Cream of the crop: June aglow with cable bright spots
06/03/07 09:15 PM
By ED BARK
June has become cable's month to shine, never more so than now.
For starters came Sunday's premiere of Lifetime's solidly entertaining Army Wives series (see review below). There are lots more new beginnings -- and one very big end -- before cable starts cooling off. Here are the month's new series of note, most of them available only to paying customers. But free TV also has a couple of first-nighters worth mentioning. Here's the rundown:
Monday, June 4 -- Creature Comforts, series premiere (CBS). A bracingly imaginative and funny Americanized British import puts humans' words in the mouths of animated animals. Highly recommended (See review below.)
Tuesday, June 5 -- The Shield (FX), sixth season finale. Rogue cop Vic Mackey battles to stay on the streets in a 95-minute closer that ends by setting new wheels in motion. Not as explosive as the previous season's last episode, but still an attention-getter.
Wednesday, June 6 -- Tyler Perry's House of Payne, series premiere (TBS). The star of Diary of a Mad Black Woman puts his name behind a multi-generational sitcom. Perry is writing, directing and, in the premiere episode, guest-starring as the mercurial Madea from his Mad Black Woman franchise.
Thursday, June 7 -- Fast Cars & Superstars -- Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, series premiere (ABC) -- William Shatner rides again, this time in a stock car against the likes of Jewel, Tony Hawk, John Elway and Bill Cowher. A half-dozen "young guns," including Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch, teach them the basics of left-turning at high speeds. Then they're left to their own devices in a seven-episode series hosted by ESPN's droll Kenny Mayne.
Sunday, June 10 -- The Sopranos series finale followed by series premiere of John From Cincinnati (HBO). Tony and his remaining top-level henchmen are up against it as HBO's show of shows goes out with what could be a lot of big bangs.
Then comes Deadwood creator David Milch's mystical look at a hard-luck surfer family blessed by a visit from a seeming godsend. Or might it in fact be God himself who elevates the host Yosts' "banal existence" into "something profound, miraculous and, possibly, universal?" Moments of Zen guaranteed.
Monday, June 11 -- Big Love second season premiere (HBO) -- What will the Henricksons do now that traumatized first wife Barb has been outed as a polygamist? Temporarily left with just two functioning spouses, hubby Bill obsessively searches for the snitch. HBO also is including two fake "polygamy lifestyle commercials" that will play during program breaks. And a three-part "In The Beginning" prequel premieres June 24 on the mothership after early exposure via the digital "On Demand" channel and HBO.com.
Wednesday, June 13 -- Rescue Me, fourth season premiere (FX) -- Raging New York firefighter Tommy Gavin is back ablaze -- and under fire. This time he's under suspicion for starting the beach house fire that nearly killed him last season. Department superiors again are in his face, too. That's what happens when you're a hard-drinking, borderline degeneration with a proven history of blackouts and blowups.
Sunday, June 17 -- Entourage,, fourth season premiere, followed by debut of new series Flight of the Conchords (HBO). The bridge between Seasons 3 and 4 is a mere two weeks, with "Welcome to the Jungle" kicking off the first of 12 new episodes.
Then comes Conchords, starring the "cutting edge" New Zealand comedy-music duo of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie. Afoot in New York City's Lower East Side, they strive to make ends meet and meet new girls. HBO signed them up after they won Best Alternative Comedy Act honors at the 20005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Gotta be better than Lucky Louie.
Also on this night, Showtime premieres Meadowlands, an eight-part series set in a "friendly community that hides a wealth of unsettling secrets beneath its pleasant and hospitable exterior." Its newest residents, the Brogans, are fresh into a witness protection program.
Monday, June 18 -- The Closer, third season premiere followed by series launch of Heartland (TNT). Kyra Sedgwick is back as top cop Brenda Leigh Johnson in a series that set basic cable ratings records in its first two seasons. This time budget problems plague her department, making crimesolving all that tougher in a climate of potential layoffs and buyouts.
The new Heartland then finds Everwood emigre Treat Williams back in doctor's garb as a risk-taking organ transplant surgeon. He's operating out of Pittsburgh now, where his colleagues include Prison Break escapee Rockmond Dunbar.
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