The movie industry has been pretty good to Boston over the last couple years, sending many more Hollywood productions to the Hub. But things have been quieter on the television front. And as much as we love Cheers, it might be nice for Bostonians to see themselves on the small screen in a show that didn’t end twenty years ago.

The tides seem to be turning, but we’re not sure that’s a good thing. Last month A&E debuted Southie Rules, a miserable misfire that offended basically everyone. Not because it featured local yokel caricatures (“Massholes” love to laugh at themselves), but because its transparently scripted approach to an “unscripted” series was so profoundly embarrassing and unfunny, I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a Dunkin’ Donuts straw. Next month VH1 rolls out Wicked Single, a reality show about a fun-loving group of twenty and thirty-something friends who enjoy hanging out, pahtying hahd, and embarrassing grandma in her final days. (The show premieres on St. Patrick’s Day because – drunk and Irish, get it?) And CBS recently ordered a pilot for “The McCarthy’s,” a sitcom that will star comedian Brian Gallivan as the gay son of a straight-laced Irish-Catholic family, which would have sounded really funny and edgy in 1996.

Sigh. We can do better. And we have, it seems, with Boston’s Finest.

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