TV

Parks and Recreation

Go Girls (TV2, 8.30pm). Evil brother alert! Brad’s bad bro Will is in town – and he’s played by Arthur Meek, whose formidable CV includes winning the 2011 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award; an extraordinary one-man show called On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me As Her Young Lover; and appearing in The Almighty Johnsons, Nothing Trivial and Underbelly.

Parks and Recreation (Four, 9.00pm). Rob Lowe seems to have made a career out of character rehabilitation, especially since his memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, ended up on the New York Times Best Seller list for 17 weeks (and he’s inked a deal for a second book). His role in Parks and Recreation has been another career spruce-up; the guy has comedy timing to burn and he sprinkles the fairy dust of Hollywood glamour on this under-the-radar comedy. Lowe has the global recession to thank for his role as a state auditor sent in to sort out Pawnee’s budget deficit. The writers took the idea from real-life closures of schools and parks in the US. Lowe’s offsider is Party Down’s Adam Scott, who is a possible love interest for Amy Poehler’s enthusiastic Deputy Director of Parks Leslie Knope.

Misfits (Four, 9.30pm). It had to happen – the zombie episode. Hurrah! There are even zombie cheerleaders, but it all starts with a little zombie kitteh … Also, Rudy has something to say about E.T.

Big Love (TV1, 11.00pm). The final of the season and the series, and a judgment day of sorts for Bill (Bill Paxton), the self-absorbed, self-righteous polygamist head of the family. The question is: what would these women have been without him? Perhaps we’ll get to find out.

The Late Show with David Letterman (Prime, 11.50pm). Tonight, Reese Witherspoon and Michael Weatherly, with music from Kasabian.

FILM

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Sky Movies, Sky 020, 6.30pm). Why video games should not be adapted to film #314. The game that began on an Apple II gets the big-budget Hollywood treatment, but as is usual with adaptations, it winds up somewhere north of the game but south of an actual living, breathing movie. Jake Gyllenhaal is the Prince, Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) is the Princess, they have to go on the run, and there’s something to do with a dagger that winds back time (but who really cares?). Alfred Molina is the comic sidekick. (2010) 6

Biutiful (Rialto, Sky 025, 8.30pm). This is Barcelona as you’ve never seen it before: a world of desperation and all manner of criminal activities. Uxbal lives in this world and every moment of his hardscrabble life is etched on his face. Javier Bardem is mesmerising in the role, which earned him the distinction of becoming the first actor in a Spanish-language film to be nominated for a best actor Oscar. Directed by Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, 21 Grams). An art-house film that offers a different kind of beauty. David Larsen’s review here. (2010) 7 – Diana Balham

RADIO

Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan (Radio New Zealand National, 9.10am). Including Colin Harrison, distinguished engineer at IBM, who is in NZ to speak about opportunities for Christchurch; Australian theatre legend John Bell; business commentator Rod Oram; PhD student Peter Hobbins, who is doing research into venomous Australasian animals and their toxins; and TV review with Lara Strongman. Info and audio here.