Zooey Deschanel does her best Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and Charlie Sheen's last-ever Men episodes.
TV
The New Girl
Au Revoir Charlie: Two and a Half Men (TV2, 7.30pm). Charlie Sheen’s final episodes, and the “Au Revoir” in the title is a clue to where he is headed. The new season (No 9) starring Ashton Kutcher begins tomorrow, and it’s pretty clear there’s no way that Sheen can come back, having burnt his bridges so spectacularly with the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre. Sheen clearly broke the first rule of television – always be nice to the writers, because they have the power to kill you. Tonight’s episodes feature the lovely Melanie Lynskey, as Charlie’s stalker Rose. She has to kiss Charlie.
The Secret Lives of Dancers (TV3, 7.30pm). Behind the scenes at the Royal New Zealand Ballet. This season, the company has recruited American ballet royalty as its new artistic director. Ethan Stiefel is a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, and took up the Wellington position in September last year, for the RNZB’s production of The Sleeping Beauty. Fans of guilty-pleasure ballet movie Center Stage will recognise him from that – fans of Oscar-nominated Black Swan will recognise Spanish dancer Sergio Torrado, whom Stiefel recruits, as Natalie Portman’s partner. For added Hollywood glitz, Weta Workshop contributed special effects for The Sleeping Beauty, which Listener critic Francesca Horsley praised: “The artistry and vigour of the whole company is evident throughout the production, capturing the extravagance of the original masterpiece.” – Sarah Barnett
Missing Pieces (TV3, 8.00pm). A fourth season of this family-reunion show sees producer David Lomas going as far afield as Crete, Dubai and Ecuador to track down Kiwis’ long-lost rellies. – Sarah Barnett
New Girl (Four, 8.00pm). This all depends on your tolerance for Zooey Deschanel, usually found playing what US film critic Nathan Rabin called the “manic pixie dream girl” in films such as 500 Days of Summer and Yes Man. Here she plays Jess, who has just been dumped, and who moves in with three self-obsessed guys. Damon Wayans jnr appears in the first episode as one of said guys but, disappointingly, is out after that, as he got a role in Happy Endings. Max Greenfield (Ugly Betty, Veronica Mars) will do as alternative eye-candy. New Girl recalls more old-fashioned sitcoms such as Marlo Thomas’s That Girl, largely cynicism-free and sweetly charming – unless you find that sort of thing sickly. – Sarah Barnett
Immigration Nation (Maori, 8.30pm). A history of Australia’s attempts at social engineering, Immigration Nation, is an ambitious production by Aussie public broadcaster SBS. The three-part documentary series is accompanied by online material from historic newspaper articles to present-day interviews with the ancestors of early immigrants. The series screened over the Tasman last year, not long after more than 50 asylum-seekers drowned when their boat foundered on the rocks around Christmas Island. It was a reminder of the country’s fraught history with “outsiders”; “great, free and white” is not such a distant memory. The first episode covers the far-reaching effects of the White Australia policy, which sought not only to keep non-European immigrants out, but also to get rid of any Asians or Pacific Islanders already there – never mind that they may have been there for generations, or that many were brought to Australia under duress in the first place. This not only broke up families at the time, but deprived Australia of financial and cultural stimulus from its nearest neighbours. The storytelling in this series was praised for its documentary accuracy, but also for its structure: this is no dry chronology of Australia’s past 100 years. – Sarah Barnett
Project Runway (TV3, 9.30pm). Returns for its ninth season – included among the guest judges this time is Kim Kardashian. Super. – Sarah Barnett
Misfits (Four, 9.30pm). The crew have finished their community service as they head into season three of the Asbo-superhero drama, but they’ll stay in the orange jumpsuits, which have become their de-facto crime-fighting costumes. The twist this season? New powers. – Sarah Barnett
Go Girls: Amy’s Diary (TV2, 10.00pm). North Shore drama Go Girls is back, and picks up a year after it left off. This special fills in some of those gaps, including the arrival of Britta’s baby, Dad TBA. – Sarah Barnett
FILM
The Army of Crime (Rialto, Sky 025, 8.30pm). The real Inglorious Basterds, according to Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir. It’s about a ragtag Resistance group in Paris during Nazi occupation, and is largely based on real history. Simon Abkarian and French starlet Virginie Ledoyen play Armenian poet Missak Manouchian and his wife who lead a group of all nationalities and religions that manage to fly under the radar and embarrass the Nazis repeatedly. Pertinently, they are also up against the French who turned a blind eye to many of the atrocities, and later tried to discredit the group. (2009)
RADIO
Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan (Radio New Zealand National, 9.05am). Today: Lester Levy, chair of the Waitemata DHB and Ian Powell, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists; Family Court counsellor Jill Goldson discusses the Family court review; US correspondent Jack Hitt; marine bird scientist Dave Ainley, who is leading an international campaign to protect the Ross Sea from all fishing; Graham Beattie reviews In the Absence of Heroes by Anthony McCarten; Politics with Matthew Hooton and Mike Williams; guest chef Martin Bosley; film review with Graeme Tuckett. Info and audio here.