Cortney’s TV Digest: What’s On In August

While the Summer might be ending, great television for the year is just beginning. That’s why Cortney’s TV Digest returns to The Flickcast this month, where we’ll be bringing you some great shows from our favorite networks, including Showtime and MTV.

Mad Men

AMC might not have a lot of television shows, but what they lack in quantity they certainly make up for in quality. Breaking Bad just finished up a fabulous third season over the Summer, and that means it’s time for Mad Men. Season 4 started last month but continues on this month, as Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Pryce begin to establish their new, but struggling, ad firm.

Mad Men is on every Sunday at 10/9C on AMC.

Weeds

Our favorite pot-dealing, crime-scheming Nancy Botwin is back, as Weeds enters its sixth season. It’s so hard to write about this show without absolutely spoiling everything, but to be discrete, this episode picks up right after the last one left off, and looks like this season is going to be a doozy as everyone in the Botwin pack deals with the implications of Shane’s actions.

If you’re a new-comer to Weeds, you’ve got about two weeks to catch up on all five of the previous seasons, but the episodes are so good (and, luckily, short) that it won’t take you much time at all to see what all the fuss is about. Weeds begins its new season on August 17th on Showtime.

Jersey Shore

Last season of Jersey Shore put MTV back on the map, with the ridiculous and always hilarious antics of the cast, who were put up in a house on the Jersey Shore, ala Real World, given a job, and taped for all the world to see. The result was a lot of drinking, a lot of swearing, a LOT of hairspray, and GTL (Gym, Tanning, and Laundry).

Normally, this kind of reality TV makes me want to throw things at my television, but I think this one is worth giving a shot. The first episode of the new series premiered at the end of July, but the show continues on this month, every Thursday at 10/9C on MTV.

The Big C

While I don’t know much about this new show, it’s on Showtime and it’s starring Laura Linney, so that sounds good enough for me. Linney plays a housewife recently diagnosed with cancer, who has to manage an immature husband, played by Oliver Platt, while trying to make the best of her diagnosis.

The show will guest star Gabourey Sidibe, Idris Elba and Brian Cox. We’re hoping this one does well, and with a pretty great cast and on a great network it probably will.

Be sure to let us know how you feel about any of these shows in the comments. A ton of shows return in September, so expect a two-part Cortney’s TV Digest next month, right here at The Flickcast.