Best on the box
Stuff’s James Croot’s top TV picks for the week ahead.
The New Legend of Monkey, 8pm, Friday, TVNZ2
Co-produced by TVNZ, ABC Australia and Netflix, this highconcept reimagining of the popular ancient myth is set in a universal ‘‘neverwhere’’ world that is a hybrid of east and west. Starring Kiwis Josh Thomson and Luciane Buchanan, it follows the adventures of a teenage girl and a trio of fallen gods, as they attempt to bring an end to a demonic reign of chaos.
6 Days, 8.30pm, Saturday, Rialto
Jamie Bell might get all the action scenes – and top billing – but the true star of Kiwi director Toa Fraser’s 2017 based-on-fact drama is Mark Strong. The 54-year-old British actor is simply superb as Max Vernon, the man with the unenviable task of attempting to negotiate with the desperate men who have taken over London’s Iranian Embassy in late April 1980. An understated, but effective dramatisation which also stars Australian actress Abbie Cornish and our own Xavier Horan and Matt Sunderland.
Coast NZ, 8pm, Sunday, TVNZ1
Six stunning locations, three new presenters and dozens of extraordinary stories are promised as Neil Oliver returns for a third look around our shaky isles. This time the team have travelled to New Zealand’s most easterly outpost – the Chatham Islands, and to South Westland and North Otago. In the North Island, they’ve visited the Bay of Plenty, Kaipara and the world’s southernmost capital city – Wellington.
Bancroft, 8.30pm, Sunday, TVNZ1
Broadchurch‘s Sarah Parish stars in this four-part contemporary thriller from the creator of Mr Selfridge. She plays Detective Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft, a female detective with an explosive secret. The main plot sees her trying to bring down the vicious Kamara drug gang, but then she becomes distracted by DS Katherine Stevens (Faye Marsay), who is investigating a cold case in which Bancroft was involved.
Mind Over Money, 8pm, Monday, TVNZ1
This second series of the Nigel Latta-hosted financial advice show mixes social experiment, psychological insight and interviews with real Kiwis trying to get to grips with their Money Personalities, along with simple tricks we can all use to be better with money. It also aims to answer questions like, how is it possible that merely handling money can make you feel invulnerable? And is saving really sexy?
One Strange Rock, 7.30pm, Wednesday, National Geographic
Hosted by Will Smith and coproduced by Mother! director Darren Aronofsky, this new 10-part natural history documentary series aims to tell the story of our planet from a different perspective. ‘‘Never thought you’d tear up over a ‘‘nature show?’’ Think again,’’ wrote New York Observer‘s Emily Bicks.