SUNDAY JANUARY 22
Hell on Wheels (Soho, 8.30pm). Fans of Deadwood might have their interest piqued by this post-Civil War America building-a-railroad drama, but keep your hopes realistic. Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon (a well-cast Anson Mount) is out to avenge his wife’s death at the hands of Union soldiers, helping to build the new railway along the way. Hell comes from US cable network AMC, the home of The Walking Dead and Mad Men, so the pedigree is fine, but a muddle of Big Issue story-lines – the treatment of newly emancipated slaves, native Americans and women – means many of them don’t get the time spent on them they deserve. It’s gorgeous to look at, though, and as the New York Times critic noted, “it’s a western, after all, and it has a lot of violence, which, particularly when inflicted with tomahawks and arrows, covers a multitude of sins”. Rapper Common, as one of those freed slaves, is brilliant, and it’s suitably gritty. The Washington Post’s critic thought it had “a loony, melodramatic fatalism that echoes There Will Be Blood”.
Kidnap & Ransom
Offspring (TV1, 9.30pm). Go Girls’ Jay Ryan is the new hospital registrar and object of Nina’s (Asher Keddie) fantasies in season two of this charming Aussie drama. She’s back in Melbourne from Baltimore to deal with a medical crisis in the mad Proudman family, and quickly develops a crush on the new guy when she has to guide him through his first breech birth. We’re wondering how long it’ll take us to get used to Ryan as a doctor, rather than the Girls’ blokey “yeah, nah” Kev.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Four, 10.35pm). The show that began as an episode made for $85 swings into its sixth season, as deeply subversive as ever. Although current sitcom convention seems to be that even the sharpest – Community, Modern Family – wrap up each episode with a valuable lesson and reconciliation, Sunny flies in the face of that by harking back to the old Seinfeld mantra of “no hugs, no learning” and revelling in its gloriously self-involved characters. Best season yet. If you don’t include the seventh season, which just finished airing in the US.
MONDAY JANUARY 23
Breakfast (TV1, 6.00am weekdays). It’s been a grim old summer, news-and-weather-wise, so the absence of all the regular current affairs shows could be seen as something of a blessing – a few hours’ respite from what would usually be more coverage of the same bad news and weather. But regular weekday transmissions resume this week on a number of channels: the Breakfast crew return on Monday, as do Close Up (TV1, 7.00pm) and Campbell Live (TV3, 7.00pm). In sports news, The Crowd Goes Wild (Prime, 6.30pm) is back, although reporter James McOnie spent his summer asking ASB Classic tennis players what they’ll be doing before “the end of the world” this year.
The Talk (TV3, 10.35am). This US chat-show was created by telly star Sara Gilbert (The Big Bang Theory) when she had her first child, joined a “mommy group”, and realised how much they had to talk about. She’s joined by a group of celebrity mums, including the ubiquitous Sharon Osbourne, in a procreation-heavy version of The View. It’s about as riveting as sitting in on a group of chatting D-list celebrity mommies as you’d think. Would you want Sharon Osbourne in your mummy group? Didn’t think so. Dr Phil (TV3, 1.00pm) and Dr Oz (TV3, 2.00pm) also return to complete a mindless daytime telly trifecta.
TUESDAY JANUARY 24
Where the Water Meets the Sky (Arts, 9.30pm). The Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) was founded in 1993 to educate girls in Africa, where they’re more likely to stay at home while their brothers go to school. For every year of education a girl receives, her life outcomes improve: she’ll marry later, have fewer children whose life expectancy will be better, she’ll know more about how to protect herself from HIV/Aids and her income will be higher. Camfed has partnered with hundreds of schools, instituted anti-child abuse campaigns and worked closely with children orphaned by HIV/Aids. In 2003, Camfed helped a group of women in the Samfya region of Zambia train in film-making, giving them their first exposure to the medium and a first opportunity to have their voices heard. The making of their short film I’ve Found My Way is the subject of Where the Water Meets the Sky, a feature documentary by March of the Penguins‘ writer Jordan Roberts, narrated by his Penguins colleague Morgan Freeman.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 25
Falling Skies (TV2, 8.30pm). TV2’s Wednesday night line-up draws to a close this week – the folk of Falling Skies are facing a mutiny and, at last, maybe some answers as to what the aliens actually want. The show’s been confirmed for a second season in the US, although as yet it has no scheduled air-date, so we’d better get those answers. TV2 is also claiming that Hot in Cleveland (8.00pm) has reached its season final tonight, although we’re actually only halfway through season two, with the beginning of Elka’s (Betty White) trial. Her lawyer sucks, so she resorts to jury tampering. Naturally.
