I love television. I have said it before and I will say it again. I watch TV like most men watch sports. The fall season is like opening day may finales are like the super bowl. Now I have added in spring training with summer shows. I love my summer shows. They are usually short and quick. The down side is they are usually only a season or so. This year I cannot wait for some of these shows. Here are my five summer shows.

5. The Strain. This is Guillermo del Toro’s vampire show. I am almost done with vampires but what little I have seen on this makes me think it is more of a viral outbreak than your standard vampire show. FX does gritty first tier cable like no one else. I am hoping this one is as great as I want it to be.

4. The Last Ship. Another viral infection show. A battleship, I guess, has been conducting research under radio silence. Once they pop back up they discover they are humanity’s last hope. As always the case there are those who want to stop them. This looks good. Always love a good “what the hell happened” premise. Should be lots of action mixed with lots of drama. Another can’t wait

3. Falling Skies. I gave been in on this from the beginning. Nothing like an alien invasion to show us what we are made of. Always enjoy those movies but never really liked how they usually wrap up in a couple of hours. Even if we defeated the invading aliens, ID4, there would certainly be fall out to deal with. This show focusses on the human resistance and its attempt to maintain human civilization. We have armies, towns, and even governments. Our focus is on the fighting Mass. They are our heroes and how we find ourselves in this world. Always fun. Just recently read to cut on costs they have reduced CG aliens for rubber masks, I really hope that is not the death knell for the show.

2. Under the Dome. I love the freaky. A dome appears from nowhere and covers a small town. This all happens for no discernable reason. Nobody knows where it came from or why it’s there. This town now has to figure out how to live inside this dome. How to live with each other, how to live with themselves. The writing last year was excellent as was the acting. I am really excited for this to return.

1. Newsroom. This is my absolute favorite show! I loved West Wing, I actually think that West Wing is part of why I became a social studies teacher. This is almost exactly like the west wing but without the constraints of the rule book, the constitution. The stories are great and last season was AWESOME! The over arcing story line that dominates the entire season with sprinkles of the news from the year or two ago thrown in. They also have your standard personal work place drama thrown in for spice. And of course who doesn’t love that Sorkin rhythm and cadence in conversation. This is one of the only reasons I still have HBO.