Summer TV Roundup, Week 12

We've reached August, and we're just about seven weeks away from new fall season shows debuting. But that doesn't mean the train of new summer shows has stopped. In these weekly posts I look at the new shows of summer. I review the pilot and second episodes. If you don't see a new show, check previous weeks. (Note: due to the number of shows this summer, I am not focusing on the new cable reality shows, just scripted fare).

Monday Nights:
Significant Mother, Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on the CW (Premiered August 3)
About: It seems every summer the past few years the CW tries its hand at comedy. It usually has disastrous results. Last year, two of the worst shows I saw all year were new CW summer sitcoms. This year, the CW already rolled out the boring, awkward British re-tread "Dates." Now comes "Significant Mother," a sitcom about a young man who learns early in the pilot that his mom is having an affair with his best friend and roommate. That's the setup for an awkward 90-minute movie, not a weekly TV sitcom. Yet, here we are. Not much happened in the pilot in terms of character set up or building a world. I really have no idea what this show is going to be like going forward, either. What I do know is the characters seemed kind of boring and annoying, and there was precious few jokes to be had. The CW comedy department strikes again!
Pilot Grade: D

Streaming Series:
Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, now streaming on Netflix (Premiered July 31)
About: 15 years ago a little indie film "Wet Hot American Summer" debut, soon becoming a cult classic. Now, Netflix has turned it into an eight-episode comedy prequel. Of course part of the allure of the series is seeing 30-40-year-old actors playing teenagers. Imagining Paul Rudd as a 16-year-old is amusing. Ditto Amy Poehler and Bradley Cooper. And, of course, not too many TV series — even ones on Netflix — get the kind of cast this has. It's also a bit of nostalgia about the early 1980s. All that works fine for a somewhat mildly uninspired 30-minute pilot. But the second episode is more of the same, only a little less interesting. I stopped there, but in reading some reviews the rest of the eight episodes — which are all now available — are much the same. If you were a devotee of the movie (I wasn't), then the show is probably a summer treat. If not, there's probably not much here to grab your attention.
Pilot Grade: C-
Second Episode: D