TVNZ banks on Latta’s wisdom James Croot
Life, the Universe and Jane
A decade in the making, Kiwi screenwriter Anthony McCarten’s 2014 biopic of Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything, was worth the wait. A winning formula of smart direction (from documentary specialist James ‘‘ Man on Wire‘‘ Marsh), clever pacing and terrific central performances from Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, McCarten’s adaptation of Jane Wilde’s (Hawking’s first wife) 2008 memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen charts the ups and downs of their relationship from university-meets-cute to their gradual estrangement as his success, fame and the advance of his motor neurone disease took him away from her.
Saturday, 9pm, TV3
Calendar gets new date
It’s back to the future for the longrunning Kiwi lifestyle series Country Calendar as it shifts to Sunday night where it was a staple last century. Tonight’s first episode visits North Canterbury after the November 2016 earthquake to see how the people running a large farm there handle the initial shock, cope with immediate damage and still keep the farm running.
Sunday, 7pm, TVNZ1
Nigel talks financials
New Zealand’s favourite clinical psychologist looks at the psychology of money in the new series Mind Over Money with Nigel Latta, produced in partnership with Kiwibank. The first episode promises a meeting with a caveman and the use of a petrol tanker to try to help an arch procrastinator.
Monday, 8pm, TVNZ1
New home for old Suits
For those who haven’t yet discovered the hit show Suits online, here’s a chance to go back to the beginning of this US drama set in the high-stakes world of a top Manhattan corporate law film. Hotshot associate Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) makes a risky move by hiring Mike Ross (Patrick J Adams), a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout, as his associate. As he becomes enmeshed in this unfamiliar world, Mike relies heavily on the firm’s best paralegal Rachel (Meghan Markle) and Harvey’s nononsense assistant Donna (Sarah Rafferty) to help him serve justice. ‘‘It’s far more than a whimsical caper show. Beneath its cuttingly funny dialogue lurk complex emotional edges,’’ wrote Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin.
Wednesday, 7.30pm, Prime
Remembrance of a life
Jim: The James Foley Story is a 2016 documentary which provides an in-depth look at the life and work of the American journalist, who was killed by ISIS terrorists in 2014. ‘‘At once an intimate portrait of a restless spirit and a family’s journey to understand him, as well as a treatise on the state of international conflict journalism and world news in today’s market. It’s an incredibly moving film that encompasses a wide scope of global issues through the intimate remembrance of one life,’’ wrote The Playlist’s Katie Walsh.
Thursday, 8.30pm, Rialto.