Appreciating the summer TV season

It’s hard to remember a time when there was next to nothing on TV in summer besides reruns. Entire families shut the box off, with good reason, confident that they weren’t missing anything.
But in this century, summer is when TV becomes more interesting (and provocative) and easier to enjoy. At your Sunday night barbecue, guests start looking at their watches nervously as the citronella candles flicker and the flies have discovered the watermelon rinds. Sure, summer TV addicts can watch “True Blood” or “Breaking Bad” later — on the DVR or on demand — but the fact remains that there is a real pleasure in wasting a perfectly good summer on good TV.