Guide to September 2008 Series Premieres

September is nearly upon us and that can mean only one thing–the busiest month of the year for new television programming. Well, it’s not quite as busy as usual thanks to the writers strike, but we’ve still got a good number of new shows debuting in the coming weeks. So many, in fact, that’s it’s hard to keep them all straight. So to help you navigate the maze we’ve prepared a guide to all the new shows premiering this month.

RAISING THE BAR (TNT)
Premieres: Monday, Sept. 1 at 10 p.m.
Time slot: Mondays at 10 p.m.
This series from Steven Bochco follows the lives and cases of young lawyers who have been friends since law school but now work on opposing sides. Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue), Gloria Reuben (ER), and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle) star, along with Teddy Sears (Ugly Betty), Melissa Sagemiller (Sleeper Cell), Currie Graham (Boston Legal), J. August Richards (Angel) and Jonathan Scarfe (Into the West). Created by Bochco and lawyer/writer David Feige (author of the book Indefensible).

90210 (The CW)
Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 8 p.m.
Time slot: Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
Freaks and Geeks‘ Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah are exec producing this contemporary spin-off of the ’90s-era teen drama. The new incarnation centers on Annie Mills (Shenae Grimes, Degrassi: The Next Generation) and her adopted brother Dixon (Tristan Wilds, The Wire), who’ve moved from Kansas to attend West Beverly Hills High. Co-starring Lori Loughlin (Summerland), Jessica Walter (Arrested Development), AnnaLynne McCord (Nip/Tuck), Dustin Milligan (Runaway), Michael Steger (The Winner), Jessica Stroup (Reaper), and Ryan Eggold (Dirt). 90210: Original Flavor alums Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty guest star.

SONS OF ANARCHY (FX)
Premieres: Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 10 p.m.
Time slot: Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
This darkly comedic drama from executive producer Kurt Sutter (The Shield) focuses on an outlaw motorcycle club intent on protecting their sheltered town from advancing drug dealers and local corporate developers, and equally determined to preserve their thriving illegal arms business. Starring Charlie Hunnam (Children of Men), Katey Sagal (8 Simple Rules), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos) and Maggie Siff (Mad Men).

HOLE IN THE WALL (Fox)
Premieres: Sunday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m.
Time slot: Thursdays at 8 p.m.
This game show is based on the popular Japanese show where two teams face various barrier walls speeding toward them with weird and wacky cut-out shapes. Team members must contort their bodies to fit through these cut-outs or they will be swept away into the pool below. Described as one of the trickiest, fastest, funniest and wettest half-hours on the planet, versions of the show have already been produced in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia and Sweden.

TRUE BLOOD (HBO)
Premieres: Sunday, Sept. 7 at 9 p.m.
Time slot: Sundays at 9 p.m.
The latest offering from Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) is a new twist on the vampire genre based on Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries books. The series centers on a psychic small-town waitress (Anna Paquin, X-Men) and the mysterious gentleman vampire (Stephen Moyer, NY-LON) who catches her fancy. This comedic drama is set in an alternate-universe Louisiana in which vampires are real and have “come out of the coffin” only recently with the advent of a synthetic blood beverage–“Tru Blood”–that removes their need to feed on live humans. Or does it? Ryan Kwanten (Summerland), Nelsan Ellis (The Inside), Rutina Wesley, and Sam Trammell co-star.

FRINGE (Fox)
Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m.
Time slot: Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
When the passengers on an international flight turn up dead under unusual and grisly circumstances, an up-and-coming FBI agent (newcomer Anna Torv) teams up with an eccentric scientist (John Noble, The Lord of the Rings) and his estranged genius son (Joshua Jackson, Dawson’s Creek) to unravel the mystery. Mark Valley (Boston Legal), Blair Brown (Altered States), Lance Reddick (The Wire), Kirk Acevedo (Oz), and Jasika Nicole (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) costar in this thriller from executive producers J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, (Mission: Impossible III, Alias).

