US TV

This is going to be the last entry on the blog for most of (if not all of) August, so it’s going to be an open-ended thread for y’all to chat about what you’ve been watching on TV this month – assuming you want to, of course. I’ve a few things in my queue that I’m going to be watching on planes, including Rubicon, ep 2 of Mad Men (which is already looking better than ep 1) and the first two eps of the new Tricia Helfer-enhanced Dark Blue (I’m unsure if this is a good thing or not, but I remain open-minded).

But this week, I’ve been watching:

• Burn Notice: Reasonably fun, but in the scheme of things, a throwaway ep, bookended with a couple of interesting character scenes.
• Covert Affairs: The first really good ep of the series, with Oded Fehr as a Mossad agent. It had a real Bourne Identity feel to it, and the activities back at Langley seemed to be more coherent. Fingers crossed the rest of the season will be like this.
• The Gates: Vampire fun! A good ep, but when will Nick find out about the rest of the Gates’s secrets?
• The IT Crowd: Nice cameo by that bloke off The Mighty Boosh and as funny as always.
• Persons Unknown: Silly. But could it all be in their heads?
• Rev: A nice way to end this series. Not many belly laughs since the first ep, but surprisingly deep with a knowing humour. Fingers crossed for a second series.
• Royal Pains: Slightly interesting playing around with time and Fringe-esque graphics. Some decent character moments, but I’m missing Hank-Jill and the general edge the show had in season one, even if it’s nice to have Anastasia Griffith around.
• Scoundrels: Moderately amusing at best, but it does seem to be settling down and working out a vibe for itself.
• Top Gear: A so-so season over all. It’s definitely losing its appeal now it’s trying to be more serious.

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).