‘Manhattan’ isn’t the only great show on an unlikely cable network

“Manhattan” is the must-watch drama of the summer. You can watch it on the Cubs channel.

WGN, the last “superstation” feed coming out of a Chicago station, has always been an ambitious supplier of wisely chosen syndicated dramas and sitcoms, but adding original content like “Manhattan” will redefine it as more than a reliable stop for “30 Rock” reruns.

The number of scripted original series on cable has gone from about 30 in 2002, when “Monk” was launched on USA, to around 150 this year. That’s a lot to keep track of, and good stuff can slip through the cracks.

WGN trotted out its first scripted offering, a supernatural thriller about the Salem witch trials, this spring. Despite “meh” reviews, “Salem” was smutty-scary and ambitious enough to earn itself a second 13-episode season. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t hear about it.

WGN is also working on an adaptation of “Scalped,” the critically acclaimed comic book series about an undercover agent investigating organized crime on an Indian reservation. The series was created by Kansas City writer Jason Aaron, currently working on Marvel’s “Thor” comics.

So add WGN to the list of networks you can’t ignore anymore, along with History, Lifetime, A&E, MTV, Syfy, Sundance, IFC …

On basic cable, TNT leads the pack in ratings with middlebrow fare like “Rizzoli & Isles” and “The Last Ship.” USA has been reliably churning out snappy legal/cop/spy dramas like “Suits” for a while now.

But any attempt to aim the remote based on your assumptions is bound to fail these days. Is this BBC America show going to be thoughtful and gritty? Is this Syfy show silly? Is this Hallmark movie spoon-feeding us a comfortable narrative? Don’t count on it.

Looking down your nose at Lifetime would deprive you of “The Lottery,” its promising new extinction drama. No one is too good or too old to watch MTV’s “Awkward.” You just have to cut through the dense brush of docudramas and “Ridiculousness.”

But the go-to channels for award fodder, like AMC, make the occasional misstep. “Halt and Catch Fire” wasn’t the next great drama, no matter how many slick trailers it produced, and neither was “Low Winter Sun.”

A&E, that most schizophrenic of channels, went from rebroadcasting Jane Austen adaptations to “Dog the Bounty Hunter” marathons, only to surprise us with “Longmire,” a gritty Western loved by smart people, and “Those Who Kill,” a murder procedural starring Chloe Sevigny that’s loved by no one.

Cable is the Old West of entertainment right now, and you never know which A-list actors and directors are going to barge into the saloon, thanks to shows like “True Detective” and “Extant.” Blink and you’ll miss them.

Director Steven Soderbergh’s new series, “The Knick,” stars Clive Owen in a drama about surgeons in 1900 New York. It looks like a slick, classy production. It’s on Cinemax.

This story was originally published July 25, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "‘Manhattan’ isn’t the only great show on an unlikely cable network."