PRIVILEGED (The CW)
Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 9 p.m.
Time slot: Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m.
Based on Zoey Dean’s young adult book, How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls, this show centers on a Yale-educated young woman (JoAnna Garcia, Reba) hired to be the live-in tutor/life coach to two rich heiresses (Ashley Newbrough, The Best Years, and Lucy Kate Hale, Bionic Woman) in Palm Beach. Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction), Allan Louis (Stomp the Yard), Kristina Apgar (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Michael Cassidy (Smallville), and Brian Hallisay costar. From executive producers Rina Mimoun (Gilmore Girls, Everwood), Bob Levy (Gossip Girl) and Leslie Morgenstein (Gossip Girl, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants).

SOMEBODIES (BET)
Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 10 p.m.
Time slot: Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
BET’s first original sitcom, based on the 2006 Sundance film by series star Hadjii, tells the story of Scottie, an everyday, party-hopping, church-going, African-American undergraduate student looking for a good time with his friends and a little luck with the ladies. Kaira Akita, Quante Strickland, Corey Redding, Anthony K. Hyatt, Tyler Craig, Eric L. Register, Pat Brown, and Carlos Davis round out the ensemble cast.

THE RACHEL ZOE PROJECT (Bravo)
Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 11 p.m.
Time slot: Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, along with her husband Rodger and fashion team, Taylor and Brad, are featured in this docu-drama as they endeavor to take Zoe’s business to the next level. In the series, the perfectly styled, go-to force among “it” starlets, fashion houses, beauty firms and magazine editors will give viewers a fly on the wall look at how she juggles constant deadlines, fashion shows and celebrity clients.

DO NOT DISTURB (Fox)
Premieres: Wednesday, Sept 10 at 9:30 p.m.
Time slot: Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.
This workplace comedy from Abraham Higginbotham (Back to You) centers on the upstairs/downstairs dynamic at a hip New York City hotel. The series stars Jerry O’Connell (Carpoolers) as the hotel’s image-conscious general manager and Niecy Nash (Reno 911!) as the head of human resources who looks after the staff and tries to keep everyone out of trouble. Molly Stanton (Twins), Brando Eaton (Zoey 101), Jolene Purdy (Donnie Darko), and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (The Class) also star.

WORST WEEK (CBS)
Premieres: Monday, Sept. 22 at 9:30 p.m.
Time slot: Mondays at 9:30 p.m.
A half-hour comedy about an unwed couple with a baby on the way (Kyle Bornheimer, Jericho, and Erinn Hayes, Kitchen Confidential), who must break the news to her conservative parents (Kurtwood Smith, That ’70s Show, and Nancy Lenehan, My Name is Earl). From exec producers Matt Tarses (Scrubs) and Jimmy Mulville (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), based on the BBC comedy The Worst Week of My Life.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS (ABC)
Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 8 p.m.
Time slot: Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
A mobile game show that travels to different neighborhoods and selects a family from each to play for money and prizes. Host J.D. Roth poses trivia questions to family members based directly on their lives, each other and articles found in and around their home. Produced by Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg, Karey Burke (Beauty and the Geek), J.D. Roth and Todd A. Nelson.

THE MENTALIST (CBS)
Premieres: Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 9 p.m.
Time slot: Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
Simon Baker (The Devil Wears Prada) stars as Patrick Jane, an independent consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation and former charlatan TV medium, who uses his razor-sharp skills of observation to solve crimes. Co-starring Robin Tunney (Prison Break), Tim Kang (Rambo), Owain Yeoman (The Nine), and Amanda Righetti, (The O.C.). Bruno Heller (creator of Rome) is creator/executive producer, and David Nutter (Band of Brothers) is the executive producer.

KNIGHT RIDER (NBC)
Premieres: Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m.
Time slot: Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
An update of the ’80s television series, following on the heels of last year’s TV movie. The new, customized KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) is now a Ford Mustang powered by nanotechnology, with Michael Knight’s son (Justin Bruening, Cold Case) behind the wheel. Deanna Russo (NCIS), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Veronica Mars), and Bruce Davison (Kingdom Hospital, X-Men) co-star. David Bartis (Heist, The O.C.), Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity) and Gary Scott Thompson (Las Vegas, The Fast and The Furious) are executive producers.

