TV shows worth catching up on this summer break

Here at the O'Colly, we love TV. We watch a lot of it, but we don't have time to see everything, every week. But in the summer we're given the chance to catch up, and redeem ourselves as TV watchers and see what we may have missed in the past season or even past years. Two editors write about what they're watching this summer.

Cougar Town

Unlike its Wednesday night companion "Modern Family," I don't feel the need to tune into "Cougar Town" every week. I'll catch an episode here and there, but I save most of it for the summertime. Starring Courteney-Cox Arquette as a 40-something single woman looking for love in Florida, "Cougar Town" is 30 minutes of bright colors, cute clothes and broad comedy. See, in summertime, I like to let all areas of my brain rest, including the TV-watching area. "Cougar Town" provides entertainment without all the plot twists, alternate realities and cliffhanger endings that I just don't want to deal with right now.

"Cougar Town" is available to watch on Hulu.com and ABC.com.

—Kate Caudill

Friday Night Lights

I first saw Taylor Kitsch as Gambit in the horrific "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." By that time, he had been sulking it up for a few seasons already on "Friday Night Lights."

The show, loosely based on the movie and book of the same name, focuses on the fictional small town of Dillon in West Texas. Like many Texans, the residents of Dillon live and die with their high school football team, the Dillon Panthers.

The show focuses on the lives of members of the team, the coach and his family and the residents of the town. Kitsch plays Tim Riggins, a fullback on the team who lives with his older brother after their father abandoned them for a job further south.

Maybe it's the gritty desperation of the residents of the town, or maybe it's Minka Kelly's heartwarming portrayal of cheerleader Lyla Garrity, but I've been bingeing on "Friday Night Lights" and have just hit the second season.

­—Ted Bado

Doctor Who

I started "Doctor Who" one month ago from Tuesday. I covered five years in four weeks.

I usually don't catch up on shows until the entire series has finished. "Doctor Who" is an exception. After a recent obsession with "Battlestar Galactica" came to an end, a friend recommended that I watch "Doctor Who", a British TV series about a time traveling alien that sometimes crosses into farce. But that's why "Doctor Who" is such a great summer show— it's lighthearted, clever and just fun to watch. With Matt Smith's reign as the 11th Doctor just beginning, now is a perfect time to see why this show is such a hit overseas. I suggest beginning with the retooled series that began in 2005. BBC America and the ScyFy network currently air episodes. Downloads of season 5 are also available on iTunes.

—Kate Caudill

Fringe

Every kid remembers Charlie Conway leading the Mighty Ducks to the divisional hockey championship, the gold medal at the Junior Goodwill Games and finally a victory over the dreaded varsity team in high school. Charlie then moved Massachusetts, I think, where he and Katie Holmes made a perfect overdramatic and wordy couple in "Dawson's Creek." Now Charlie is a "special" consultant to the FBI's Fringe Science division on FOX's "Fringe."

Joshua Jackson played Charlie in the "Mighty Ducks" series and Pacey Witter on "Dawson's Creek." "Fringe" is his current show, the latest show from "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams.

Nostalgia definitely played a part as I finished the first season of the show last week. I keep expecting Joshua Jackson to get Anna Torv and Lance Reddick to do the Flying V as they investigate rapidly aging babies, human bombs and psychological drugs.

The kicker: John Noble as the drug-addled mad scientist Walter Bishop, Peter's father who has a personal connection to most of the incidents on the show.

—Ted Bado