2 Broke Girls is too funny, and zombie alert! The Walking Dead returns for a second season.
TV
2 Broke Girls
All New Two and a Half Men (TV2, 7.30pm). In which Ashton Kutcher arrives to replace Charlie Sheen after he self-destructed last year. For diehard fans, the final five of Sheen’s episodes are screening back-to-back on Tuesday night (TV2, 7.30pm). – Sarah Barnett
2 Broke Girls (TV2, 8.00pm). US stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings struck TV gold when two of her sitcoms were chosen for development – an almost unheard-of feat. Her first, Whitney, in which she stars, has not fared as well as 2 Broke Girls, which she co-created with Sex and the City’s Michael Patrick King. King’s pedigree would be near flawless if he hadn’t also made the second, appalling, SATC movie, but never mind. Here, Kat Dennings (ER) and relative newcomer Beth Behrs star as Max and Caroline, the titular skint ladies who are co-workers at a greasy spoon. Max grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, and Caroline has been forced to take a job after her father pulled a Bernie Madoff. They quickly move in together and hit on a plan to reverse their fortunes. When they’re on screen together, this is snappy stuff – sharp, just outrageous enough for the time-slot and more frequently funny than not, even if the sex jokes are too easy. This is from the same stable as Two and a Half Men, after all. On the downside, the cafe’s Korean proprietor (Matthew Moy, Scrubs) really needn’t be such a stereotype in 2012. Along with The New Girl, this was called one of the best new comedies last year by US critics: it’s about time we had an injection of funny women. – Sarah Barnett
The Big Bang Theory (TV2, 8.30pm). Penny and Raj shagged: it’s all hilariously downhill from there. – Sarah Barnett
The Walking Dead (TV2, 9.00pm). Bless TV2 for allowing only the tiniest of gaps between seasons of the zombie-apocalypse drama. Season two begins as the survivors decide to flee Atlanta and head for the countryside. Show-runner Frank Darabont left the series suddenly last year, amid rumours of tensions between him and studio AMC, and that he’d fired the entire writing staff. None of these was ever confirmed, and fears that the show’s quality would suffer were unfounded. The ratings broke records in the US when this season began late last year, and AMC booked a third season. – Sarah Barnett
Nikita (TV2, 10.30pm). The tiny assassins return, after they apparently failed to set the ratings on fire on Friday nights. Nikita (Maggie Q) continues her rogue mission against “Division”: tonight it’s something to do with a US Senator, a deadly organisation called Gogol (say what?), and a stomach-liquefying toxin. Ouch, that’s gonna sting in the morning.
FILM
Die Hard 4.0 (TV3, 8.45pm). Just to prove he’s the toughest dude in the world, John McClane is dying another day (oh no, that’s James Bond, who wouldn’t be caught dead in a singlet). Here, things get high-tech when an internet-based terrorist organisation tries to shut down the whole of the US. Cliff Curtis, for once not playing a terrorist, is the FBI’s deputy director. Fast and seemingly quite fresh for a fourth instalment, and there’s another in the wings for 2013. (2007) 7 – Diana Balham
RADIO
Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). Another concert from the 2011 Adam Chamber Music Festival series, this is Hermitage Serenade, recorded in St John’s Church, Nelson. On the programme are just two pieces: Beethoven’s Serenade in D Op 8 and Serenade in C by Erno Dohnányi, performed by the Hermitage Trio, one of the top acts at last year’s festival. – Diana Balham