What's On This Summer, ABC?

ABC announced its summer schedule a few days ago. What should you watch? I mean, besides Big Brother? Here are my three picks:

1) Dating in the Dark. I essentially wrote a love letter to this show back in February. Too bad I have to wait until August 9 for new episodes.

2) Anything Primetime. There are several series, including Family Secrets, Crime, The Outsiders, and What Would You Do?. WWYD is the best one--it sets up psychological experiments with innocent bystanders. One episode, they had a white couple fighting on a park bench, and the guy was getting physical, and people stepped in to help the girl. Then they had a black couple fighting, and people just looked on warily. Good stuff. Unfortunately, ABC hasn't booked WWYD for this summer (yet). But they did schedule this new one, Mind Games. It's all about the "darkest corners of the human mind and how it can be twisted." One of the episodes will focus on children who kill. Color me intrigued. Mind Games premieres July 20.

3) Wipeout. People face-planting on giant red balls. 'Nuff said. Wipeout premieres June 1.

ABC also scheduled 3 new dramas/dramedies: Rookie Blue, about a bunch of rookie cops, The Gates, about a family moving to a mysterious town, and Scoundrels, about a crime family attempting to go straight when the dad goes to jail. Five letters: ZZZZZ.

And there's a new game show, Downfall, played on top of a skyscraper, with contestants' winnings get thrown over the side of a building if they miss a question. Interesting premise, but I can see the novelty wearing off after oh, one episode. Sort of like Deal Or No Deal.

The best thing about summer is that, unlike December/early January, the networks don't all phone it in. Sure, 90% of the new offerings are crap. But at least they're trying.

Dating In The Dark: Back For Round 2.

Last summer's quasi-hit reality show, Dating in the Dark, will be back this summer for a second season. I am so excited.

DITD ended its run about two weeks before I started Linda's TV, so I never got to write about it. But it is the. best. show.

For those not in the know, the show features six contestants--three men, three women--who live in separate quarters of a house. The only times they get to interact is in a pitch-black room on "dates." The first date is with all six people. They sit across from each other, women on one side, men on the other, and chat. Then they go back into their quarters and decide who they want one-on-one dates with. They also have to go on dates with the one they are most compatible with, according to a computer. At the end of the episode, they pick who they want to see in the light. If they like what they see, they go out on a balcony and wait for them. If the other person likes them back, they will meet them on the balcony. If not, they will walk out of the house wheeling a suitcase, in full view of the rejected contestant.

This show is actually not as skeezy as it sounds. You might think a date in the dark is prime territory for inappropriate groping, but it's all very tame. What I like about the show are two things: 1) The group of contestants (which change every episode) are usually fairly diverse, and they're pretty normal-looking--that is, they're not all blonde sticks and Ken dolls, and 2) there's not always a happy ending. The show feels real (as real as TV gets, anyway) because sometimes only one out of three pairs end up choosing each other, while the others go home with a slightly broken heart.

One episode, all three girls liked the same guy. But when he went out on the balcony, guess what? All three girls changed their mind and went home.

Did I mention how awesome this show is?

Dating in the Dark does not have a premiere date, but six episodes have been ordered. I can't wait.