Kidnap & Ransom (TV3, 9.15pm). Corporate hostage negotiator Dominic King (Waking the Dead’s Trevor Eve) views ransom situations as a high-stakes game of chess in Kidnap & Ransom – you can tell because he fiddles with chess pieces while he’s on the phone to the kidnappers. But the occasional piece of ham-fisted symbolism can be forgiven in this slick two-part ITV mini-series, which finds King reeling from his first professional failure. Having just organised the exchange of a lump of cash for what turned out to be a corpse, he returns home to lick his wounds, only to face pressure from his wife (Natasha Little), an aspiring politician, to play house husband for a while. Then there’s their daughter, who has gone all religious on them. When a British scientist (Emma Fielding) from a big pharmaceutical firm is kidnapped in South Africa, and her driver slain, King needs to save his career as well as the scientist. And then it all goes horribly wrong. So, for those keeping count, that’s life-and-death career trouble, relationship woes, South African politics, geopolitical delicacy, big pharma nasties and Jesus for King to juggle. Or play chess with. Kidnap & Ransom was conceived by former 24 writer Patrick Harbinson, and you can tell: aside from some familiar plot developments, he sets a cracking pace. Eve has a gift for flawed, stoic action-ish heroes, and is excellent here, as is almost everyone, although look out for John Hannah as the baddie, arriving in part two: the Scotsman’s critic described him as being to acting what “a barnacle is to international shipping”, which is a little unfair. But only a little.
THURSDAY JANUARY 26
Cricket (Sky Sport 1, 10.00am). New Zealand last met Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in November, in Brendan Taylor’s first test as captain of the side. They very nearly handed it to the hosts after a promising start, before a heroic bowling performance by Doug Bracewell in his test debut secured the narrow win. This week, the two sides meet at McLean Park in Napier in the first test of the National Bank series. Live coverage continues throughout the test.
Convict Australia (History, 3.30pm). Incredibly, the first documentary to be made about Australia’s prison past, and looks at just how brutal the conditions were for the 165,000 British and Irish criminals who faced transport across the world between 1788 and 1868, many of them for petty offences that condemned them to permanent separation from their families.
Windfarm Wars (Arts, 8.30pm). Windfarms have emerged as perhaps the most controversial form of renewable energy: Windfarm Wars is a four-part series following the pitched battles fought over a nine-turbine farm planned for a sensitive bit of the UK’s landscape. As a local farmer sums it up, “They all want the electric, but they don’t want it in their back garden, do they?” Indeed. But windfarm angst is a familiar story all over the world, including here, and because of that its potential as a significant part of a renewable energy future is still in doubt.
Top Gear USA (Prime, 8.35pm). The American version of the Jeremy Clarkson juggernaut is familiar: comedian Adam Ferrara hosts all the usual segments, although it’s unlikely they’ll destroy any caravans or get themselves into anywhere near as much strife with the broadcast standards bods. This week, the boys pit a Dodge Viper against a Cobra attack helicopter, and moon visitor Buzz Aldrin, who is 82 on January 20, drives the test track.
The 4th Revolution: Energy Autonomy (Arts, 9.30pm). A doco that envisages a world in which 100% of energy will be produced renewably, and the ownership of that production will be democratised. The German production was volunteer-funded, and was that country’s biggest 2010 doco release.
FRIDAY JANUARY 27
Community (Four, 9.00pm). Drew Carey guest-stars as a lawyer with a hole through the middle of his hand tonight. Just ’coz.
Live at the Apollo (TV2, 9.30pm). One of TV Week’s favourite QI guests, Sean Lock, hosts tonight, introducing vegetarian Liverpudlian John Bishop. In 2010, Bishop came last in his episode of Celebrity Mastermind with the specialist subject of the Irish potato famine – happily, he’s better at comedy, having been nominated in 2009 for an Edinburgh Comedy Award for his show at the Fringe Festival.