Television
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY APRIL 22
Attitude (TVNZ 1, 11.00am). The show about differently abled folks is at Milan Fashion Week for the first episode of the new season. It follows tetraplegic Claire Freeman, a New Zealander, as she travels to Milan to model in the Inclusive Runway fashion show, which features models with amputations and spinal-cord injuries.
Survivor New Zealand (TVNZ 2, 7.00pm). The game show with the nice locations – season two takes place in Khao Laem National Park in western Thailand, which would probably be nicer without a bunch of show-offs running around trying to win $250,000. Contestants include a dairy farmer from Hamilton, a schoolteacher from Nelson, a social worker from Horowhenua, and two journalists (dreadful show-offs). Our money’s on 37-year-old Karla, who has already survived childhood camping trips with her dad in Palmerston North.
Coast New Zealand (TVNZ 1, 8.00pm). In the third season, they’re going as far east as it’s possible to go and still be in New Zealand: the Chatham Islands. There are visits to south Westland, North Otago, the Bay of Plenty, Kaipara and Wellington, too. Neil Oliver is joined once again by marine archaeologist Matt Carter, geologist Hamish Campbell and marine biologist Jacky Geurts; new to the team are historian Michael Stevens, scientist Ocean Mercier and adventurer Dave Murray.
Midsomer Murders (Prime, 8.30pm) A young woman on a Jane Austen cosplay weekend is stabbed with a quill. Heavens, that rather goes beyond the concept of providing sport for our neighbours. Of course, it’s all a ruse to get Barnaby and his new sidekick Winter into Georgian period garb. Cor.
Taggart (Jones!, Sky 008, 8.40pm). Was there ever a more careworn detective than Jim Taggart? Sure, Columbo was dishevelled, but Mark McManus’s craggy detective saw all the terrible things that Glasgow had to offer well before it was declared European City of Culture and the most vegan-friendly city in the UK. Jones! starts the series from the beginning with the feature-length pilot Killer.
Bancroft (TVNZ 1, 9.00pm). British crime drama seems to be going for straight-out bonkers lately – what was Hard Sun all about anyway? This particular four-parter was created by Kate Brooke, who worked on Mr Selfridge and, back in the day, wrote the television film Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback. Bancroft is a very dark thriller about a detective, the Bancroft of the title (played by the great Sarah Parish), with a nasty secret. When a young and ambitious detective sergeant (Faye Marsay) is given the cold case, she starts manoeuvring. Adrian Edmondson is a rather good nitwit superintendent in the running against Bancroft for the chief super’s job. The Inside Word (TVNZ Duke, 9.00pm). Well, it’s not often we get to say the words “new mental health series”, but shockingly, here’s Sunday’s Jehan Casinader tackling thorny life issues ranging from cyberbullying to the pressures that come with being an elite athlete. Various panellists are in for a chat, including Mike King, Teuila Blakely, Hayley Holt, Guy Williams and tennis player Sacha Jones.
MONDAY APRIL 23
All Star Family Feud (Three, 7.30pm). It’s a Dancing with the Stars special tonight, which means one thing: we are soon to be subjected to the sight of David Seymour in a one-piece doing the cha-cha. In the meantime, he and his codancers Gilda Kirkpatrick, Jess Quinn and Robert Rakete take educated guesses for charity.
Mind Over Money with Nigel Latta (TVNZ 1, 8.00pm). More money wisdom with the TV psychologist, who is going to describe our “money personality” in this new season. Apparently, there are four types: spontaneous power spender; generous social sharer; free-spirited freedom
seeker; and sensible security saver.
Westworld (SoHo, Sky 010, 1.00pm and 8.30pm). Season one of the sweeping – and vastly expensive – series may have lost its way a little, but season two looks, to judge by the trailers, to be a more straightforward androidemancipation story. There is a deeper mystery about the Westworld park, the wild west playground full of android “hosts”, that co-creator Jonathan Nolan has promised to reveal. It appears to echo current concerns about what happens to our data online: “We’ve used the Google analogy,” Nolan told Esquire. “For consumers, it’s for search and email, yet for the company, it’s for advertising.” There are also hints that, as in the original 1973 movie, there are other playgrounds for the wealthy, such as medieval world and “shogun” world. If you need a catch-up, the first season of Westworld screens as a box set on SoHo on Saturday (from 9.50am).
The Resident (TVNZ 2, today and Tuesday, 8.45pm). In a world of inspirational medical dramas and genius TV doctors who just want to help people, here’s one with a surprisingly cynical view of the US’s healthcare system. “Medicine isn’t practised by saints, it’s business,” says nurse Nicolette (Emily VanCamp), just
so we’re clear. Matt Czuchry ( The Good Wife) is a hotshot resident who mentors/tortures first-year Manish Dayal; Bruce Greenwood plays the corrupt chief surgeon, who is happy to cover up mistakes. Australian film director Phillip Noyce ( Rabbit-Proof Fence) directs the first two episodes.
TUESDAY APRIL 24
Genius: Picasso (National Geographic, Sky 072, 7.30pm). Everybody’s doing anthology series these days, even National Geographic. The first season of Genius was a biopic of Albert Einstein that was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards; the second season features a much-transformed Antonio Banderas as Pablo Picasso. There is the painting, of course, but the seven-part series is also about his many tumultuous relationships, in particular with painter
Françoise Gilot (Clémence Poésy), with whom Picasso had two children.
THURSDAY APRIL 26
How to Get Fit Fast (Living, Sky 017, 9.30pm). Yes, we’ll take the shortcut, please. In this Channel 4 series, journalist Anna Richardson and blind travel guide Amar Latif investigate the science behind various kinds of exercise. In episode one, there’s high-intensity interval training, team exercise, running, bulking up and yoga. There’s good information about how the different forms of exercise work and the science behind them.
FRIDAY APRIL 27
2018 Comedy Gala (Three, 9.45pm). Too many comedians, too little time. If the International Comedy Festival, which begins on April 26, is overwhelming, here’s a taster that may help narrow down your choices. Arj Barker is the host, and among the line-up in this two-part special are Dai Henwood, Chopper, Rhys Mathewson,
Eli Matthewson and Pax Assadi. We’re sure they’ll be adding some women. Won’t they?