Square Eyes

Television Reviews

Movie of the week: Minority Report, NBN, Sun, 8.30pm:

Philip K Dick's futuristic thriller is given the lavish Spielberg treatment. Mr Katie Holmes heads a pre-crime unit that uses psychics to detect crimes and stop them before they happen. When Tom is implicated in a murder-to-come, he goes on the lamb, amidst endless product placements, in a bid to clear his name. Alas it's all so predictable towards the end, you could call it Cruise control.

Sophie's World, SBS, Fri, 7.30pm:

Jostein Gaarder's philosophical bestseller becomes a four-part drama series about a teenage Norwegian girl taking an extraordinary journey through time and space to explain the meaning of life (seems it's not 42 after all). It's an enchanting lesson in the classics, starting with Plato.

Doctor Who, ABC, Sat, 7.30pm:

Buffs rejoice! Tonight the Time Lord's oldest and most lethal foe, the Dalek, returns, showing there's more to life than bank ads and destroying the universe. And you get to find out how the evil beastie ticks.

Chicken Run, NBN, Sat, 7.30pm:

This funny animation spoof from the makers of Wallace and Grommit parodies the great escape films, with Rocky the Rooster (Mel Gibson) as a Steve McQueen to a group of startstruck chickens. It's delightful and charming.

House, Ten, Sun, 8.30pm:

Hugh Laurie, best known as a Blackadder buffoon, plays a brilliant, pill-popping, caustically misanthropic doctor who prefers not to have to deal with patients. He heads a team dealing with the too-hard-basket problems in this excellent medical mystery drama. It's blackly funny and gross in places.

Grumpy Old Women, ABC, Tues, 8pm:

This companion whinge to Grumpy Old Men rounds up a bunch of English gals who'll leave most people scratching their heads as to who they are. Of course Germs is there, but she was a Grumpy Young Woman, so her continued whine isn't exactly a revelation.

Someone's Watching, SBS, Tues, 8.30pm:

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you, as this spooky two-part doco on the age of electronic surveillance reveals. The technology used to check up on everyone in the name of the 'War on Terrorism' can also be abused by darker forces.

My Brother's Kosova Wedding, SBS, Thurs, 8.30pm:

A fascinating doco on how it feels to straddle the cross-cultural gap and feel like an outsider everywhere. Sel Beha has lived in Australia for 16 years, but can feel the pull of his homeland, but then he has a non-Muslim Aussie girlfriend.

MDA, ABC, Thurs, 9.30pm:

Finally this excellent medico-legal drama returns, although for just four weeks, which says something about Aunty's lack of commitment to local drama. The cast is a who's who, with Our Siggy turning up as a genius Prof with a dodgy genetic experiment in mind.