Summer TV preview 2014

By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

May 23, 2014 6 a.m.

Summer season!! Once you taxed us with nothing more unmissable than “Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers in London.” Now, as if to prove something to the fall, winter and spring, you’re all, like, here’s Halle Berry presented by Steven Spielberg; Clive Owen in a series directed entirely by Steven Soderbergh; a Guillermo del Toro vampire thing; Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi in a sitcom.

And when you ease off on the quality, you overrun us with quantity. Have a heart! Take a vacation!

Here are only some of the new series premiering between now and Labor Day. Watch the trailers below.

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May 27, 2014

'The Night Shift'

NBC

Doctors with issues stay up late, fighting bureaucratic indifference to deliver the kind of healthcare only the hard-partying and battle-trained can give. Sample dialogue: "Did you not learn anything from being kicked out of the Army?"

(NBC)

May 28, 2014

'The Wil Wheaton Project'

Syfy

Former "Star Trek: The Next Generation" designated teen comments on the week in genre, games, green screen.

(Syfy)

May 30, 2014

'Crossbones'

NBC

John Malkovich is a white-bearded Blackbeard in a philosophical pirate show from Neil Cross ("Luther").

(NBC)

May 31, 2014

'Sing Your Face Off'

ABC

Not literally. Jon Lovitz, Lisa Rinna, Sebastian Bach and others are coached and dressed to simulate iconic stars of song. Debbie Gibson and Darrell Hammond (hold on, I am imagining them as a couple) sit in judgment; John Barrowman is thine goodly host.

June 1, 2014

'Halt and Catch Fire'

AMC

Period tale finds Lee Pace and Scoot McNairy hacking their way into the computer business in the early 1980s, so there's your soundtrack. Steve Wozniak has stated his approval.

(AMC)

June 2, 2014

'Copycat'

MTV

Citizen-singers go tonsil to tonsil with their best impressions of singers you know.

(MTV)

June 2, 2014

'Ladies of London'

Bravo

A cast of mostly American women keep Britain classy. You know the drill.

(Bravo)

June 2, 2014

'WebHeads'

Nickelodeon

Carlos PenaVega ("Big Time Rush") hosts an Internet-themed game show for kids, featuring stunts and slime.

(Nickelodeon)

June 3, 2014

'Famous in 12'

In this TMZ-sprung self-fulfilling prophecy — or "social experiment," as the network puckishly calls it — a family of nobodies will attempt to become a family of somebodies by starring in a reality show about a family of nobodies attempting to become somebodies.

(The CW)

June 3, 2014

'Siberian Cut'

Discovery

American loggers in Russia. Why is this not called "Cold War"?

(Discovery)

June 4, 2014

'Untying the Knot'

Bravo

Divorcing couples divvy it up in yet another Bravo show about rich people and their ways.

(Bravo)

June 4, 2014

'The Message'

BET

Witness-filled documentary series charts 40 years of hip-hop. (And you don't stop.)

June 4, 2014

'Jennifer Falls'

TV Land

TV Land goes boldly into the late 20th century by fielding its first single-camera comedy. Jaime Pressly stars as an ex-executive living with her mother (Jessica Walter) and working in a bar for her brother ("My Name Is Earl" cast mate Ethan Suplee). Not necessarily a metaphor for starring in a sitcom on TV Land.

(TV Land)

June 7, 2014

'Power'

Starz

"Good Wife" vet Courtney Kemp Agboh created this series about a New York City drug lord (Omari Hardwick) trying to go legit in the nightclub business, possibly not as easy at it sounds. 50 Cent, wearing his Curtis Jackson suit, is an executive producer.

(Starz)

June 7, 2014

'Kid President: Declaration of Awesome'

Hub

Small-fry inspirational-comical YouTube speaker Robby Novak gets a TV series. (He has no actual executive powers, but he has met the real president.)

(Soulpancake)

June 9, 2014

'Murder in the First'

TNT

Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson are San Francisco homicide detectives on a season-long case; Tom Felton (little Draco Malfoy) is a Silicon Valley panjandrum, involved.

(TNT)

June 9, 2014

'Brazil with Michael Palin'

PBS

The peripatetic Python takes the measure of the nation. Piranha sashimi in Episode 4.

June 10, 2014

'Chasing Life'

ABC Family

A young reporter learns she has cancer in a series adapted from Mexico's "Terminales."

(ABC Family)

June 11, 2014

'Big Smo'

A&E

Eponymous Tennessee "hick-hop" artist allows the cameras of reality to follow him around, just another down-home family man with a recording contract.

