TV & Radio Monday October 17

The smartest series on TV is back, and the residents of Bon Temps are still not catching a break in the season finale of True Blood.

TV

30 Rock

30 Rock (Four, 8.00pm). The smartest series on television returns at last; screeds have been written about the comedy genius of Tina Fey and she is still firing in the season five opener, which she wrote, and which stars Matt Damon as Carol Burnett (yes), a pilot who Liz Lemon (Fey) met last season.

This Is Your Life (TV1, 8.30pm). When it’s This Is Your Life, who’re ya gonna call? Paul Holmes, of course, who returns to his turangawaewae to front a celebration of a good Kiwi’s life.

The Mentalist (TV2, 8.35pm). A Van Pelt-centric episode in which Grace (Amanda Righetti) is under fire after a witness in a case against a drug lord is shot and killed while she is guarding him. Cue creepy Agent LaRoche (Pruitt Taylor Vince) who wants her to wear a wire to spy on the CBI team. Ouch. Rock, hard place. Plus, her FBI boyfriend is acting weird.

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Parks and Recreation (Four, 9.00pm). 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation? Our cup runneth over with clever television comedy. This fantastic vehicle, driven by Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler, is a successor to The Office, but with more good cheer. Poehler plays Leslie Knope, an overly enthusiastic parks department employee in Pawnee, Indiana. The cast includes Rashida Jones, comedian Aziz Ansari, Paul Schneider and Nick Offerman as the department’s deadpan director. This is the series that has done wonders for Rob Lowe – he appears in the final two episodes of the season and is a “revelation”, according to one critic.

True Blood (Prime, 9.30pm). Drama, drama, drama. The residents of Bon Temps cannot catch a break: just when you think you’ve vanquished the witch, avenged your dead brother and finally broken up with your skanky werewolf girlfriend, some other crazy stuff happens to set up a whole mess of storylines for season five. Also in the season finale: someone dies. No, wait, three people die. Probably. You never can tell with True Blood.

FILM

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (TV3, 8.30pm). Angelina Jolie reconciled with dad Jon Voight by starring in a Hollywood blockbuster with him. As you do. She was still doing weird things with blood and knives with then hubbie Billy Bob Thornton during this time and you can see the enormous and unwise tattoo on her arm in the trailer, although it was covered with makeup for the actual film. And … oh, the movie? It’s a nonsensical feature that stretches a video game into a one-and-a-half-hour movie about a busty relic hunter who does her own stunts. Anyway, then Angelina met Brad Pitt on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith and … (2001) 4 – Diana Balham

Daybreakers (Sky Movies, Sky 020, 8.30pm). This try-hard futuristic flick jumps on the vampire bandwagon with a plague that has turned most humans into vampires. Enter haemotologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), who must find a blood substitute to save the human species before he himself turns into a bloodsucker. Sci-fi horror is a familiar theme for Australian writer/director twin brother team Michael and Peter Spierig, and they give this world dark, edgy, moody corners but an unimaginative script and weak characters do not help the cause. The C grade is elevated to B thanks to Willem Dafoe, playing a human cured of vampirism. Sam Neill and Jay Laga’aia also star. (2009) 6 – Frances Chan