We’re about halfway through the summer, but the regular fall TV season probably won’t be starting for real for a couple of months (only CBS has announced its premiere schedule as far as I can tell).  So, how should your TiVo busy until then?  I’ll give you a few suggestions over the next week or so.

At first I wasn’t going to recommend In Plain Sight, on USA Network (Sundays 10pm/9pmC).  I couldn’t even get through the first episode, and I tried other episodes here and there over its first six weeks or so but couldn’t get through them either.  The characters were shallow, the writing was hackneyed, and the acting was awkward.

But, with its latest episode, in which a doctor and his family has to relocate and give up his practice, dragged kicking and screaming the whole way, because his daughter witnessed a gang murder, I think it might have turned a corner.  Mary McCormack stars as a U.S. Marshall who, with her partner, establishes people in the witness protection program.  Until the latest episode, McCormack’s character seemed overly angry and mean, and we really didn’t know why.  In the latest episode, we see a more complex personality in her interaction with her fiancee and sister, and some compassion for the people she is protecting.  McCormack finally gets a starring vehicle after a pretty long career of supporting roles, and she might be finally taking advantage of the opportunity.  Some of the acting is still awkward, but that may be part of the characters.  I’ll be watching to see.  Lesson learned:  give USA Network shows a chance to develop before throwing them out.