Television
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 9
How We Eat with Simon Gault (Prime, 8.30pm). It seems that after decades of thinking that processed and convenience foods were the best things since, well, sliced bread, the pendulum has swung the other way, and we’re more aware than ever of what we’re eating. Is it organic? Vegan? Low GI? Keto? Paleo? Low-carb? Good or bad fat? It’s enough to put you off food entirely. The benefits of a Mediterranean diet are at least clear and, in this twopart special, chef Simon Gault visits Greece and Turkey checking out the ingredients and recipes that seem to keep people alive longer. Back home, he also looks into how to improve the Kiwi diet.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 10
The 92nd Academy Awards
(TVNZ 2, 2.00pm).
Whatever their failings, the Oscars are still the most prestigious film awards in the world, and Kiwi hearts may swell with pride just a little bit for Taika Waititi’s satire Jojo Rabbit, which has six nominations. In the Best Picture category, it is up against big hitters such as Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 1917 and The Irishman, but it will surely be a lovely night out for Waititi and his film whānau. The question is, will he feign sleep like he did that time he was nominated for Two Cars, One Night? Happily, all the drama will play out on free-to-air telly, with a repeat at 8.30pm on TVNZ Duke, and TVNZ is also live from the red carpet from 12.30pm). For the second time running there is no host, but presenters include Mahershala Ali, Olivia Colman and Rami Malek, and Elton John, Idina Menzel
and Randy Newman will perform nominated songs.
Te Ao with Moana (Māori TV, 8.00pm). Moana Maniapoto returns with a new season of the current-affairs show that covers the big issues and what’s relevant to Māori communities. Joining the team this season are 60 Minutes journalist Sarah Hall and Maniapoto’s son, Hikurangi Jackson, whose work on Marae saw him win arts, entertainment and lifestyle reporter of the year at the 2018 Voyager Media Awards.
Homeland (SoHo2, Sky 210, 8.30pm). It’s been a while, but Homeland’s strength has always been in its real-world juxtaposition, so after fending off a Russian conspiracy to undermine the US President, Carrie and Saul are now headed to Afghanistan. It’s the eighth and final season of the show and, by rights, Carrie (Claire Danes) should have retired to a nursing home for former spies, but Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is now national security adviser to President Warner (Beau Bridges), who wants Saul to negotiate with the Taliban and end the war. He needs Carrie’s expertise, but unfortunately, she has spent seven months in a Russian gulag and her already fragile mental health has been topped off with a nice helping of PTSD. This season of Homeland is a family affair for Danes – her husband, Hugh Dancy, has joined the cast as a Washington consultant and opponent to Saul.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 13
Rebecka Martinsson: Arctic Murders (TVNZ OnDemand). New
Scandinoir with a number of literally cold cases; the action takes place in the Arctic Circle, specifically Kiruna, also the childhood home of author
Åsa Larsson, whose books are the basis for this seven-part series. Her heroine, Martinsson (played by Ida Engvoll), is a lawyer in Stockholm who returns to Kiruna for the funeral of a friend. Naturally, foul play is afoot. Crime-fiction fans may know the books that have been adapted for the series: The Blood Spilt, The Black Path, Until Thy Wrath be
Past and The Second Deadly Sin. In other subtitled-crime-series news, The Disappearance (TVNZ OnDemand, also from today) is a French thriller about a teenager who never returns from a night out celebrating her 17th birthday. Gorgeous – everyone is super stylish and attractive, and the setting, Lyon, is lovely – and human, but with so many twists it’s like “playing actual Twister, involuntarily, in a tornado”, said the Guardian. Vive la France, we say.
Kidding (SoHo2, Sky 210, 7.30pm). “A kind man in a cruel world” is how Dave
Holstein describes Jeff Piccirillo and his alter-ego Mr Pickles, a beloved children’s TV presenter. Holstein wrote the part specifically for Jim Carrey, who brings an overarching sadness to the character, amply supported by executive-producer and director Michel Gondry. If it’s Gondry, you know there are going to be flights of fancy, surreal daydreams, handmade sets and puppets, but the themes are Piccirillo’s grief after the death of his son and real life versus a children’s show ideal. Season two is more surreal, Carrey told indiewire. com. “They’re really going
for it this year with some fun, fanciful stuff. I got to ride a bigfoot’s hand over the wilderness.”
Halberg Awards (Prime and Sky Sport 3, 8.30pm). The night our sports stars get to glam it up in tuxedos and nice frocks. Coverage comes live from Spark Arena in Auckland and categories include sportsman and sportswoman of the year; para athlete/team of the year; team of the year; coach of the year; and favourite sporting moment, which is decided by public vote. The list includes the Black Caps’ super over against England at the Cricket World Cup final; Scott McLaughlin winning Bathurst; Lisa Adams winning shot-put gold at the World Para Athletics Championships; and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott winning New Zealand’s first FIS World Championships gold medal in snowboarding.
High Maintenance (SoHo2, Sky 210, 8.30pm). The beautiful character-study series returns. The Guy (co-creator and writer Ben Sinclair) is still delivering weed to a varied and eccentric coterie of New Yorkers – but as well as the short windows into his client’s lives, it’s the structure of the standalone episodes and the twists in the plots that are so clever. The series “has always understood and celebrated New York’s singular weirdness”, said vox. com, “and the often surprising and beautiful communities that spring up therein”.
The Soup (E!, Sky 014, 9.30pm). Pop-culture obsessives rejoice. The series that loves to make fun of daytime television, talk shows and reality TV is back, and since the internet is, like, a thing now, it also has viral videos and memes in its sights. Joel McHale, who was the host from 2004-15, will not be returning – the new host is Brazilian-born comedian Jade Catta-Preta.