U.S.A. Goes All The Way

While Hulu and Netflix seep the New Age Nanny back into our Binary progression, the USA network keeps back the pitfalls of reality television with stellar programing.

It’s no secret that many of the modern day Web Slingers have given up the glowing idiot box for interactions with the internets. Recent actions by the cable company have threatened to force the networks to make Hulu, one of the most popular sites for Internet television, pay the same price. Yet this course of action will further the divide and kill off television all together.

Beyond the loss of advertising dollars, too many modern day Americans have already turned their back on television in general. The ever present integration of reality television forces the hand to use the off button, and the profiteers are pissed.

They hate the Hep beatniks who fill our visual diet with internet episodes, where the battle for attention falls before the eyes of the intellectuals. Here in the Binary, quality television is king and no network has a better recent track record of quality television than the U.S.A network.

While U.S.A. was once the FOX lite channel with a heavy presence of T&A, and Gilbert Godfrey. Today, the U.S.A. network has changed their game plan with shows like Monk, Psych, and the new White Collar.

Monk

Monk

Monk is the continuing adventures of Adrian Monk, played by Tony Shalhoub. The San Franciscan detective is the world’s best detective and a man plagued by many disorders, with OCD at the head of the pack. Monk lives with his disorders and uses his fear induced perception to solve the toughest crimes. In the past, Monk found peace from his disorders through the love of his wife, Trudy.

When Trudy dies in a car bomb explosion, Monk suffers a regression into his disorders. The first series finds Monk leaving his home, for the first time in 3 years, to solve crimes with help from his nurse Sharona Fleming, Bitty Schram.

Now in it’s Eight and final season, Monk is back with his personal assistant Natalie Teeger, Traylor Howard, and fans of the show can’t wait to find out the mystery behind Trudy’s murder.

Above all else, Monk is a show that always hits. The acting is great. The dialogue is on time and always packs a laugh. Monk is the series that built U.S.A into the intellectual network it is today. If you have never checked out Monk then what have you been waiting for? There is only one month left before the grand finally and Mr. Monk touches parking meters into DVD History.

Psych

Psych

On the coattails of Monk’s success, comes another mystery solving buddy comedy with a twist. Shawn Spencer, played by James Roday, is a slacker with heightened observational skills”.

Henry Spencer, played by Corbin Bernsen, is Shawn’s father and has been training his boy to be a cop from a very young age. Yet Shawn is a rebellious son and never follows in his father’s footsteps. Yet a youth spent honing his abilities caused Shawn to call in tips to the police from clues he gathered from the nightly news.

When one of those tips hits a little too close to home, Shawn is arrested on the suspicion that he is the criminal. To clear his name, he tells the police he is a psychic and had a series of flashes that explained his knowledge of the crime.

With the help of his best friend Burton Guster, played by Dulé Hill, Shawn clears his name, solves the crime, and opens a detective agency called “Psych”. Now in it’s fourth season, Shawn and Gus are back for more crime solving fun on the Santa Barbara coast.

The great thing about Psych is the many levels of it’s parody. From the halls of our cliché 80’s past to a sound track that mimics CSI, Psych pokes fun at our world and themselves in a artful and entertaining way. Psych is one of the best shows of the “00, along with Monk of course.

White Collar

White Collar

White Collar is the new comer to the U.S.A. network and hulu, but it has chops. While some might turn away from the title of White Collar and expect another vein attempt to redeem the corporate name, the show offers a different point of view and aims it’s camera at the world class forgers and flashy side of property crime.

White Collar opens as Neal Caffrey, a highly talented con man played by Matt Borner, escapes from Maxim security prison. Federal agent Peter Burke, played by Tim DeKay, is called in to find the escaped prisoner. He find him in the apartment that Caffrey once shared with the love of his live, but she is gone. Sent back to prison, Caffery offers to help Burke if he gains a limited sense of freedom.

Strapped with a GPS monitor on his leg, Caffery is quazi free to search for his love, but under the watchful eye of Burke. With the first two episodes out, the show has promise and with Tiffany Amber Thiessen in the role of Burke’s wife, watchers are happy to see Tiffany on the little screen again.

A quick wit and eye for quality has become the trademark of the U.S.A. network, and White Collar is no different. The show delivers the laughs like a comedy and keeps you glued to the next scene like a drama. Check out the pilot epeisode before it’s Hulu time runs out.

The Wrap up

These are only three shows that are worthy of placing U.S.A. on the map, but be sure there are more. When the season turns and Monk is no more, we will be back to tell you about Burn Notice, Royal Pains, and In Plane Sight.

There is always more and, from a Television station formed in the same year I was born, I would expect no less. We can only hope that U.S.A. will continue to represent the country of it’s name with the quality we see today.