College students have the pleasure of classifying some portion of time between May and September (depending on the school) as their summer vacation. No matter what a student chooses to do with this time, it is usually characterized by a highly reduced level of responsibility when compared to the rest of the year (unless you have scored a coveted finance or consulting internship; you guys can stop reading now because you likely won’t be watching any TV, as your enslavement will not afford you the time to do so, but that’s why you’ll be making the big bucks). Therefore, most of us have far more time to vegetate in front of the television during the summer months. Unfortunately, summer TV also has a tendency to be a little bit substandard. The way I see it, there exist only three categories of summer TV: the good (located mainly on cable and premium networks), the acceptably bad and the downright horrendous.

Here’s a rundown of this summer’s offerings:

The Good (You need not feel guilty about spending your time watching these)

1. “Rescue Me” (FX) — This show focuses on the screwed up life of New York City firefighter Tommy Gavin (played by Dennis Leary). I think this show is definitely more oriented towards a male audience, as it can often be fairly violent/raunchy/vulgar, but I still enjoy it, as it’s a well-written, well-acted, generally compelling drama.

2. “The Closer” (TNT) — I’ve never actually watched this show (the accent of the lead actress annoys me when I watch the trailers), so I feel like a little bit of a phony recommending it, but this show consistently gets very positive reviews (and has even earned an award for Kyra Sedgwick and her accent at the most recent Golden Globes), so it’s probably pretty decent.

3. “Top Chef” (Bravo) — It’s kind of like “Project Runway,” but with food. Bravo has definitely got this type of show format down! Too bad Stanford’s standard cable package does not give us Bravo...

4. “Weeds” (Showtime) — Single suburban mom Nancy Botwin sells marijuana, because, well, it’s profitable, and her lifestyle is expensive (and her husband is dead so there’s no money there). Last season ended with a cliffhanger so I can’t wait to see how it’s resolved come this August.

5. “Entourage” (HBO) — While HBO sometimes deprives viewers of new episodes of an original series for well over a year (*cough* “The Sopranos”), the split Season 3 of “Entourage” ends June 3 and Season 4 begins on June 17. Interesting scheduling, but I’m not going to argue. This show is hilarious and has the perfect light tone for summer viewing.

The Acceptably Bad (Because it’s okay to lower our standards a little for summer)

1. “Hidden Palms” - From the trailer, this show appears to focus on wealthy people with issues and secrets in the city of Newport Beach Palm Springs. Basically, it’s an ugly stepsister of “The O.C.” Conveniently enough, it also stars two of the supporting characters from “The O.C.,” including Oliver from Season 1 and Summer’s replacement boyfriend Zach from Season 2 (I’d use their real names if they meant something to us). Though it may be a cheap rip-off, I’m counting on this show to be acceptably bad, as the absence of “The O.C.” has left a deep hole in my heart.

2. “My Boys” — Remember analogies from the SATs (before they ditched them)? “The OC”: “Hidden Palms” :: “Sex and the City”: “My Boys.” That’s right folks, we have another knock off! P.J. lives in New York Chicago, writes a sex sports column and is having trouble finding the right man. It’s no “Sex and the City,” but from the few episodes that I saw of this show earlier this year it seemed reasonably cute — certainly acceptable for summer fare.

3. “Psych” (USA) — I watched the first few episodes of this series last summer and thought it was decent. The premise: An amateur detective (trained by his father, a policeman) pretends to be a psychic so that the police will hire him to help with cases. After about three episodes, the tone of this show got to be a little too silly for my taste, but if you’re home on a random Friday evening when this airs, you could do worse for entertainment.

4. “The Loop” (FOX) — I don’t know how many of you caught the few episodes of this show that aired last year, but I thought it was pretty funny (in that stupid funny sort of way). It’s about a young college graduate that struggles between juggling his real job with the demands of his jobless, oft trouble-inducing roommates and friends. I doubt this show will be on for long, as its return (June 10) doesn’t seem to have been promoted at all (meaning nobody will watch it and then Fox will cancel it), but it’s worth catching an episode while it lasts.

The Downright Horrendous (Stay away)

There will be many reality shows that air on television this summer — far too many to list. However, besides “Top Chef” (listed above) and Steven Spielberg’s “On the Lot” (which seems similar to “Project Greenlight” of a few years ago and should be entertaining enough), I imagine most of them will suck. Watch at your own risk.

If none of the above offerings sound very exciting to you, another option is TV on DVD. Take some time to rediscover shows you have forgotten about or ones that you have been intending to watch but haven’t been able to make time for. After all, we can only watch so much television during the year. I’ve definitely discovered some of my favorite shows through watching them on DVD during the summer (I’m referring to you, “Battlestar Galactica”). Finally, if all else fails, you might try venturing outside into the sunlight...