TV & Radio Monday October 3

Fed up with rugby? How about some netball – the Silver Ferns play England tonight. Also, armed actiony Aussie series Rush.

TV

Rush

Netball (Sky Sport 3, Sky 032, 7.00pm and Prime, 9.30pm). It might have been the last of the Rugby World Cup pool play on the weekend, and we might be looking forward to the quarter-finals this coming weekend, but another of our national teams is in action, too: the Silver Ferns play England twice this week in a short two-test tournament. Today’s game is at the Trusts Stadium Arena in Waitakere, then there’s the long journey down to Invercargill for the second test at Stadium Southland on Thursday (also screening at 7.00pm on Sky Sport 3). The selectors have named three new caps for the Ferns: 19-year-old Mystics player Kayla Cullen, 20-year-old Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick from the BoP Magic; and Mystics shooter Cathrine Latu. The captain will be Laura Langman.

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The Mentalist (TV2, 8.30pm). Not a brilliant episode of The Mentalist; the show has never been a powerhouse of character development and it certainly isn’t addressing the tiff between Cho and Rigsby with any kind of talk-it-out moment. Possibly not Cho’s style anyway (hands down the most deadpan character on television). There’s some distraction with a criminal profiler (Linda Park) who goes head-to-head with Jane, but the interaction between Lisbon and Jane is better. We know they’re never going to get a room, but couldn’t the writers at least give them a Castle-style pretend pash?

Rush (TV1, 11.10pm). The second series of the actiony Aussie police series that focuses on the members of a Tactical Response Team. You know the sort of thing: lots of, er, rushing about, shouting and chasing the bad guys. It’s been a bit of a hit across the Tassie, and has just started its fourth season. Channel Nine caused a minor skirmish before the series began by “poaching” two stars from Network Ten’s Underbelly series, Rodger Corser and Callan Mulvey.

The Late Show with David Letterman (Prime, 11.30pm). Tonight, Kaley Cuoco from The Big Bang Theory; Skipper Bivins and Trent Jackson from Hillbilly Handfish’; and music from Death Cab for Cutie.

FILM

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (TV3, 8.30pm). Ah-nuld is back to again defend John Connor, although he’s looking a little the worse for wear this time around, especially when he comes up against this year’s model, the T-X (real model Kristanna Loken), a slice-and-dice mannequin that likes to drive big vehicles. Weirdly, the big action scene comes near the beginning of the movie, and from then on it’s a long chase as T-101, Connor (now played by Nick Stahl) and Claire Danes (a vet who is also on the T-X’s hit list) run and run and run some more. (2003) 5

RADIO

Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). Tonight’s concert from the Proms is Beethoven’s magnificent Missa Solemnis, featuring soprano Carmen Giannattasio, mezzo Sarah Connelly, tenor Paul Groves and bass Matthew Rose, with the London Philharmonic Choir and the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis. – Diana Balham