The Week in Gay TV: Memorial Day marathons, couples "Wipeout" and will we get burned again by "Burn Notice"?

Welcome to another edition of Week in Gay TV, your source for what to watch while you wait for the ribs to finish in the smoker for your Memorial Day barbecue including holiday weekend marathons the start of summer reality season, plus the return of Burn Notice.

Friday offers a new episode of Shameless with Mickey trying something new by taking a class in filmmaking. Britcomedy fans can also look forward to a new Gavin & Stacey which sees Stacey worrying about why she hasn’t been able to conceive. Considering the ups and downs their marriage has been through in such a short time, I’d think it wise for them to wait before adding a baby into the mix. 

I never tire of Colman Domingo as Maya Angelou

Meanwhile, Logo is running all six episodes from The Big Gay Sketch Show’s current season in a mini-marathon on Friday. This has been The Big Gay Sketch Show’s strongest season yet with more of Maya Angelou reading from Craigs List and more of Barbara Walters’ murderous fantasies about the cast of The View. Meanwhile, there’s one more comedy to catch on Friday as Starz has a new episode of Party Down. 

Amid all that comedy, The SyFy Channel is spending the holiday weekend airing a movie marathon, including their so-bad-they’re-good original movies, starting with monster movies like Yeti, Ice Spiders and Wyvern. 

Special Relationship's Helen McCrory and Hope Davis. Those uncomfortable looks make me think this is from the Lewinsky part of the story.

HBO debuts a new original film on Saturday, Special Relationship that follows US and UK politics in the 90s including depicting Bill Clinton and Tony Blair’s relationship through  bromance-colored glasses.

I remember how the Clintons seemed like such a change when they first moved into the White House. Having a woman like Hillary Clinton as the First Lady was such an exciting change of pace (sadly that excitement was deflated by the sexist bumper stickers that became commonplace in reaction). Hopefully, Special Relationship captures that feeling amid all the other highlights. 

BBC America isn’t offering a new episode of Doctor Who (or a new Graham Norton Show), this weekend. Instead, Saturday the channel is airing a marathon of the fifth series so far, including the all-new Technicolor Daleks and the chance to see River Song do her best to channel Captain Jack. 

"Let's see if I can get that 'charming rogue' vibe right and make viewers forget about that Jack Harkness."

Saturday also has a new episode of The Dish, which continued to show The Soup how to avoid the easy, homophobic joke last week when it mocked the faux-saucy coverage of Sex and the City 2, instead of recycling old jokes about how there’s something wrong about a man who cares about Carrie and her pals. 

Sunday is really quiet but there are still chances to catch up on some TV. Lifetime is running a marathon of Drop Dead Diva, so if you want to see if Margaret Cho continues to be woefully underused as she was in early episodes, here’s your chance.

Elsewhere, The SyFy Channel original movie marathon takes on a nautical theme with the likes of Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Supergator as well as Tiffany in Mega Piranha. It may be a quiet day of TV but at least you can watch a guy kick away flying, man-eating fish. 

Seriously, this time they had to be aiming for a new low.

For some reason, ABC is bringing back its schadenfreude reality series True Beauty for a second season. The series pretends to be a beauty competition, but in reality it’s their “inner beauty” that’s being judged. Last summer, I liked the idea but True Beauty’s idea of “inner beauty” came off as frustratingly inconsistent. This season Carson Kressley and Beth Stern take over as judges — which has to be an improvement from last season. 

Monday also offers new episodes of Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, and Nurse Jackie while a new personality arrives on United States of Tara.