The TV Column

TNT's 9 series save summer TV from doldrums

TNT’s Public Morals debuts this summer and stars Edward Burns (left) and Michael Rapaport as New York cops in the 1960s.
TNT’s Public Morals debuts this summer and stars Edward Burns (left) and Michael Rapaport as New York cops in the 1960s.

Here's some handy info for all those filling out their summer viewing calenders.

Summer already? I heard you snicker.

Seriously, in about a week or two I'll start getting daily emails from folks asking when their favorite show is returning. Invariably, it's a summer show; has always been a summer show; and will not be back until the summer. Viewers tend to get antsy.

And the large majority of those favorite shows are on TNT. Summer viewing, once a morass of reruns and cheap reality dreck, has ramped it up thanks to TNT. The cable outfit has released an impressive summer lineup featuring nine (count 'em!) original series.

The returning veteran six are The Last Ship, Rizzoli & Isles, Major Crimes, Murder in the First, Legends, plus the final season of Falling Skies.

The three new series are Proof, Public Morals and Cold Justice: Sex Crimes. Here are the dates and a few brief notes.

Major Crimes, 8 p.m. June 8. It's Season 4 for the popular crime drama that was a spin-off of The Closer. The team is back, headed by two-time Oscar nominee Mary McDonnell as Los Angeles Police Capt. Sharon Raydor. One of cable's more steady shows, the series totaled 8.2 million viewers last season when you count (as they all do these days) live viewing, DVR playback, set-top video on-demand and digital on-demand within a week.

Murder in the First, 9 p.m. June 8. Season 2 will once again take viewers deep inside a complex murder investigation "that could rip the city apart and shake the police force at its core." At its core, mind you!

The series, co-created by Steven Bochco, stars Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson as detectives Terry English and Hildy Mulligan.

Rizzoli & Isles, 8 p.m. June 16. R&I was basic cable's No. 1 series last summer with 13.6 million viewers. Season 6 promises to continue the trend. The crime-busting drama stars Angie Harmon as tough, blue-collar Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli, and Sasha Alexander as privileged medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles.

Proof, 9 p.m. June 16. This new series features Jennifer Beals (The L Word, Flashdance) as Carolyn Tyler, a brilliant surgeon trying to answer the age-old question, "Is death truly the end, or is there something else beyond?"

Why? She's suffered the devastating loss of her teenage son, the breakup of her marriage and a growing estrangement from her daughter.

Meanwhile, cancer-stricken billionaire Ivan Turing (Matthew Modine) wants her to investigate cases of reincarnation and related stuff for his case.

Proof also stars Callum Blue (Dead Like Me, Royal Pains), Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class, Justified), Annie Thurman (The Hunger Games) and newcomer Caroline Rose Kaplan.

The Last Ship, 8 p.m. June 21. Season 2 of this nifty post-pandemic adventure series opens with a two-hour premiere.

The series stars Eric Dane (Grey's Anatomy) as captain of the Navy destroyer USS Nathan James, the last ship out there following the catastrophe. Co-stars include Rhona Mitra (Strike Back) and Adam Baldwin (Firefly) as a paleomicrobiologist working on a cure, and the ship's executive officer.

Falling Skies, 9 p.m. June 28. It's the fifth and final season for Noah Wyle and crew as they fight the alien invasion.

Along for the adventure are Moon Bloodgood as Wyle's love interest and Will Patton as the gruff and emotionally scarred commander leading the battle against the invaders.

Cold Justice: Sex Crimes, 8 p.m. July 31. The real-life crime series Cold Justice is in its spring season until June 5. The series follows former prosecutor Kelly Siegler and former crime-scene investigator Yolanda McClary as they dig into murder cases that have long gone unsolved.

The summer spin-off will focus on sex crimes.

Legends, 9 p.m. Aug. 25. Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings) enters new territory in Season 2 of Legends, a drama based on a character created by master spy novelist Robert Littell.

Bean plays Martin Odum, an undercover operative who has learned he isn't the man he believed himself to be.

Public Morals, 8 p.m. Aug. 17. This retro cop drama from Edward Burns (Saving Private Ryan) stars Burns, Michael Rapaport (Justified, Prison Break) and Elizabeth Masucci (The Americans, Inside Amy Schumer).

Set in the 1960s, the series centers on Terry Muldoon (Burns), an officer of New York's Public Morals Division, which investigates vice crimes. Rapaport plays his partner Charlie Bullman, and Masucci is Muldoon's wife, Christine.

The drama? There's an escalating war within two factions of the Irish-American mob, and Muldoon is determined to fight back to save his neighborhood.

Executive producers include Steven Spielberg. Ten episodes have been ordered.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 04/19/2015

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