GARY UNMARRIED (CBS)
Premieres: Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 8:30 p.m.
Time slot: Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.
Jay Mohr (Ghost Whisperer) and Paula Marshall (Nip/Tuck) star in this comedy about Gary Barnes, a recently single painting contractor, and his controlling ex-wife, Allison, who face post-divorce mayhem after 15 years of marriage as they each juggle parenthood and embark on new relationships. Jaime King (Kitchen Confidential), Ed Begley Jr. (Recount), Al Madrigal (Welcome to the Captain), Kathryn Newton, and Ryan Malgarini (How to Eat Fried Worms) co-star. From exec producers Ed Yeager (Still Standing) and Ric Swartzlander (8 Simple Rules).

LITTLE BRITAIN (HBO)
Premieres: Sunday, Sept. 28 at 10:30 p.m.
Time slot: Sundays at 10:30
Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the stars of the smash-hit BBC comedy Little Britain, bring their surreal, edgy sketch comedy to the U.S., featuring an outrageous look at the quirkiest inhabitants of the country from coast to coast.

THE LIFE & TIMES OF TIM (HBO)
Premieres: Sunday, Sept. 28 at 11 p.m.
Time slot: Sundays a 11 p.m.
An animated show about a guy who just can’t seem to catch a break. Tim (Steve Dildarian, co-creator of the Budweiser “Lizards” TV campaign) is 25 years old and lives in New York City with his girlfriend Amy (MJ Otto), who’s patiently putting up with his antics while he gets his life in order. Rounding out the voice cast are Bob Morrow, Cheri Oteri (Saturday Night Live), Kurtwood Smith (That 70s Show), Matt Johnson (Passions), and Nick Kroll (Cavemen, Best Week Ever). Created by Dildarian and executive-produced by Tom Werner (That 70s Show, 3rd Rock from the Sun), Jimmy Miller (Talladega Nights, Borat) and Mike Clements.

PSYCH Pineapple Watch: Is It Under Andy Roddick’s Hat?

Sadly, there won’t be a Psych marathon over the Labor Day weekend. There won’t even be a new Psych episode tonight, as USA will be showing the US Open in primetime. It seems unlikely the tennis powers that be will have had the foresight to embroider pineapples on the umpires’ shirts or to steal Wimbledon’s thunder with pineapple and cream.

To tide you over, may we recommend Season 1 episode “Game, Set…Muuurder?,” which focuses on a missing tennis player? You can’t go wrong with Gus trying to serve and volley. A new episode–and a new pineapple, presumably–will air next week. It involves roller derby. I approve (and I’ll bet Shawn does, too).

Labor Day is Made for Marathons

Forget barbecuing. Why battle bugs, heat prostration and burned burgers when you can spend your Labor Day in air conditioned comfort, racked out on the couch in front of the TV?

That’s what the cable networks seem to expect you do anyway, since they’ve planned a whole slew of TV marathons to help you wile away the last rays of summer.

