Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15
RuPaul’s Drag Race (TVNZ OnDemand). The third series of the competition to become “America’s next drag superstar” starts streaming from today. In keeping with the reality competition format, the first episode is all about the queens who didn’t make the cut, and then we’re off into a season where the stakes were raised with the tripling of the prize money. Guest judges include Sharon Osbourne, La Toya Jackson and Aisha Taylor. Note that OnDemand also has the behind-the-scenes counterpart to the main event, Untucked.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 16
Lost in Space (Jones!, Sky 008, 5.25pm). A rerun of the adventures of the space family Robinson begins on Jones! this week. In recent years, the space-castaway story has been reprised in a terrible, dark movie and a dumb-in-the-wrong-ways Netflix reboot, but this is the proper, campy 60s goodness. In the first episode, Zachary Smith becomes a victim of his own wicked sabotage, the Robot is not very nice and Professor Robinson saves things with a risky spacewalk.
The Truth About Obesity
(Prime, 7.30pm). Chris Bavin, co-host of the engaging Eat Well for Less?, fronts a look at the state of knowledge
Lost in Space, Sunday.
about how we get fat, what it does to our bodies and what we can really do to change things. It turns out that the common wisdom – eat less, exercise more – isn’t all there is to know. So, why are we fatter than we were in the 1970s, even though we consume fewer calories and get more exercise? And what’s the bad fat?
The City and the City (SoHo,
Sky 010, 9.30pm). A four-part adaption of China Miéville’s acclaimed sci-fi detective novel set in two fictional European cities that happen to occupy the same space. As you might expect, the border between one reality and another is a treacherous place – but it’s one that Inspector Tyador Borlú (David Morrissey) must traverse if he’s to uncover the truth behind a series of violent killings.
Joanna and Jennifer: Absolutely Champers (Living, Sky 017, 8.30pm). When you’ve put in the hard yards, you get the sweet jobs, and for Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders that means a televised expedition to the Champagne region of north-eastern France to investigate the famously favoured tipple of their Absolutely Fabulous characters Patsy and Edina. You will actually learn about how champagne is made, from grape to glass, but mostly it’s an hour of two ladies of a certain age eating, drinking, bantering with each other and flirting with the help – with a few classic clips sprinkled in.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 17
Living with Tourette’s: Renee’s Brain (Prime, 8.30pm). Prime’s series Living With Tourette’s humanised a disorder that’s often perceived as little more than a punchline: this documentary revisits one of the sufferers from the series, 25-year-old Nelson single mother Renee Harvey as, having exhausted other treatment options including an expensive medicinal cannabis product, she prepares for deep brain stimulation surgery at Auckland Hospital. It’s not a cure for her Tourette syndrome, but it might significantly curb her symptoms and help her live a more
normal life. She doesn’t want much – maybe a part-time job eventually – but it’s a dramatic step.
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18
The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards (Vibe, Sky 006, noon). The 70th anniversary Emmys are also the shape of things to come, with Netflix shows for the first time attracting more nominations than
HBO’s – which is perhaps not surprising, given that Netflix is spending about $20 billion on programming this year, versus HBO’s $4 billion. Hosts are Colin Jost and Michael Che, from a resurgent Saturday Night Live. Vibe has a highlights package from 8.30pm – and, as ever, E! channel will be running things on the red carpet from 8.30am.
Impostors (TVNZ 2, Tuesday, 9.35pm). The second (and final) season of the dark US
comedy picks up where the first left off, with the Bumblers, a trio of con-artist Maddie Johnson’s heartbroken victims, trying to cash in on a stolen ring, and Maddie (Inbar Lavi) setting up in a small town and trying to live a quiet life for once. Naturally, things don’t work out that way.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19
Gogglebox NZ (Three, 8.30pm). Gogglebox, which debuted in the UK in 2013, is an awardwinning British reality TV format that features ordinary people watching television and talking about what they’re seeing (yes, it was partly inspired by The Royle Family) and in the process telling us something about their lives. Local versions have aired in 14 countries, including Australia, where it’s into its eighth season, and now New Zealand gets its turn. Sharyn Casey ( Dancing with the Stars NZ) narrates while 10 Kiwi households natter about what’s on the box and we all contemplate our shared humanity.
Strange Angel (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.30pm). The story of Jack Parsons – a 1930s former Marxist and factory janitor who helped create modern rocket science and spent his evenings doing sex magick with Aleister Crowley – might be considered a bit of a stretch if someone had simply made it up. But Parsons was real and is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the US space programme. The slow-burning 10-part series is based on the 2005 book of the same name.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20
Stand Up: Jon Richardson (TVNZ Duke, 9.30pm). Jon Richardson’s misanthropic comedy of exasperation has made him a star of British TV in recent years. Here, he’s back on stage performing his stand-up show Funny Magnet at London’s Shaftesbury Avenue Apollo.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21
Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour (Choice TV, 9.30pm). Ozzy and Jack Osbourne are back on the road, this time in a vintage 1973 camper van – the same model in which Black Sabbath once toured America. This time, they kick off in Florida, with a visit to Donald Trump’s “Winter White House” in Mara-Lago. There are also pythons and a haunted doll.