The best on the box
James Croot’s television picks for the week ahead.
Atonement, 8.30pm, Sunday, Ma¯ ori TV
Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy and Keira Knightley star in Joe Wright’s excellent 2007 adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel about a 13-year-old who ruins the lives of many when she accuses her older sister’s boyfriend of a crime he didn’t commit. ‘‘Sweeps you up on waves of humour, heartbreak and ravishing romance,’’ wrote Rolling
Stone’s Peter Travers.
Finding Vivian Maier, 8.30pm, Tuesday, Ma¯ ori TV
This 2013 documentary is on a French nanny whose previously unknown cache of 100,000 photographs earned her a posthumous reputation as one of the most accomplished street photographers. ‘‘More connect-the-dots detective thriller than traditional doc, John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s revelatory riddle of a film unmasks a brilliant photographer who hid in plain sight,’’ wrote Entertainment
Weekly’s Chris Nashawatay.
The Blacklist, 11pm, Tuesday, Three
As the fifth season of this once globally popular action-drama begins, Red (James Spader) now has to deal with a ruined criminal empire. He enlists Liz (Megan Boone) in an unlikely plan to earn cash and deliver something to the Task Force: a new Blacklister. Meanwhile, Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) finds himself in a precarious position and Tom (Ryan Eggold) must weigh his options.
Game of Thrones, 9.30pm, Wednesday, Prime
Free-to-air premiere for the mostrecent eight-episode season of this globally popular fantasy series. As different groups form new alliances and violent conflicts, the cold spectre of another apocalyptic threat – in the form of an army of undead White Walkers expected to breach The Wall and invade the South – threatens to undermine the status quo and obliterate the outcome of these smaller, all-toohuman rivalries.
Hockney, 8.30pm, Thursday, Rialto
This 2014 documentary sees the charismatic British artist take director Randall Wright on an exclusive tour of his archives and into his studio, where he still paints seven days a week. It also looks back at Hockney’s formative years in the British Pop Art scene and his experience of being a gay man as the Aids crisis took hold, as well as his years working in California. ‘‘An amiable, agreeable study,’’ wrote The Guardian’s
Peter Bradshaw.
Episodes, 9.30pm, Thursday, SoHo
As the fifth and final season of this critically-acclaimed trans-Atlantic comedy opens, Matt’s (Matt Le Blanc) new game show is now a runaway hit, while Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) have to endure watching Sean’s loathsome ex-partner destroy their latest project – The
Opposite of Us. ‘‘As sneakily ruthless as anything on television,’’ wrote IndieWire’s Ben Travers.