Aside from a few low-wattage genre series, summer is a time when television networks let reruns, old licensed material and unscripted shows dominate their schedules. This used to be a pretty dire situation prior to the advent of the DVD box set, but these days TV fans have made it a habit to fill those content-deprived summer weeks with back logs of shows they always intended on watching but never had the time to. TV World adopted this tradition last summer in a special column called Catching Up. 2009's lineup included Mitch Hurwitz's cult comedy Arrested Development, Rockne S. O'Bannon's science fiction masterpiece Farscape and the first season of the fun but ill-fated Legend of the Seeker. This year we're coming back starting in June with an entirely new set of recent classics. Here's the Catching Up 2010 roster.

Carnivale  (Monday)

Daniel Knauf's bizarre HBO series Carnivale had a planned six-season arc, which seems ridiculous by today's standards but made a weird kind of sense back in 2003 when the network made it a habit to foster shows for longer than average tenures, The Sopranos being the most notable example. It barely got two of those seasons thanks to steadily dwindling ratings, a strange plot and a general lack of faith in the show by its network. Still, it took home a variety of awards, including five Emmys. This series has been on my personal docket for years but I've only just gotten around to it. I'll be going through the first season of Carnivale in detail every Monday and deciding whether or not the second season is worth a cursory treatment when the busy autumn TV schedule kicks in.

Firefly, with extras (Tuesday)

Joss Whedon's "space western" Firefly has one of the most enduring fan communities in history. Despite being canceled in the middle of its first season, Firefly just won't disappear from the pop culture landscape. The demand for more of the poorly treated series spawned a comic book, a feature length film, a role playing game and even a fan-made independent movie that will be making the rounds in the convention circuit this summer. I'll be adding my own content to the eternal flame of Firefly every Tuesday. I'll also cap the feature with an in-depth evaluation of Serenity, a peek into the comics and, if I get the opportunity, a review of the fan film Browncoats: Redemption.

Mad Men  (Thursday)

One of the most consistently acclaimed shows currently on the air is the spring/summer hit Mad Men on AMC. Matthew Weiner's drama about advertising executives on the slick side of the 1960's in America has attracted an impressive number of viewers and few criticisms. Mad Men has an impressive cast, including star Jon Hamm and various young, hard-working talents like Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss and January Jones. I'll be kicking back with a cold martini on Thursday evenings with the first 13 episodes of Mad Men. You're cordially invited to join me. Black tie not mandatory but strongly encouraged.

Join me next week and all this summer for this year's Catching Up column. Why waste your time sweating in the heat when you can watch TV in an air conditioned room?