Election 2011 coverage, and Kids of 88 Recorded Live at Roundhead.
TV
Kids of 88
Election 2011 (TV1, TV3, Maori, TVNZ 7, from 7.00pm). Just when we were thinking three weeks was a long time in politics and that, after the euphoria of the Rugby World Cup, we’d have to put up with blathering politicians and their lies, damned lies and statistics, the election campaign turns into more fun than we could have imagined. Fun, of course, is relative. The Prime Minister scores points by invoking Jerry Maguire at a leaders’ debate; the Leader of the Opposition calls the PM a liar; an MP has to apologise for an ill-considered remark about another MP; for the first time in history, spreadsheets seem interesting; the PM is savaged by an actress wearing pink; the term “teal deal” is coined; billboards are defaced by a Green Party assistant; and there was a cup of tea. A very special, bountiful (for the media, anyway) cup of tea. We can only hope the election night coverage on television, radio and internet will be as entertaining. Nearly all the coverage on TV1 gets under way at 7.00pm: Mark Sainsbury, Guyon Espiner, Simon Dallow and Corin Dann host, with Peter Williams and Greg Boyed out in the field. For light relief, Petra Bagust and Tamati Coffey are doing … something. Wendy Petrie gets to read the news. Over on TV3, John Campbell and Duncan Garner lead the charge, with commentators Therese Arseneau, Linda Clark, Chris Trotter, Paul Henry, Rodney Hide and John Tamihere in the studio. Maori Television’s coverage also features guest commentators and reporters in the field; Julian Wilcox is MT’s go-to guy. For a more convivial style of election night, Back Benches (TVNZ 7, 8.00pm) is live at its turangawaewae, the Backbencher Pub in Wellington. Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie herd the cats there. So much for the old school. For a thoroughly modern experience, the Listener is covering election night online at our special Election 2011 blog. Toby Manhire and a coterie of correspondents are at our Election Live blog, and we are on Twitter @ListenerLive.
Netball (Sky Sport 1, Sky 030, 2.00am Sun). The first day of the World Netball Series, the fastnet competition that is like netball’s version of Twenty20. Games are shorter (six minutes per quarter), goals from outside the circle are worth two points, and teams get one power-play quarter per game when points are doubled. The tournament is being played in Liverpool, and the six competing teams are New Zealand, Jamaica, England, South Africa, Australia and Fiji. New Zealand are the defending champions. Of course.
FILM
Dr Dolittle: Tail to the Chief (Four, 6.30pm). Hugh Lofting would have kittens if he saw this. With Peter, er, Coyote as the President. (2007) 4 – Diana Balham
What a Girl Wants (TV2, 7.00pm). I can only think Colin Firth agreed to being in this ghastly teen-bait comedy to make some kind of in-joke that would go right over the heads of this film’s gum-chewing, midriff-baring audience. He plays a lord, Henry Dashwood, who shares his name with a character in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Colin Firth – Mr Darcy – Pride and Prejudice. Get it? I so don’t get it. Amanda Bynes is the (American) girl: Firth is her long-lost (English) dad. (2003) 5 – Diana Balham
Predators (Sky Movies, Sky 020, 8.30pm). It is produced by Robert Rodriguez, so we should not be surprised that this monster mash update of the Predator franchise takes its cues from 80s action cinema. “There’s a grimy, satisfying popcorn passion about Predators that seems positively joyous in a season – hell, an entire era – of overcooked and empty CGI spectacles,” said Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir. Another reason this is fun: Adrien Brody doing his best Christian Bale as a soldier dropped into nowhere with a bunch of other guys (and, naturally, a babealicious babe played by Alice Braga). What they are doing there gradually becomes clear, in between the plentiful chase-and-shoot scenes. Also starring Danny Trejo, the brilliant Walton Goggins (Justified), and (huh?) Topher Grace. (2010) 7
Get Low (Rialto, Sky 025, 8.30pm). Keith Quinn keeps telling us we should plan our funerals while we’re still alive – and that’s what this guy did. Get Low is a sly, blackly comical drama about a Tennessee recluse called Felix Bush who emerged in the 1930s from decades in the backwoods to throw himself a monumental wake. The strangest thing: he really did exist and was no doubt a shotgun-totin’, wild-bearded raggedy man, as he’s brilliantly depicted here by Robert Duvall. It’s the first feature for cinematographer-turned director Aaron Schneider, and you can see his sense of artistry in every frame. Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black round out the cast. (2009) 7 – Diana Balham
Sorority Boys (TV2, 9.10pm). Some Like it Completely Stone Cold. (2002) 4 – Diana Balham
Frost/Nixon (TV3, 11.30pm). A movie that is based on an anticlimax – a confession that never came – but then, it’s really about two men chasing redemption. In David Frost’s case, he wanted to show the television world that the lightweight could be a heavyweight, while Richard Nixon … well. Michael Sheen and Frank Langella brilliantly reprise their stage roles as the interviewer and interviewee; Sheen’s Frost is slick and obsequious, while Langella’s Nixon is all slippery guile and clever charm. Although this is a movie about a television interview, director Ron Howard, who is so good at the straightforward narrative, keeps up the momentum and the tension. (2008) 8
RADIO
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill (Radio New Zealand National, 8.10am). Hill talks to Australian author Jane Gleeson-White whose book Double Entry is out this month. She says: “I started writing a book about a Renaissance monk who published the first printed treatise on Venetian bookkeeping in 1494 and taught Leonardo da Vinci mathematics – and I ended up writing a brief history of capitalism through the lens of the apparently unremarkable mechanism that drives it: double-entry bookkeeping.” Topical, indeed. Hill also meets Gerard Smyth, director of When a City Falls, a documentary feature on the Canterbury earthquakes, which will screen in cinemas and on TV3 next year. Info and audio here. – Diana Balham
Kids of 88/Mean Girls Recorded Live at Roundhead Studios (95bFM, 11.00am and Friday, 2.00pm). Brought to you by the letter “s” today is Auckland New Wave duo Kids of 88 (Sam McCarthy and Jordan Arts), who describe their music as “a cross between a late 80s police-drama intro theme and a sophisticated super hussy”. “Slutty”, “sleazy”, “sweaty” and “suggestive” also crop up. Perhaps they are sponsored by Sesame Street. Mean Girls (bFM Breakfast co-host Zac Arnold and sculptor Martin Selman) are another couple of blokes who hail from Napier but have relocated to Auckland. They describe their sound, even more weirdly, as “dentist drills, splitting wood, pulled fingernails and home invasion”. What’s not to love? There will be live streaming and podcasts on 95bfm.com and video after November 26 on this website. – Diana Balham
Election 2011 (Radio New Zealand National, 7.04pm). Kathryn Ryan and Simon Mercep present the election results as they flow in, with RNZ’s news and political team, commentators and analysts to keep you up to speed with what it all means. Info here. – Diana Balham