However, what keeps things interesting — especially for next season — is the fact that Jeremiah has secretly been harboring a crush on her. I don’t know about you but I’m rather excited to see where this goes especially since Jeremiah lacks fundamental social skills.

Another new development has been the evolution of Paige. With Jill gone, Paige has essentially become the show’s second female lead, and it’s has been a rather seamless transition. The plot surrounding her adoption infused the show with more intrigue. The same can be said about Campbell Scott being bumped up to a starring role. As the elusive Boris, Scott managed to stay compelling. He also added some much-needed drama and mystery to a show that may have been getting stale. It’s obvious that the supporting players have done their part to keep things fresh, but how about the show’s lead? What about Hank Lawson?

Well …

No offense to Hank fans, but … Hank is boring. I love Hank as a doctor, but I find him bland at best. The writers did give him two new love interests this season but they fizzled like a can of Sprite. Fellow CliqueClack writer An Nicholson pointed out that Hank doesn’t really have any chemistry with these women. Quite frankly, I feel Hank didn’t have chemistry with Jill … which is probably another reason I don’t care that she’s gone. On the bright side, for those that do believe that Jill was the one for him, word on the street is that she’s coming back in the winter two-hour special. There’s hope!

And speaking of eternal optimism, I’m hopeful that season five will be even better than season four. Let’s face facts, people — things were getting kind of stale. You have to admit that season four did introduce some cool plot elements, and as much as some fans may have hated the Lawson brother feud that started it off, it was indeed innovative. I say we stop complaining and enjoy the show for what it is — damn good fun. Then again, television is open to interpretation.

Anything less would be a real (royal) pain.

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Few networks have as strong and as recognizable a brand as USA does. After a summer of watching and reviewing some USA offerings, I am starting to think about what works and doesn’t work in the network’s formula for its shows. We know the network for its blue skies, “Characters Welcome” approach to television storytelling. The shows are generally fun summer fare, often procedural and easily digestible. In general, this is an approach to TV that I enjoy, as I don’t believe every show can or should be, say, Breaking Bad.

The week-to-week formula on a USA show generally follows the pattern that Burn Notice has been using for six seasons now. There is a protagonist, Michael Westen, who is very good at his job, though of course his personal life is a mess. Every week, he and his team have a new case to deal with, but there is an overarching mythology that gets increasingly complicated as the seasons go on. This mythology is usually sort of confined to during the first five minutes and last five minutes of every episode, except for premieres and finales, which often deal exclusively with mythology. This is the formula, and while it may have worked in the early seasons of the show, it’s getting tired now. (Psych is an even older show, but it doesn’t really have a mythology so it’s been grandfathered in.)

Now, I don’t watch every single USA offering (sorry, Suits and Covert Affairs), but of the ones I do watch, White Collar seems to be the more direct descendant of Burn Notice – which is my model for an archetypal USA show — in terms of structure. There is a case of a week, and nowadays, the episodes check in on Neal Caffrey trying to figure out why his godmother Ellen was murdered; in earlier seasons, it was his girlfriend’s death he dealt with, more than once, even. Now we are getting the idea that the current storyline will unravel to reveal Surprising Truths about Neal’s dad, who may or may not have been a dirty cop. I expect these reveals will take a long time and involve increasing layers of bad guy conspiracies, just like on Burn Notice.

And already, I don’t care.

In the case of both White Collar and Burn Notice, the long-term story arc is in fact the least interesting element of the show. The multi-year arc of who burned Michael got so complicated that I could not longer keep track of it and, thus, did not care much about it. I expect the investigation into Nate’s death to go the same way, as well as Neal’s investigations on White Collar. For both of these shows, the chemistry between the leading players as they do their week-to-week case work is the real appeal. Michael, Sam, Fiona, and Jesse interacting and tackling problems from week to week is the engine that drives Burn Notice, just as the uneasy Neal/Peter partnership is what makes White Collar work.

I have started to notice shifts in the USA formula, these two shows notwithstanding. I was reviewing Necessary Roughnessthis summer, and I came to see it as having an opposite problem from White Collar and Burn Notice. Dr. Dani Santino usually had a case of the week, but it almost always felt shoehorned in compared to the increasing drama with Dani’s personal life and the drama surrounding the Hawks. With this show, so much was going on I never really felt that I needed to see Dani’s other patients. I wonder if the difference here is that Dani has to work each weekly therapy “case”alone, isolating her from the other characters, such as Matt, Nico, and TK, whose interactions help make the show interesting.

If USA is really all about characters, then a show like this should be allowed to focus on the characters in their shared milieu rather than isolating them. For White Collar and Burn Notice, the shared milieu is structured so that it involves the main cast in the cases of the week, whereas with Necessary Roughness, the shared milieu is the football team and all its attendant stories. As a result, this just doesn’t lend itself as well to cases of the week, unlike the other two, which are more fun when they are mostly procedural.

The show that I actually feel is allowed to be itself the most while also managing to stick to the USA formula the best is, oddly enough, Royal Pains. I don’t think most people would say this is exactly the best show on the network, but in some ways, it offers the most uncomplicated pleasure. Now, hear me out. The show’s milieu, a concierge medicine company, lends itself to involving everyone in cases of the week, especially now that Paige works for HankMed, and most of the actors involved shine when dealing with the patient guest stars. The case of the week showing the main characters something about themselves is a trope as old as procedurals, but I think it works here because health care professionals have to care so much about their patients. (It should work on Roughness, but the case of the week is often given so little time there as to feel perfunctory; we can’t care about Dani’s non-team patients if if the show doesn’t.)

HankMed also allows for enough interpersonal drama to keep things interesting. For instance the introduction of the awkward Dr. Jeremiah Sarcani and his sweet unrequited love for Divya has been a highlight of the season for me. This show, since it lacks the mythology of some of the heavier USA offerings, focuses on the characters: the very essence of USAs’s Characters Welcome mission statement.

I don’t mean to imply that Royal Pains is a perfect show by any means. Mark Feuerstein is pretty good when playing against patients and against Paulo Costanzo, but the repeated attempts to give him a girlfriend are snooze-worthy. The Paige is adopted storyline needs to play out further before I can judge it properly. And the stuff with Boris (which may be this show’s attempt mythology) is a waste of Campbell Scott and feels like it belongs on, well, Burn Notice. But most of this stuff doesn’t take away from the good work the show has done by toning down Evan’s character by keeping him with Paige and allowing him to grow, and by Hank finally admitting they needed to hire other doctors and grow the business. Their little team feels like a family, which is why I tune in from week to week.

The conclusion I can tentatively draw from my musings is that, perhaps USA shows should either be or not be procedural, depending on what works for each show, but that the ones I watch at least would be better off without a heavy-duty mythology arc that starts to feel confusing and perfunctory after a while. USA should trust their slogan to be true: characters are why people tune in to shows most of the time.

Of course, USA’s formula seems to work well for them in terms of ratings, and if it ain’t broke, right? I don’t know that the network feels that it ain’t broke, though. This season’s miniseries Political Animals represented an attempt to experiment with breaking the formula a bit, even though the show was tonally similar to the network’s other shows. Unfortunately, the ratings were not great, which may teach USA to just leave things be. However, I also feel like the second season of Necessary Roughness, with its decreased emphasis on cases of the week may have been part of the same experiment, and perhaps shows a willingness to let each show find what works for it (even if they won’t be allowed to abandon the formula entirely). I really hope that’s the case. The USA brand is very strong and clearly a good way to launch shows, with their focus on character and on maintaining a breezy tone, but then those shows should be allowed to find their way without too many network constraints or demands for complicated mythology.

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