Don Letts explores Bob Gruen's rock'n'roll photographs, and the US version of Shameless is okay if you close one eye.
TV
Shameless
NB: The TV1 listings in the November 5 and 12 issues of the Listener say “To Be Advised” at 4.55pm every weekday, and at 7.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday because, at the time we went to press, TVNZ had not made a decision about the programmes that would screen in those timeslots. However, TVNZ has since announced it will screen Coronation Street at 7.30pm on Thursdays and Fridays starting November 10. Ellen will screen at 5.00pm every weekday. TVNZ’s full TV guide is here.
30 Rock (Four, 8,00pm). Not the bestest episode of 30 Rock, but it’s still got to be better than a dozen Two and Half Mens, right? Jack goes to Washington to win approval for the merger with Kabletown, and is criticised by Congresswoman Queen Latifah for the lack of diversity on NBC. Nek minute, he’s making Toofer co-head writer. Also in Washington: Rob Reiner.
The Mentalist (TV2, 8.30pm). Also probably not the bestest episode of The Mentalist, but that’s what you get for having 24-episode seasons. That’s nearly half the year. The murder is a doctor with a golf club at the driving range. On the team-dynamic front, Agent LaRoche, who was sprung as a sentimentalist (little joke there) last week by Jane, puts Cho in charge, not Lisbon. Just because he can.
aimRenderAd(300, 250, '300X250','ContentRect','/POS=POS2'); if(!$.browser.msie){ ContentRect_frame = $("#ContentRect")[0]; ContentRect_frame.src = ContentRect_frame.src; }Prime Rocks: Rock’n’Roll Exposed (Prime, 10.00pm). You will know the work of rock’n’roll photographer Bob Gruen – he’s the snapper who captured John Lennon in a sleeveless New York City shirt, and he has taken similarly iconic shots of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and the Sex Pistols. In Prime Rocks: Rock’n’Roll Exposed, the legendary Don Letts explores Gruen’s photographs and the stories behind them, and interviews Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Yoko Ono and Alice Cooper.
Shameless (TV2, 11.00pm). A US adaptation of a UK series that works if you can suspend any knowledge of the original – which most likely we can because it has been screening on UKTV here. William H Macy plays the role that made David Threlfall an anti-hero in Britain: the boozing, drug-addled, neglectful-but-not-uncaring Frank Gallagher. In the UK, poverty means living on a benefit in a rundown council estate; in the US, it’s a reasonably big house in a rundown neighbourhood of Chicago. One UK critic complained that everyone’s teeth are too white and, basically, they’re not poor enough, but the series seems, like the US version of The Office, to be finding its own way and has been renewed for a second season.
In Treatment (SoHo, Sky 010, 11.30pm). Therapy is usually thought of as a peculiarly American obsession, but In Treatment is based on a successful Israeli series. It does have a peculiar format, however: it runs five nights a week, to reflect the working week of psychologist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne). He sees four patients a week, and then debriefs with his own clinical supervisor and psychologist, Gina (Dianne Wiest). It cleverly combines therapy with star power – Byrne’s patients include Melissa George, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Charles.
FILM
Mercury Rising (TV3, 8.30pm). There are some terrific films on TV this week, but this not very thrilling thriller isn’t one of them. Bruce Willis got the two-hander-with-an-unusual-kid thing right in The Sixth Sense the following year. (1998) 5 – Diana Balham
British Theatre: Five Seconds to Spare (Rialto, Sky 025, 8.30pm). A Brit murder-mystery based on Jonathan Coe‘s novel The Dwarves of Death, which is probably a better title. Not particularly well reviewed, especially by Total Film, which said “it’ll leave you feeling like you’ve just woken up in the gutter covered in someone else’s cold vomit”. Ouch. It stars Max Beesley (who was in Bodies, Hotel Babylon and can be seen in Mad Dogs on TV1. Here’s our 2006 interview with Beesley when he was in Bodies) as a musician who witnesses a murder (in real life, Beesley is also a percussionist) and Ray Winstone is particularly good as a foul-tempered recording studio boss. Plus, there is a cameo by the legendary John Peel. (2000)
RADIO
Book Reading (Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan, Radio New Zealand National, 10.45am). David McPhail continues the reading of his memoir, which is worth it for the name alone: The Years Before My Death.
Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). Tonight, a recital from Josef Špaček (violin) and Michael Houstoun (piano) recorded in the Auckland Town Hall. They perform Bach’s Chaconne; Mozart’s Violin Sonata No 22 in A; Farr’s Wakatipu; and Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No 1 in F minor, among others.
Listener Lounge is on Twitter @listenerlounge
No comments:
Post a Comment