“Covert Affairs”
Tuesday 10pm, USA
This unimaginatively titled new drama addition to USA’s summer procedural slate has been dismissed as “Alias Lite.” As a huge fan of the spy series that made J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Garner and Bradley Cooper household names, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. “Covert” stars the very pretty Piper Perabo (“Coyote Ugly”) as Annie Walker, a chipper new addition to the C.I.A. She has trouble balancing her personal and professional lives, especially maintaining her covert status from her sister (Anne Dudek of “House” and “Mad Men”), and seems a lot like Sydney Bristow, minus the daddy issues and the fabulous wigs. Her handler (Christopher Gorham, “Ugly Betty”) is handsome, heroic and understanding but—surprise!—blind. Also stars Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder from “Heroes”), Peter Gallagher (“The O.C.”) and Peter Gallagher’s resplendent eyebrows (see previous).
“The Glades”
Sunday 10pm, A&E
A&E is throwing its hat into the original scripted drama ring with this new series, yet another procedural about a complicated/reluctant crime solver with personal issues in an exotic setting. “Glades” follows gruff but brilliant detective Jim Longworth (Australian actor Matt Passmore) who is exiled to a small town in the Florida Everglades for allegedly boffing his boss’s wife. While Longworth would prefer to kick back, enjoy the sun, and work on his golf game, bodies keep popping up all over town, and he is, of course, drawn into the cases. Also stars Kiele Sanchez (the universally loathed Nikki from “Lost”) as his love interest and the underappreciated Michelle Hurd (“Law & Order: SVU”).
“RuPaul’s Drag U”
Monday 9pm, Logo
This spinoff of drag-queen competition “RuPaul’s Drag Race” reimagines the classic TV game show “Queen for a Day” much more literally: Eight of “Drag Race”’s most beloved contestants act as “professors” for a group of sad, broken (real) women and help them to harness their inner power and beauty. Honestly, it looks like tons of fun, and a lot less negative than the last season of “Race.” The setup appears significantly different—there doesn’t seem to be any eliminations, Ru is hosting it as a man, and wackadoo drag legend Lady Bunny is involved—but it’ll be wonderful to see some of our favorite ladyboys again, including S2’s Jujubee and Pandora Boxx, and S1’s Ongina, Nina Flowers, and the insane Tammie Brown, who will hopefully walk her students through Nature. (Just go with it.)
