Dog Days of Summer....Or Are They?

Hey everyone! Used to summer tv was a time for re-runs, tennis/golf tournaments, soap operas, and trials (or at least it was if you lived in out in the country in OK and got between 1 and 3 channels). Not anymore! Networks and cable are now releasing new shows in the summer - sure most of them are reality shows, but we got a few scripted ones as well. Here are a few that have made an entertainment junkie like me happy:

• Brat Camp: I didn't watch this when it first came out, but I kept reading good things about it so I gave it a try after it was about three episodes in and was instantly hooked. They took 9 kids (aged 14-17) to Sagebrush, a camp in located in some desolate part of Oregon in the middle of winter. I never thought that's what Oregon could look like - I kept guessing it was New Mexico. For two months, the kids had to follow an extremely structured schedule for two months with lots of hiking, group and individual therapy and other activities. They slept in a teepee and cooked their own extremely bad looking food. But the progress most of them made was unbelievable and, I'll say it, heartwarming. By the end of this week's finale, I was rooting for all of them to make a success out of life, except for evil Jada the true spoiled brat/compulsive liar of the group. The show caught back up with the kids 6 months later. Most of them had continued to improve except for Isaiah who's accused of spray painting racial slurs on a neighbor's house and Evil Jada who rammed a family with a boat. The only thing that scares me is how messed up these kids are at the beginning. I just can't imagine what it took to create such monsters - nature or nurture? It's very nice to know though that a lot of them can be turned around though. I hear that applications to Sagebrush have skyrocketed since the show aired. There must be lots of little monsters out there.

• Wildfire and Beautiful People: Both of these are new scripted shows from ABC Family, a smaller cable station. I'm convinced that Wildfire was lifted straight from my all time fav show as a kid, Fury. It's about a juvenile delinquent girl who is sent to work on a horse farm and is besotted with a troubled horse, Wildfire. It's a little teen oriented, but worth a look. Beautiful People stars Daphne Zuniga (remember her as the girl who sparred with then fell for John Cusack from The Sure Thing) as a mom who moves to NYC with her two daughters - one who's a scholarship student at an elite prep school and the other who's a struggling model. I am addicted to this show! It makes being raised by a single mom in NYC look like so much fun, so I know it's fantasy, but still.

• Tommy Lee Goes to College: The title says it all - Tommy Lee (the one from Motley Crue who was married to Pam Anderson) somehow gets accepted and attends Univ of Nebraska in Lincoln. The great thing about the show is that it spends most of its time making fun of Tommy and not the student body. For instance when Tommy is interviewing roommates, he asks one guy his GPA because he says he really wants to excel in school and needs a similarly inclined roomy. The guy replies that he got a 3.5 last semester. Tommy is stunned and says it won't work out. The guy tells him that's 3.5 out of 4. Tommy says he's used to things being out of 10 points. Tommy may not be the smartest student in school, but he makes up for it by being extremely curious and enthusiastic. Plus he worked super hard to be able to make the drum line for the school band. I'm sure this has gone a tiny way to adding a hint of cool to the dreaded band uniform. I could have only wished for such a thing back when I was a sophomore in high school. One warning: the show is obviously very scripted, but Tommy's innate charm makes up for it.

• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: This is a new comedy from F/X. It follows three guys and a girl in their late 20s/early 30s who own a bar. They are all marvelously immature and remind me a little bit of a slumming version of Seinfeld. The show is hilariously politically incorrect, mocking everything from race to abortion to underage drinking. But in true Seinfeldian fashion, the four leads almost always come in last. This show proves to me the sitcom is not yet dead.

• And finally, Laguna Beach: This year's been a little tough for me because Kristin is the narrator rather than my beloved LC. Laguna is a beautifully filmed, but somewhat scripted documentary that follows several rich and beautiful high school students. Kristin is every high school student's worst nightmare. She emasculated her boyfriend of last year, Stephen, and then dated Matt Leinart, the USC quarterback. This year she's trying to steal her ex-best friend's boyfriend. Let's just say there's lots of drama involved. Laguna could not be more different from my own high scool experience at good old Dickson. Maybe that's some of its appeal for me. In a stunning triumph, I also managed to get my brother hooked on it. To sum it all up, the theme for last week's Winter Formal at Laguna was "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". And I don't even think they were being ironic. Laguna also introduced me to my new fav song , "Since U Been Gone", by Kelly Clarkson. I've adamantly avoided listening to any music of hers as she was the original American Idol, a show I have never seen but detest on principal. Now I so want her new cd. Just like last year I wanted Ashley Simpson's and the year before Avril Lavigne's. I figure I'm allowed one cd that Thomas can endlessly ridicule a year.

-sunday