What to watch on Sky and free-to-air TV this week
Some old favourites return and in-depth current affairs show Sunday celebrates two decades on air, writes
The fact that The Crowd Goes Wild (Monday, 8.30pm, Prime) survived the most competitive time slot in terrestrial television for 16 years is a testament to incredible talent. The presenters, writers, editors producers – everyone involved deserves a standing ovation. Catering to hardcore sports fans and the idly interested alike, it is arguably the most New Zealand thing ever made. Now it is moving to two nights a week, with an hour-long format and evolving into an entertainment brand.
An earlier time slot is forcing 7 Days to clean up its language, while rival Have You Been Paying Attention? (Friday, 8.30pm, TVNZ 2) is already at home in the familyfriendly current affairs comedy market. Are they rivals? Yes and no. Mel Bracewell was on 7 Days last week, and she’s here this week, as is Pax Assadi, Tom Sainsbury, Vaughan Smith and Urzila Carlson.
Local film-makers explore supernatural stories from Mā ori, Pasifika and Filipino voices in the six-part anthology series Beyond The Veil (Monday, 9.35pm, TVNZ 2). It premieres with
– a tale of bloody revenge starring Niwa Whatuira
as a Mā ori butler working for Tania Nolan
in colonial New Zealand. There’s a found footage flick 26:29, a haunted road trip tale called and a flatmate overstaying his welcome in
Episode titles
and show Louis Theroux: Forbidden America (tomorrow, 9.45pm, Prime) returns to territory he’s covered before, while trying to find new ground. Intelligent and painfully selfaware, Theroux’s heart is in the right place, even when he doesn’t get it right.
When Sunday (Sunday, 7.30pm, TVNZ 1) started 20 years ago, syndicated shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20 were dominating, but their international focus wasn’t ticking enough boxes for local audiences. We wanted our own thing. Seven hundred episodes later and has become its own institution. Host Miriama Kamo presents this retrospective look, so you might see familiar faces from the past like Janet McIntyre, Ian Sinclair or Mike Hosking.
Based on Eleanor Catton’s debut novel, The Rehearsal (Saturday, 8.30pm, Mā ori TV) is an exploration of truth, art and performance. It’s also about what’s right and wrong – and age and consent. It follows a young man entering drama school with high hopes, but
is
mid-level talent. Desperate to impress his teachers and go deeper, he uses a personal relationship as the basis for an original theatre production, with damaging consequences. Starring James Rolleston and directed by Alison Maclean
it’s an intense, cerebral journey told with a poignant eye.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (tonight, 8.30pm, TVNZ 2) is iconic in every way. The look, the performances, the music syncs screams timeless classic. A young man embarks on a career in pornography, just as the advent of VHS changes the industry forever. This film captures the euphoric highs of the 70s and the horrible hangovers that followed. It revived Burt Reynolds’ career and turned Mark Wahlberg on a whole new trajectory.
No-one was better suited to endow Ready Player One (Saturday, 7pm, TVNZ 2) with the pop culture capital it required than Steven Spielberg. It’s set in 2047, when people spend more time in virtual reality than the real world. Mining decades of TV, music, game and movie references, it’s a film that works on every level – from beginner to expert.
Based on wild true events and brought to life through the razor sharp lens of Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman (Saturday, 11.10pm, Three) is about a black police officer who called the Ku Klux Klan pretending to be a racist white guy looking for like-minded souls. He was so successful in his deception and the white supremacists so impressed by his attitude and aptitude they sent a white officer undercover to continue the ruse and infiltrate the Colorado Springs chapter of sheet-wearing bigots. Politically charged, thought-provoking and very funny, it stars John David Washington and Adam Driver.