Square Eyes

Television Reviews

Movie of the week Traffic, NBN, Sat, 9.30pm

Director Steven Soderbergh's ambitious, epic and complex drama about the drug trade is almost 150 minutes long, but heart-stoppingly powerful. Three seemingly disparate stories offer explore the grey shades of morality in a dark world, from a Mexican cop (Benicio Del Toro), who discovers his boss isn't squeaky clean, to a judge (Michael Douglas), who becomes the US Government's drugs crusader, only to discover his teenage daughter (Erika Christensen) is involved. It's visually striking, a challenge to the war on drugs orthodoxy and details a modern tragedy.

Changing Lanes, Prime, Fri, 9pm

When two cars crash on the freeway. Gavin (Ben Affleck), a young lawyer in a hurry offers a blank cheque to the mild-mannered worker Doyle (Samuel L Jackson), refusing to leave his details before fleeing. An escalating cycle of revenge ensues between the two strangers who, despite their vast social and economic differences, both have the same dark heart. It's a decent thriller.

Rugby league grand final, NBN, Sun, 7pm

Newcomers the North Queensland cowboys and merged club Wests-Tigers bash into each other.

Get over it, Prime, Sun, 8.30pm

A cheerful teen romance that at least shows signs of wit amidst its predictability. A school basketball jock (Ben Foster) is dumped by his spunk girlfriend (Melissa Sagemiller) and tries to win her back with help from his mate's sister (Kirsten Dunst). Guess what happens next.

The Hit Game, ABC, Tues, 8pm

In the second episode of this four-part doco on the fickle world of pop, former Hunters & Collectors guitarist Baz Palmer tries to resurrect the career of Belinda-Lee Reid, former singer from Perth's one-time teen pop sensation Lash. It's a great insight into the rock 'n' roll grind.

Swapping Lives, SBS, Thurs, 8.30pm

Violet, a Sydney teenager, swaps lives with a Muslim girl from Indonesia for 10 weeks in this fascinating exercise in cross-cultural empathy. They're both armed with digi-cams to record their experiences and it's an amazing journey from fear to revelation and understanding.

Boudica, ABC, Thurs, 8.30pm

Blackadder's Baldrick, aka actor Tony Robinson, explores the truth behind a series of key English historical figures, beginning with the warrior queen.

Auschwitz: the Nazis & the Final Solution, ABC, Thurs, 9.25pm

The second episode of this moving six-part BBC series continues the harrowing detail of the death camps. This chilling reality - and the true banality of evil - comes from recreations of how an ad hoc plan to find more and more rapid ways of killing people with a minimum of fuss (Himmler didn't like that fact that shooting children was upsetting his troops), led to the extermination of a staggering 1.5 million people. We need to be reminded both how dark the human soul and be and for those who survived, just how powerful in the face of imponderable cruelty.