• For those who want to spend the whole three-day weekend in a nostalgic stupor, VH1 Classic has lined up 80 Hours of the ’80s starting Friday at 4 p.m., and featuring an A-to-Z showcase of videos, an 80 Greatest Songs of the ’80s special, and more.
• On Sunday, AMC has a five-episode Mad Men marathon to catch you up on all of this season’s episodes, starting at 5 p.m. and ending with a new episode at 10 p.m.
• Starting at midnight on Sunday night (or is that Monday morning?) SOAPNet has a 24-hour “mega-marathon” of Beverly Hills, 90210 to help get you ready for the premiere of The CW’s spin-off.
• Moving on to Monday, USA has a Monk marathon starting bright and early at 6 a.m.
• FX has That 70’s Show all day starting at 7 a.m.
• TV Land will be showing I Love Lucy from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by a seven-hour Scrubs marathon at 4 p.m.
• A&E is offering a CSI: Miami marathon at 8 a.m.
• Hallmark has Murder She Wrote all day starting at 8 a.m.
• Sci Fi Channel will be showing Star Trek: The Next Generation from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• TNT will be airing 12 episodes of The Closer starting at 9 a.m., and ending with a new episode at 9 p.m.
• The Travel Channel has a marathon of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations starting at 9 a.m.
• The Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs marathon runs from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Spike TV will be showing CSI from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• TBS is offering a 20-episode House of Payne marathon starting at 10 a.m.
• ABC Family has a My Wife and Kids marathon on tap at noon.
• Food Network has seven hours of Unwrapped starting at noon.
• BBC America will be showing a marathon of Pink Panther movies starting at 12:30 p.m. (which is what we’ll be watching in my house).

And, of course, for the traditionalists, there’s always the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

“Why Would You Spend So Much Time Thinking About TV?”

This question has come up more than once. In fairness, it sometimes comes from people who can’t imagine spending so many words writing about anything (and heaven knows I run on sometimes), let alone TV. And the question comes as often as not from people who watch a lot of TV themselves but can’t imagine digging into the glowy stuff instead of just enjoying the high. It’s a fair question. Does popular culture–filmed and broadcast popular culture, no less–matter enough to be worth the time and effort it takes to think?

Perhaps the answer came tonight during MSNBC’s coverage of Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Talking about his experience standing in Invesco Field and hearing the speech live, NBC’s Brian Williams said,

I’m thinking of two guys. I’m thinking of Tim Russert, our brother, for obvious reason. Because of the spectacle of it, because he’d love watching this, and because Mike Murphy might have been right tonight that this is going to be in large part perhaps a generational campaign. I’m also thinking of Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter, the legendary writer and creator of The West Wing on NBC, but also the screenwriter behind the film The American President. The line from this speech, ‘that’s a debate I’d like to have,’ is a one-off, direct lift from President Andrew Shepherd. This is part of the new cadence, and the new tone and the new language of American politics. It was personal that way. It was conversational. There were parallel constructions in this speech that come right out of the Sorkin playbook. And it’s kind of the pen and the style of Barack Obama.

Andrea Mitchell later said,

You guys also focused on the echo of Aaron Sorkin from that great movie with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening, and this [the convention speech] was the American president laying down the challenge to the older, established, very tough, popular in New Hampshire, in fact, the senator from New Hampshire [sic] Republican opponent.

A prominent American journalist just claimed that the guy who wrote Sports Night, The West Wing, and the much-maligned Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip created the new language of American politics. Another one just anointed a candidate the president based on that writer’s style and words. The TV Bacon crew’s obsession (unplugging the phone on Wednesday nights type of obsession) with The West Wing far predates TV Bacon itself, and that obsession was rooted in many ways in wishing American political life and discourse were more like what we were seeing on TV. We were seduced by the poetry and elegance of that new cadence, but also by the possibility that real ideas could be clothed in a cadence so glorious and invigorating that it was meaningful in and of itself. And MSNBC journalists essentially said tonight that the magic mirror of popular culture has tranformed into just a mirror, a real one. Maybe they’re overstating it (they’re perhaps pundits instead of journalists, which means overstating things is kind of their job). But if they’re even a little bit right, thinking about TV is worth the time and effort because the good stuff, the really, truly special stuff, creates new paradigms, new visions, new language. And those things create new worlds.

DOCTOR WHO in America?

Is the Doctor coming to America? Maybe. News of the World (not exactly a bastion of journalistic integrity) is quoting an unnamed BBC source who claims that two of the four Doctor Who specials next year will be shot in the United States.

“Two specials in America, with a U.S. setting and a U.S. assistant, will take it to another level,” says the source. “David Tennant is already gaining a huge following and this will make him really hot property.”

