Television
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY APRIL 1
The Leftovers Marathon (SoHo, Sky 010, 12.35pm). Binge-watching the whole of season two of The Leftovers is not recommended: it may plunge you into an existential funk of epic proportions. We recommend recording and slowly savouring every episode of one of the most extraordinary seasons of television, which included a trip to purgatory, Justin Theroux singing karaoke and Christopher Eccleston naked in stocks. With the third, and final, season arriving mid-April, it’s worth catching up.
SUNDAY APRIL 2
Athletics (Sky Sport Pop-up, 056, 6.35am). It’s just a lot of people running, admittedly, but the scenery for the Rome Marathon has to be the best of all the city marathons. It begins in the shadow of the Colosseum, and passes such landmarks as the Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, St Peter’s and the Piazza Venezia. Guys dressed as centurions flank the final stretch and hold the ribbon. The course record for men is 2hr 07min 17sec, set by Kenyan Benjamin Kiptoo in 2009; for women, it’s 2:22.53, set by Russian Galina Bogomolova in 2008.
Netball (Sky Sport 3, Sky 053, 2.00pm). The ANZ Premiership is now under way, the local netball tournament that replaces the transtasman ANZ Championship. Six teams compete, and the tournament has three “Super Sundays” built in, on which all the teams compete on one day at the same venue. Today, Mainland Tactix play the Northern Stars in Christchurch; tomorrow, Northern Mystics meet the Southern Steel in Auckland (Sky Sport 1, 7.30pm); and on Wednesday, Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic play the Central Pulse in Rotorua (Sky Sport 1, 7.30pm).
Born This Way (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). The reality-TV format is applied to another diverse group of young people: one notable aspect of this particular bunch is that they all have Down syndrome. It’s the brainchild of the co-creator of longrunning and influential MTV series The Real World, Jonathan Murray, and follows a similar style by filming the
four women and three men at home and work, and also their parents. Murray believes television provides a chance to break down walls between people: “I always felt that we grew up in our own little segmented worlds,” he told NPR.
MONDAY APRIL 3
The Walking Dead (TVNZ 2, 9.50pm). Season seven finale time: all signs point towards all-out war against the dastardly Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his Saviors. US ratings in the first half of the season dropped and there was a negative reaction to Negan, but later episodes have seen more character development as the Grimes gang builds a resistance. Don’t worry, it’s still huge – the first episode of season eight will be the show’s 100th, and showrunner Scott Gimple has hinted at “the next 100 episodes”. He told a PaleyFest audience in Los Angeles that “the end of this season is very much the end of a chapter. It’s a conclusion that promises this epic story ahead.” In other finale news, get the tissues out for the end of This Is Us’ first season (TVNZ 2, Wednesday, 9.45pm). Again, don’t worry – it’s been renewed through to season three.
TUESDAY APRIL 4
Jack Taylor (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). So that’s where
Ser Jorah Mormont went – Scotsman Iain Glen puts aside his Game of Thrones swords and armour for an Oirish accent and a trench coat. He’s been playing the hero of Ken Bruen’s series of detective novels since 2010 and although the accent doesn’t sit entirely comfortably in his mouth, he has the careworn look of Bruen’s boozer trying to go straight. In the first episode of season three, he’s settling into a new flat and takes on a disturbing case of crucifixion. Well, it is Ireland.
Beyond the Walls (Rialto, Sky 039, 8.30pm). Unnerving and spooky, possums. In this French three-parter, a young woman (Veerle Baetens, The Broken Circle Breakdown and TV series The White Queen) inherits a spooky old house, then encounters spooky stuff in the spooky netherworld behind the walls. “Like a mature and restrained Labyrinth,” said the AV Club. “Brings fantasy and fear together in a lush and elaborate package.”
Classic Albums: Fleetwood Mac (Prime, 8.35pm). One of the more awesome Classic Albums episodes because the making of the hugely successful Rumours was against a backdrop of crazy relationship turmoil between couples Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie, and Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. It seems the only time they got on was in the studio, which puts an interesting perspective on the creative process.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 5
iZombie (TVNZ OnDemand). Another Kiwi taking the lead in a US production, and a gift for Rose McIver, whose zombie Liv takes on the traits
of the brains she eats, giving McIver the chance to play everything from a sociopath to a stripper. In season three, which debuts on roughly the same day here as in the US, the new enemy is a private military contractor who is preparing a small zombie army for the day humans realise that the undead walk among us. This season, the brains of a dominatrix, a Jackass-style stuntperson, a preschool teacher and a conspiracy theorist are on the menu for Liv. How about a Kiwi, so McIver can use her own accent? We can only hope.
THURSDAY APRIL 6
George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces Specials (TVNZ 1, 7.30pm). It seems we’re not allowed to go for any length of time without some George Clarke. This series of specials begins with a nature and architecture theme that includes a hobbit-inspired cob house in Oxfordshire built for 150 quid and a ski lodge in Italy accessible only by helicopter.
FRIDAY APRIL 7
Heston’s Great British Food (Choice TV, 4.30pm). Stunt chef Heston Blumenthal takes on some British classics such as fish and chips, spotted dick, and roast beef and yorkshire pudding. In the first episode, this involves a history lesson and his version of Tudor cuisine, of course. “It’s about memories, fantasy, history, surprises, jokes and all the other strange things that go on inside Heston Blumenthal’s head,” concluded the
Guardian. Another British cooking icon, Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall, is back to his root vegetables in River Cottage Autumn (Choice TV, Monday, 4.30pm).