(A&E)

June 15, 2014

'Masterpiece Mystery: The Escape Artist'

PBS

David Tennant and Ashley Jensen wear their own accents in a dark thriller about a Scottish barrister who finds himself in need of a defense attorney.

June 19, 2014

'Dominion'

Syfy

More summertime post-apocalypse, with angels. A sequel to the 2010 movie "Legion."

(Syfy)

June 19, 2014

'Funniest Wins'

TBS

Cross-genre comedy competition hosted by Damon Wayans. It's not just about stand-up anymore.

(TBS)

June 19, 2014

'Seven Deadly Sins'

Showtime

Morgan Spurlock, who ate himself fat for you in "Super Size Me," revisits gluttony and gets acquainted with lust, greed, sloth, pride, sneezy and dopey in this documentary anthology.

June 21, 2014

'Almost Royal'

BBC America

Sacha Baron Cohen-style prankumentary in which pretend aristocrats (Ed Gamble, Amy Hoggart) tour the USA: "Is the Playboy Mansion where that old man lives with his daughters?"

(BBC America)

June 22, 2014

'Rising Star'

ABC

Real-time voting and a 30-foot-high curtain are the hooks in the summer's thousandth singing competition. Josh Groban, Brad Paisley, Kesha and Ludacris are the stars who'll make you ask, "Do they really need this thing?"

(ABC)

June 22, 2014

'The Last Ship'

TNT

Michael Bay, the American Antonioni, proffers this tale of global pandemic. Trailers portend exploding helicopters, raised voices, ice, a ship.

(TNT)

June 22, 2014

'The Musketeers'

BBC America

The swashbuckling French Four, as per Dumas père. (More or less.) Forthcoming Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi plays Cardinal Richelieu.

(BBC America)

June 24, 2014

'Tyrant'

Middle East-set thriller in which a dictator's son brings his American family home to visit at precisely the wrong time.

(FX)

June 24, 2014

'Motor City Masters'

truTV

"Project Runway" with cars. Or "Top Chef" with cars. Anyway, cars!

(truTV)

June 25, 2014

'Mystery Girls'

ABC Family

Former TV costars Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills, 90210") play former TV costars — turned detective.

(ABC Family)

June 25, 2014

'Taxi Brooklyn'

NBC

The Luc Besson "Taxi" franchise goes small screen. Chyler Leigh is a New York police detective with a suspended license; Jacky Ido is a man with a cab. Must I spell it out?

June 25, 2014

'Young & Hungry'

ABC Family

Emily Osment is a personal chef to tech millionaire Jonathan Sadowski in a comedy about those people who are ruining San Francisco.

(ABC Family)

June 27, 2014

'Girl Meets World'

Disney Channel

Long-awaited follow-up to 1990s tent-pole "Boy Meets World" focuses on the preteen daughter (Rowan Blanchard) of your old friends Cory and Topanga (Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel, still). Expect next sequel sometime around 2028.

(Disney Channel)

June 29, 2014

'The Leftovers'

HBO

Damon Lindelof is behind this drama in which 2% of the world's population suddenly disappears, fulfilling the secret wish of anyone who has ever tried to get to the Westside during rush hour. Liv Tyler, Christopher Eccleston and Justin Theroux are among those left behind.

(HBO)

June 29, 2014

'Vicious'

PBS

Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen in a multi-camera sitcom as a bickering gay couple in a half-century relationship. These men have played Hamlet. (And Lear.)

(Vicious)

June 29, 2014

'Reckless'

CBS

Hot cops and lawyers show, with a South Carolina setting. Feel the humidity.

July 8, 2014

'Finding Carter'

MTV

Kathryn Prescott plays a young woman who learns that she was kidnapped as a child. Well, there are problems.

(MTV)

July 9, 2014

'Extant'

CBS

In this Steven Spielberg production, Halle Berry is an astronaut who returns home pregnant after a year alone in space. Her other child, apparently, is a robot.

(CBS)

July 10, 2014

'Working the Engels'

NBC

Andrea Martin of "SCTV" and Broadway fame plays a woman running her late husband's law firm. The first Canadian-American half-hour sitcom, reportedly, which you are free to call progress.

July 10, 2014

'Welcome to Sweden'

NBC

Amy Poehler's brother, Greg, stars as a man who moves to Sweden for love in a sitcom based on himself. Illeana Douglas and Patrick Duffy play his parents. Sister Amy, Will Ferrell, Gene Simmons and Aubrey Plaza poke their heads in to say hello.

