Tasteless summer reality shows replaced with foreign flavor

When considering the decade's most influential shows, you'd have to include "Survivor." Because at this very moment, somewhere in the world, someone is being voted out of or off of a kitchen or a catwalk, a ballroom, a boardroom or a bedroom.

You'd also have to include "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Because if gruesome murders were piling up in the real world as fast as they are across the CBS lineup, there wouldn't be any Americans left. We'd all have fled to Canada years ago.

But "Flashpoint"? The Canadian police drama that gives viewers a taste of how that life in the Great White North would be, with its uniformed cops that look like something out of a "Kids in the Hall" sketch? That just may be the salvation of network TV.

CBS bought a stake in the series, which was being developed by Canada's CTV, during the panic of the writers strike and began airing it last July. "Flashpoint" attracted enough of a following that it was brought back at midseason, where it averaged a solid 9 million viewers.

Now, armed with evidence that summer needn't just be a dumping ground for lowest-common-denominator reality shows, other networks are testing the international waters. This summer's scripted dramas with foreign ties include:

• "Mental" (9 p.m. Tuesday, KVVU-TV, Channel 5), which is set in the psychiatric ward of a Los Angeles hospital, yet filmed in Bogota, Colombia. Produced by one of Fox's international corporate cousins, the series costs the network roughly half the fee of a typical drama, and it's already set to air in 35 additional countries.

• "The Listener" (10 p.m. June 4, KVBC-TV, Channel 3), a Canadian series about a paramedic who can hear people's thoughts. The drama will debut in the U.S. and Canada simultaneously, even though it's already airing in 180 countries.

• "Merlin" (8 p.m. June 21, Channel 3), a British series about the early days of Camelot, Prince Arthur and his young wizard friend.

• and "The Philanthropist" (10 p.m. June 24, Channel 3), from "Oz" creator Tom Fontana, about a billionaire playboy who starts using his wealth to help the needy. NBC is saving around $1 million per episode by making the series in London through a British production company.

CBS also is producing the Canadian police drama "The Bridge" with its "Flashpoint" partners for next season.

These international co-productions aren't a new phenomenon. HBO made the Ricky Gervais comedy "Extras" with the BBC, as well as the dramas "Rome" and "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" and the miniseries "Band of Brothers." And Showtime co-produced the short-lived "Meadowlands" with The U.K.'s Channel 4 and has shown the first two seasons of the British comedy "Secret Diary of a Call Girl."

But while NBC partnered with a British production company for its fall ratings dud "Crusoe" -- which shouldn't be held against any of these new dramas -- the networks haven't been involved in international series on this scale since several of the entries in CBS' late-night Crimetime After Primetime lineup nearly two decades ago.

The shared production costs, though, represent a lifeline that cash-strapped networks can't afford to refuse. The rise of original cable series is luring away viewers and causing networks to schedule fewer reruns in order to stay competitive, which drives up expenses. And with more and more viewers watching TV on DVRs, online and on their phones, it won't be long before the current advertising-supported system collapses altogether.

In the meantime, it's important to remember two things: This is summer, and these aren't reality shows. That alone should have TV addicts dancing in the streets.

I've only seen "Mental" and "The Listener," and aside from their lack of star power, they're about the caliber of the original dramas you'd find on TNT, for which "Mental" originally was developed.

At times, "Mental" tries too hard to make Dr. Jack Gallagher (Chris Vance), the hospital's new director of mental health services, seem edgy. Too many "That's not the way we do things around here"-s are followed by more than a few "You can't be serious!"-es.

And "The Listener" never really explains why its hero, Toby Logan (Craig Olejnik), neglects his paramedic duties, which could save countless lives during a single shift, in favor of using his telepathy to try to save a single life over the course of several days. (Or, for that matter, why he doesn't just take his mind-reading skills to the World Poker Tour.)

But if this international trend means less reality shows and more writers and actors telling more stories, I'm all for it.

Even if it eventually devolves into a Lithuanian retelling of "Manimal."

Because if nothing else, it will keep some celebrities, at least temporarily, from being voted out of those ballrooms, boardrooms and bedrooms.

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Sundays. E-mail him at clawrence@reviewjournal.com.