NY Times Presents The Weekly
SBS Viceland, 10.10pm
The New York Times is a big deal in news, and has been for as long as the words "a big deal in news" have made any kind of sense. There's a feeling of journalistic heft to this weekly televisual deep dive into the burning issues of the day: let no one be under any misapprehension that this is not Important and Serious reportage.
US President Donald Trump.Credit:CAROLYN KASTER
For anyone seeking more than just headlines and sensationalism, it's an excellent way to gain a little stronger understanding of just what the hell is going on.
Here we get a look at the young activists pushing the US Democratic Party to the Left as it tries to rid America of Trump. Will youthful energy and idealism reinvigorate the opposition, or will it end up cruelling the Dems' chances of defeating the greater evil? Fascinating stuff, if you don't mind indulging in a queasy sense of unease at the world's current pathway.
Foreign Correspondent
ABC, 8pm
"A story of love, hope and forgiveness" runs the blurb for this episode of the ABC's venerable current affairs show. As that might suggest, there's plenty of harrowing stuff to get through before the love, hope and forgiveness kick in. For this isthe tale of the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide: specifically, of women who were raped during the horror and subsequently bore the children of their attackers. Hardly light evening viewing, but the program does come good on its promise of redemption and light from darkness.
Two mothers' stories are focused on: Rose, whose relationship with her daughter is fraught, but progressing as both women refuse to give upon each other; and Eugenie, whose children, born of atrocity, have grown up with nothing but love, and are now finding success as adults. We're invited to see the moving stories of Rose and Eugenie as emblematic of a hopeful new future for Rwanda: whether this is realistic is hard to ascertain.
Escape from the Towers
SBS, 7.30pm
On the anniversary of the nightmarish terrorist attack on New York that shook – and forever changed – the world, this doco zooms in to find the human faces of the victims. Survivors from the 77th floor of the south tower and the 81st floor of the north tower give their own compelling accounts of that horrendous day. The experience, for most of us, is unimaginable, but if any sense of what it was like can be gleaned, here's a decent way of going about it.
Grand Hotel
Nine, 8.40pm
The lives and loves of sexy people in a hotel may sound like a pretty stale and cliched concept for a TV show, but Grand Hotel has one crucial difference: it's based on a successful Spanish show, and it's just as exciting and fresh as all American remakes of overseas shows. It also stars Australia's Lincoln Younes, which no doubt Nine hopes will be a hook for those patriotic viewers who consider it their duty to closely follow the careers of all their countrymen. We all wish young Lincoln well, but the best we can hope for is that one day he's being interviewed about his first Oscar and Ellen shows a clip of Grand Hotel to embarrass him. Which it will, because when it comes to dross, this is as drossy as it comes.
I Am Roxy
Ten, 8.40pm
Were you to ask Roxy Jacenko, "Who are you?" the title of this show would be a truthful answer, while at the same time providing no useful information.
Just who is Roxy Jacenko?
"Style icon, businesswoman, mother, wife," says the voiceover man. So that cleared that up. Next question: why are we watching her on television? The answer to this seems to be something approximating to: she really, really, really wants to be on TV, and someone at Channel Ten owes her big time.
It's a show aimed at that segment of the public who enjoy spending time with people who on the one hand can be abrasive, but on the other are seen doing things that aren't very interesting. Roxy drives around town! Has meetings! Yells at her husband! There is no end to the adventures in a tale to inspire anyone with big dreams.
Utopia
ABC, 9pm
Melding the sublime and the ridiculous into one of the most gorgeous concoctions Australian TV has been lucky enough to have, Utopia is a national treasure that deserves all the acclaim it's received, and then three times that much again.
In season four it continues to operate at the highest level, producing genius workplace comedy and genuine toothy satire that puts most claimants to the genre to shame. The Working Dog team that has provided so many of this country's greatest screen moments of the last three decades is a machine of uncanny writing and directing precision, and no member of the cast has been better than they are here.
Rob Sitch as the constantly disillusioned idealist trying to make something worthwhile out of the task of "nation building" is superb, Kitty Flanagan as the painfully energetic PR monster is phenomenal, and Celia Pacquola merits some kind of special Logie category all for herself. Then there's Anthony Lehmann, Dave Lawson, Nina Oyama, Dilruk Jayasinha … there is genius in every character, every line and every gesture. If I can sum up: I reckon it's pretty good. This episode makes bleakly uproarious gold from a new electronic ID card, a wildlife preservation project that preserved no wildlife, and a problematic bureaucratic podcast.
Gourmet Farmer
SBS, 8pm
There's a hardy, no-nonsense feel to Matthew Evans: as he strides purposefully around his picturesque Tasmanian property innovating solutions and devising original answers to difficult questions, you sense that here is a true man of the land, tough as teak and at one with the very soil he enriches. If it weren't for the fact that he has deliberately chosen to run a restaurant and a farm, you'd never know just how completely mad he is. It's as if he couldn't decide which profession was the more unbearably stressful, so concluded that trying both would fulfil his desire for constant headaches.
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