The rumors have not been confirmed by the BBC, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Doctor has visited North America–the 1996 Doctor Who film was shot in Vancouver and San Francisco.

This American Doctor Who fan is keeping her fingers crossed and feeling a bit giddy at the thought of the Doctor’s trainers touching down on her home turf.

ETA: The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that BBC drama chief Jane Tranter is in talks to move to the U.S. to spearhead a new BBC Worldwide West Coast drama production division in the new year. Could this move somehow be related to the Doctor Who in America rumors?

Tranter, who helped bring Doctor Who, Life on Mars, Spooks and Cranford to BBC screens, was reportedly offered a number of U.S. jobs, including a position at HBO, but is now putting together a blueprint to stay with the BBC and develop major dramas for the U.S. market. There are also rumblings that BBC Wales drama head Julie Gardner may succeed her, or might even move to the U.S to work with Tranter in Los Angeles. Our hearts are aflutter with the possibilities.

Bacon Bits: Michael Phelps, Dumpster Babies, and More

– Olympic superman Michael Phelps will be hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on Sept. 13.

– Remember The WB? Well it’s been resurrected as TheWB.com, a new web site that lets you watch early episodes of Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Veronica Mars, Smallville, The O.C., Friends, Smallville, Roswell, and more.

– Speaking of Gilmore Girls, did you know that Gilmore Girls creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino were blogging the Democratic National Convention for EW? Well they are.

– Is the BBC planning a Red Dwarf special? We hope so!

– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has a blog. And look, you can win your own dumpster baby.

TORCHWOOD Resumes Production for Series 3

Filming for the third season of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood has begun in Cardiff, Wales, according to BBC Worldwide. The series, created by Russell T. Davies, is scheduled to return in 2009, with a shortened, five-episode series titled Torchwood: Children of Earth, and will air on BBC America shortly after debuting in the U.K.

“We’ve decided to do a five-part mini-series, one big story that will run during one week,” Torchwood executive producer Julie Gardner told TV Guide. “I wanted to make a really big noise about the show.” The new season sees the Torchwood team embarking on a single action-packed adventure as they battle for the future of the human race against “the fiercest force they have yet encountered.”

The returning cast includes John Barrowman as Capt. Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper and Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones. Also reprising their recurring roles are Kai Owen as Gwen’s husband, Rhys, and Tom Price as PC Andy. Special guests in the five-part series include Peter Capaldi, who plays the role of Mr. Frobisher, a civil servant who is hiding a terrible secret; Paul Copely as Clem, a survivor still haunted by his past; and Liz May Brice as Johnson, a cynical covert government agent determined to expose Torchwood.

The ending of the Doctor Who season finale “Journey’s End,” which saw Captain Jack walking off with Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) and Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke), seemed to suggest that both those characters might be crossing over for Torchwood‘s third season. But the subsequent casting of Agyeman in ITV’s upcoming Law & Order: London has cast some doubt on Martha’s return to the Torchwood Hub, and the BBC has been mum about Clarke so far.

Torchwood‘s third season will have a new producer, Peter Bennett, (who’s previously worked on both Torchwood and Doctor Who, as well as films The Mummy, A View to a Kill, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) since previous showrunner Chris Chibnall has exited to helm L&O: London.

The second season of Torchwood will be released on DVD in the U.S. on Sept. 16.

PUSHING DAISIES on Tour… With Pie!

ABC continues to throw its marketing weight behind quirky drama Pushing Daisies, this time by hitting the road. An Airstream trailer modeled after The Pie Hole set will be setting off on a ten-city tour and allowing visitors to sample free pie, get a close-up glimpse of props from the series, and watch footage from the show on plasma TV screens. Waitresses on whimsically decorated daisy bicycles will direct people to the restaurant prior to the event.

Free pie! What could be better than that? Well, maybe if said pie was served by series stars Lee Pace or Anna Friel, but this is pretty cool, too. Guests will also have the opportunity to snag Pushing Daisies magnets, pie-cutters and spatulas. Ooooo, I want a Pie Hole spatula.

