TV Week
by Fiona Rae
Good on the eye.
SATURDAY JUNE 3
AMERICAN IDOL (TV2, 7.00PM). Best. Idol. Ever. Apparently. Entertainment Weekly thought so anyway, but all we can say is, thank goodness for Simon Cowell. Here’s the – oh God – two-hour finale. In other final news, The Apprentice is finally fired, until next season anyway, on Tuesday (TV2, 7.30pm).
GIVE IT A WHIRL (TV1, 9.45PM). The final of this series brings it up to date with a look at electronic music, although we have been making music with synthesisers since the days of 80s pioneers Body Electric. Interviews include Simon Grigg; Strawpeople’s Paul Casserly; Thompson Twin Tom Bailey, who now goes under the moniker Inter-national Observer; DJ Greg Churchill; Kog Transmissions’ Chris Chetland; and Mike Hodgson and Paddy Free from Pitch Black.
SUNDAY JUNE 4
THE QUEEN AT 80 (TV1, NOON, CONTINUES MONDAY). Our sovereign, who has turned up at things and worn expensive jewellery for more than 50 years, is seen at a cross-section of engagements, including a tour of Canada and the End of the War celebrations for veterans at Buckingham Palace. There is some blather about the role of the queen in the modern state, but she is enjoying a surge of popularity in the UK, especially after the big birthday bash at the palace and other celebrations were broadcast in April. A glitzy spectacle for us lot out ’ere in the colonies. Meantime, Britain’s other head of state, the state of football, that is, is examined on Monday night in primetime. In David Beckham: A Footballer’s Story (TV1, 8.30pm), soccer expert Tim Lovejoy tries to address the issues surrounding the world’s most well-known footballer after accusations in the UK that he was distracted by the showbiz lifestyle. Just before he leads England into the World Cup, Beckham looks back on his life and picks the games, goals, events and characters that have shaped his career.
MARAE KAI (MAORI, 8.00PM). The star of the charming Kai Time on the Road, Pete Peeti, gets on the road again to present a new cooking show, although this time it’s a decidedly larger affair, as he’s in wharekai all around the country. Peeti koreros with the workers and chefs responsible for feeding the masses at hui everywhere. He pitches in, too, of course, in one episode whipping up a batch of bread pudding for 2500 people. Ouch. This Sunday, it’s pavlova roulade and apple shortcake for a family reunion in Te Kaha.
CATEGORY 7: END OF THE WORLD (TV2, 8.30PM, CONTINUES MONDAY). Haven’t we already seen this one? The one where there’s a really, really big storm and only a beautiful but discredited scientist (insert former A-list actress here) can figure out what to do? So she teams up with a maverick (insert good actor who phones it in here) and together they save (a) the world, (b) a city, (c) a cat. Oh, that was Category 6: Day of Destruction. Right, Category 7: End of the World goes one further, although it still has Randy Quaid – incredibly, they asked him back to reprise his role as “Tornado Tommy” – with new beautiful-but-yada-yada-yada scientist Shannon Doherty. That’s right, they’re asking us to believe that Shannon Doherty is a scientist. We’re thinking drinking games to get through this one.
MONDAY JUNE 5
ELLEN (TV1, 5.00PM). Oh goody, a better timeslot for Ellen’s talkshow, which is far and away the best of the lot. Ellen is now the first talkshow in television history to win the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talkshow three years running, and Ellen has won – take that, Oprah! – Outstanding Talkshow Host two years running. She certainly has none of that Queen Oprah thing or that Martha weirdness; the show is pretty much about fun and dancing.
TUESDAY JUNE 7
KAI KORERO (MAORI, 9.30PM). Three words that are bound to have a television executive sweating into the Armani: “New Zealand” and “sitcom”. How about: “Filmed in front of a live audience”? Too scary for the mainstream, but not for the little station that could. This comedy series (which launched May 30) features a “blended whanau” and stars George Henare, Annie Whittle, Vanessa Rare and Geoff Dolan. They meet each Sunday for lunch and a family chat in what sounds like a fairly broad situation: Muriel (Whittle) is posh and pretends that her Maori relatives are Italian; Pa (Henare) is of the old school and a big fan of Winston Peters; Ken (Dolan) regrets letting Pa live with them; and Charlotte (Rare) is the sometimes controlling glue that sticks it all together. Ken and Charlotte also have two kids, the talented but unambitious Humphrey and the radical Ma.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 8
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