Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10
The Sopranos (Box Sets, Sky 009, from 7.30pm). No, not a revival, sadly, just a chance to see one of the greatest television shows ever made. Seasons of The Sopranos, winner of 21 Primetime Emmy Awards, five Golden Globes and two Peabody Awards, will play each Saturday from today until March 24. Ample time to reflect and give thanks: without the vision of HBO and The Sopranos, there would be no Breaking Bad, The Wire, Six Feet Under and so on.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11
XVenture Family Challenge (Three, 5.30pm). Good old-fashioned family fun, apparently, although it’s not clear just what these “challenges” involve. An evening playing board games without arguments? A lengthy car journey listening to the soundtrack from Frozen? Simon Barnett shepherds these poor guinea pigs through the torture.
Later with Jools Holland (Sky Arts, Sky 020, 8.30pm). Season 51 of the terrific British music series – that’s around 370 episodes – and another New Zealander makes us proud. Folk-rock songstress Nadia Reid performs Richard, which was nominated for a Silver Scroll last year. The line-up also includes Liam Gallagher, LCD Soundsystem and an interview with Jimmy Webb.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 12
Here and Now (SoHo, Sky 010, 3.00pm and 8.30pm). Speaking of the HBO effect, the creator
of Six Feet Under and True Blood
has a new drama series that has been causing a stir based on the trailer alone. Alan Ball appears to have made a smarter This Is Us: an examination of family and race in a fractured US. “So much hatred going around,” says Tim Robbins’s character. “It feels like the world is falling apart.” He is a philosophy professor; his lawyer wife is played by Holly Hunter. They have adopted children from Vietnam, Liberia and Colombia, and also have a daughter of their own. Ball does like to add supernatural elements, however, and one of the kids begins seeing things and believes that “something is trying to communicate with me”.
My Kitchen Rules (TVNZ 2, 7.30pm until Wednesday). There are some things in life that there’s just no getting away from: flies in summer, rain in Auckland and the beeping of every electronic thing in the world. Also, My Kitchen Rules, back again for another season and, apparently, forever.
Caligula with Mary Beard (Choice TV, 7.30pm). Debauchery, madness, incest, fetus-eating: one of the most infamous Roman emperors is put under the spotlight by Cambridge professor Mary Beard in her inimitable style. Caligula was actually a nickname bestowed on him as a boy that translates as something along the lines of “Bootikins”. “It’s as if he was being called Emperor Diddums or something,” she remarks. The trouble is, nearly all that is known about the famously lascivious Roman was written long after his death at 28, which is a cautionary tale in itself.
Young Sheldon (TVNZ 2, 9.00pm). Quite the delightful “prequel” to The Big Bang Theory and a surprise hit in the US, where one commentator made the shocking claim that the sitcom about a young Sheldon Cooper is actually funnier than the original. Creators Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro take care not to put adult Sheldon-style words into nine-yearold Sheldon’s mouth and treat his eccentricities with love. In some ways, it is more insightful than the comedy mined out of the older Sheldon’s behaviour. Iain Armitage is a dead ringer as the genius child born into an ordinary Texas family; Zoe Perry is also a standout as mum Mary, a role played by Laurie Metcalf in Theory. New episodes of that far more gag-driven show arrive on Wednesday (TVNZ 2, 8.45pm), and there are also new episodes this week of Will & Grace (Monday, TVNZ 2, 9.30pm) and Mom (Wednesday, TVNZ 2, 9.15pm).
Homeland (SoHo, Sky 010, 9.30pm). Why did we even entertain the idea that Homeland had come to a natural end with the death of Rupert Friend’s Quinn at the end of season six? Clearly, the Trump era is good for business, and in season seven, the newlyelected President Elizabeth Keane has turned into an embattled figure “trying to hold on to the reins of power in a deeply divided country and dangerous world”, according to showrunner Alex Gansa. Meanwhile, a grieving Carrie is furious that Keane is “systematically abusing power, ignoring the rule of law, and permanently damaging our democratic institutions”. Riiiight. Enjoy the allusions, everyone; they’re set to go on for at least another season.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13
Jo Frost on Killer Kids (Crime + Investigation, Sky 071, 7.30pm). Wow, how much time on the naughty step for knocking
someone off? In this series, the British supernanny meets four youngsters who have committed the ultimate crime. Unasseptable, indeed.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15
Police Ten 7 (TVNZ 2, 7.30pm). Whoop! Pull up! Rob Lemoto returns with more miscreants, malefactors and villains, although is it wrong that we still miss Graham Bell and his colourful descriptions?
The Big Ward (TVNZ 2, 8.00pm). A new series of the local show that follows a number of people at the Manukau Super Clinic who are hoping to change their lives with weight-loss surgery. Sensitively handled and, dare we say it,
inspirational.
Bull (Prime, 8.35pm). Sometimes television that isn’t appointment viewing is a relief: there are the regulation number of beats before the ad breaks, it features attractive humans – in this case, Michael Weatherly – and the world doesn’t end if you miss an episode. Bull is loosely based on Dr Phil’s early work as a jury consultant, but the show, co-created by the executive producer of House, is flashy and slick. Glenn Gordon Caron, who created Moonlighting and Medium, has been brought in for season two and moves are afoot to make Bull less bulletproof, so to speak, and more vulnerable.