A special web site has been set up (or, will be set up, since it’s not online yet) at PushingDaisiesTour.com to chart the mobile Pie Hole’s progress and offer daisy messages that can be sent to friends online.

The schedule for the Pushing Daisies “Touch of Wonder Tour” is as follows:

Aug. 31 – Anaheim, CA – Downtown Disney
Sept. 7 – San Francisco, CA – Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival
Sept. 10 – Los Angeles, CA – Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade
Sept. 12 – Las Vegas, NV – Fashion Show Mall
Sept. 14 – Phoenix, AZ – Westgate Complex
Sept. 17 – Denver, CO – Larimer Square
Sept. 20 – Dallas, TX – Addison Oktober Fest
Sept. 24 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Park
Sept. 26 – Philadelphia, PA – The Shops at Liberty Place
Sept. 29 – New York, NY – Times Square

Full Season Order for NBC’s CHUCK

In a show of confidence in the spy dramedy, NBC has given an early full-season order to Chuck. Reportedly, NBC execs have been impressed with what they’ve seen from the first six episodes of the show’s second season and decided to hand out an early back-nine pickup.

“It’s an incredible show of faith by NBC and so amazingly nice to get based on the work alone,” said executive producer Josh Schwartz.

In other Chuck news, Morgan Fairchild and Bruce “Scarecrow” Boxleitner have been signed to play Captain Awesome’s parents (Awesome!), Alias alum Carl Lumbly will guest star as a sort of sensei to NSA agent Casey, and Jordana Brewster will appear in a multi-episode arc as Chuck’s college girlfriend Jill. Other high-profile guest stars this season include Michael Clarke Duncan, John Larroquette, and The O.C. vet Melinda Clark. Oh, and Nicole Richie will show up in an episode as… some kind of bimbo, I’m guessing.

The Romantic Comedy is Alive and Well on BBC America’s GAVIN & STACEY

British comedy Gavin and Stacey is such a hit across the pond that it’s won multiple BAFTAs and British Comedy Awards and recently gotten a shout out from Olympic swimmer David Davies. And now that it’s come to BBC America, us Yanks finally get to see what all the fuss is about.

Essentially, Gavin and Stacey is a romance about a nice boy from Essex, England (Mathew Horne), and a nice girl from Barry, Wales (Joanna Page), who fall in love and (eventually) get married. And it’s a comedy about the circle of deranged friends and relatives who orbit these twin suns of romantic bliss.

Populating television shows with casts of eccentric characters is practically the British national pastime, but writers James Corden and Ruth Jones (who play the couple’s idiosyncratic best friends) have masterfully crafted a hilarious ensemble of fresh weirdos for your viewing pleasure. (And if Gavin’s mom looks familiar, that’s because she’s played by the amazing Alison Steadman, who was Mrs. Bennet in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice, and she’s every bit as much fun here.)

Though the people who populate their world may be batty, the title couple themselves ground the show with a center of un-ironic sincerity. Their eccentricity hinges on their immediate and unshakable mutual affection–after all, what’s crazier than two strangers deciding they can’t live without one another?

Gavin and Stacey is absurd, endearing, racy, unapologetically romantic, and simultaneously modern and old fashioned. It’s a Richard Curtis romance adapted for a post-Ricky Gervais television landscape. The fact that Horne (who, for some reason, reminds me of Torchwood‘s Owen, if Owen were a Very Nice Young Man instead of a Very Bad Boy) came from The Catherine Tate Show and Page is perhaps most recognizable from Curtis’ Love, Actually gives you a clue to the sensibility of the show. This contradictory tone is mirrored by the soundtrack, which in the first episode runs the gamut from The Libertines and The Kooks to Paolo Nutini and Lifehouse.

Take BBC America’s advice and turn on your closed captioning, though, because some of the Welsh accents are a bit indecipherable to the untamed American ear. And enjoy the original in all its untainted glory while you can, because (of course) is NBC is already working on an American adaptation.