(NBC)

July 13, 2014

'Game of Crowns'

Bravo

Real housewives of beauty pageants.

July 13, 2014

'The Strain'

Guillermo del Toro co-created (and directs the initial episodes of) this vampirism-as-virus story; Corey Stoll is the CDC man on the case in the city that conveniently never sleeps. David Bradley and Sean Astin are in it; Carlton Cuse ("Lost") runs the show.

(FX)

July 14, 2014

'Backpackers'

Best buds Ryan and Brandon (Noah Reid and Dillon Casey) travel the world in search of Ryan's fiancee. Not a reality series, though you could totally sell that.

July 14, 2014

'Seed'

Slacker sperm donor meets the families. Also not a reality series, either, but you could totally sell that too.

July 15, 2014

'The Hotwives of Orlando'

Hulu

Casey Wilson, Angela Kinsey and Kristen Schaal converge in Paul Scheer's intentionally funny re-creation of one of those Bravo things.

(Hulu)

July 15, 2014

'Matador'

El Rey

"I Spy," with a soccer star (Gabriel Luna) instead of a tennis bum as the secret agent. Network head Robert Rodriguez directs the first episode.

(El Rey)

July 16, 2014

'The Divide'

WE tv

Richard LaGravenese ("Behind the Candelabra") pens the first scripted series from WE tv (you were waiting for this, I know) wherein case worker Marin Ireland against D.A. Damon Gupton over the innocence tangle over a death-row inmate.

(WE tv)

July 17, 2014

'You're the Worst'

Aya Cash and Chris Geere are horrible people in love.

July 17, 2014

'Rush'

USA

"Ray Donovan" meets "Royal Pains." Tom Ellis is a Hollywood doctor — "renegade physician," it says here — who swoops in discreetly and expensively when Hollywood bigwigs come down with things they can't go to Cedar's for.

(USA)

July 17, 2014

'Satisfaction'

USA

Troubled-relationship drama picks up Matt Passmore from "The Glades," marries him to Stephanie Szostak. But for how long?

(USA)

July 17, 2014

'Married'

Life-is-tough comedy promisingly cast: Nat Faxon, Judy Greer, Jenny Slate, Brett Gelman.

July 22, 2014

'Food Fighters'

NBC

The reputation of home cooking is at stake as amateur chefs go spatula-to-spatula against pros. Money is involved.

July 27, 2014

'Manhattan'

WGN

Manhattan is the project and Los Alamos the place in this birth-of-the-bomb period piece, another hot science series from Sam Shaw ("Masters of Sex"). The second original from WGN America, a corporate cousin of The Times.

(WGN)

July 30, 2014

'Penn & Teller: Fool Us'

Other magicians attempt to baffle Penn & Teller. It happens sometimes.

July 31, 2014

'The Honourable Woman'

Sundance

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stephen Rea, Lindsay Duncan and Janet McTeer in a BBC-produced sprawling international spy thriller, written and directed by Hugo Blick ("Marion and Geoff").

July 31, 2014

'The Quest'

ABC

LARPing (live action role-playing) gets a game show. I see heads exploding over this.

Aug. 1, 2014

'Masters of Illusion'

Dean Cain magically reappears on television as the host of the CW's other magic-themed summer series.

Aug. 4, 2014

'Bachelor in Paradise'

ABC

"Bachelor Pad" on an island.

Aug. 8, 2014

'The Knick'

Cinemax

Steven Soderbergh, who has apparently retired from movies to make television shows, directs the whole of this turn-of-the-20th century hospital drama. Clive Owen, with a caterpillar on his lip, is the surgeon at the center of it.

(Cinemax)

Aug. 9, 2014

'Outlander'

Starz

Time traveling romance with Caitriona Balfe as a World War II army nurse who finds herself in Scotland in 1743, like you do, and married in both eras. (That is probably legal, legal, I'm thinking.) Ronald D. Moore adapts Diana Gabaldon's bestselling novels.

(Starz)

Aug. 13, 2014

'Legends'

TNT

Sean Bean may be confused as an FBI agent with a literal identity crisis, but at least they won't be killing him off in the first season.

(TNT)

Aug. 24, 2014

'Breathless'

PBS

The conflicted swinging spirits of "Mad Men," "Masters of Sex" and "The Hour" converge on this series set in the gynecology department of a London hospital in 1961, back before we knew what we know now.

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