In this vast wasteland of Summer TV…….amid the reruns of reruns of reruns a few of the newer shows have stood out with a possibility of becoming regulars with season renewals as rewards.

As my readers know I tend to go for “Happy”! We get bombarded with enough negativity from morning til-night in the newspapers, newscasts, even the weather reports……………….what town is burning down right next to the town where 8 people were shot for no particular reason predicting morning and afternoon tornadoes and don’t forget to watch Sharknado on TV! To balance life out a bit I go to the Hallmark Channels. We can always count on them to lift us up and give us hope!

My top 5 TV picks for this summer are 4 repeats + 1 new series

Colony, Endeavour, Shetland, and The Tunnel. These TV shows are in their 3-4th seasons. What they all have in common is development of characters and story lines that allow us to believe that the stories and the characters are real! We care about all of them….even those who are evil (we can understand why they act the way they do).

Colony/ a futuristic look at what could happen if we are invaded by an alien species.

Endeavour/ a good ole English police investigation team solving crimes. A well seasoned inspector is a mentor to the younger trainee.

Shetland/ off the coast of Scotland lies an island called Shetland. The have a great investigative police department and can solve crimes on their own except when the action takes place locally and internationally.

The Tunnel / great action packed series from England/France (The Tunnel) connecting the 2!!!! The first season starts with a dead body halfway on English territory and the other half on French. Collaboration between the two countries makes for interesting dialog and action!

POSE/ an eye-opening look at a place in history I knew nothing about in the early 1980’s when the AIDS epidemic was just beginning to make the news. It is about a group of society I didn’t understand. After watching this fantastic presentation I do understand much more now and realize how none of us have the right to judge anyone even if you’ve walked many miles in their shoes………it goes a lot deeper than walking in shoes!

2 summer offerings/ one succeeds in getting my attention, the other fails:

Old movie, Open Range with Kevin Costner: great story about an open range (cattle) group battling with local people against open range policies. Violence/death/but the characters are “real people” that you can care and root for and feel good at the end.

New TV series , Yellowstone Kevin Costner again: bad story line/ fighting over land out west that the Indians once owned and now they are being kept on a reservation. Unessary nudity and hateful and mean people. I gave up after 1 and a 1/2 episodes.

What TV programing is coming up in our future this year? The Hallmark CH will have 21 Christmas movies starting in October and also a Halloween Special Wedding ( you regulars will know all about that one!) Chesapeake Shores starts this weekend!

AND REMEMBER!!!!! THE PURGE IS COMING!!!!!! Early August/SOON! The TV Series. It is gonna be really awful to watch/kinda like watching The Walking Dead except ( Well, you’ll just have to watch it yourself! 🙂