What’s on TV this week: Russell Coight, Siren, Elementary

THERE’S something comforting about reboots and revivals, you know exactly what you’re going to get.

IT’S becoming harder and harder to find big groups of people are who are watching the same TV show at the same time.

Gone are the days of everyone huddling around the water cooler, proverbial or otherwise, excitedly sharing their thoughts on whether Ross and Rachel really were on a break (they were).

Audiences are fractured into hundreds of different shows every week and viewers are able to choose when they want to watch something. So when you do find a kindred spirit — that person who’s on the exact episode of GLOW as you are, it’s utter joy.

So here’s hoping you’ll find someone else to share in this week’s new shows.

ALL AUSSIE ADVENTURES

(Ten — Sunday, August 5 at 7.30pm)

After a 14-year absence, Russell Coight, that walking cautionary tale, is back. The revival of mockumentary All Aussie Adventures is a pure nostalgia play — it’s exactly as you remembered it. Glenn Robbins’ Russell Coight caricature is still the same bumbling, clueless bushman that he was — the years have certainly not made him any wiser, nor any less clumsy. He, on form, falls off the roof of his 4WD before the first minute, tumbling to the dirt ground in an undignified heap.

Presumably, Channel 10 brought back All Aussie Adventures because it scratches that same itch the likes of Will & Grace, Gilmore Girls or any one of 76 shows that have been picked up off the shelf with something resembling new life beaten into them.

It’s comforting, it gives audiences something knowable and reliable to look forward to, instead of the mental gymnastics it now takes to choose something new, forever scrolling through streaming menus. That stability has value.

But don’t expect All Aussie Adventures to do anything new. A couple of jokes about Google and dial-up internet aside, this series is a throwback. The comedy has all the edge of a melted marshmallow and the gags are predictable — of course he’s going to get his fingers jammed in that blender — but it’s still worth a few chuckles, but only if you were a fan of the original series.

Older but not wiser

9-1-1

(Seven — Wednesday, August 1 at 8.30pm)

On the surface, it looks like any other American procedural drama, another show that follows the misadventures and heartbreaks of cops, fireys or doctors, heroically swooping in to save the day, or your soul.

But what makes 9-1-1 a step above the others is its cast — Angela Bassett, Connie Britton and Peter Krause. The intensity of these veteran thespians elevates 9-1-1’s otherwise run-of-the-mill storytelling, and the script rewards them with some meaty character moments.

Each episode typically follows one day in the life of 911 operator Abby (Britton), fire captain Bobby (Krause) and LAPD patrol sergeant Anthena (Bassett). Abby gets the call and then sends out Bobby and/or Anthena to respond. And because it is a Ryan Murphy series (co-created with Brad Falchuk), it is very dramatic.

The first case comes from someone who swears he can hear a newborn crying from behind his bathroom wall. When the team turns up on the scene, there’s a baby stuck in the pipes. 9-1-1 isn’t a gritty crime drama, it’s still a slick network procedural with fast-edited sequences but it’ll appeal to fans who want their TV to have a certain simplicity.

Casting Angela Bassett in your TV show makes it 100 per cent.

FOOD SAFARI WATER

(SBS — Wednesday, August 1 at 8pm)

We’re spoilt in Australia when it comes to fruits de la mer. The abundant seafood off our shores means a proper platter would be teeming with crustaceans, fresh fish, smoked fish, oysters, mussels, sea urchin and anything your salivating tastebuds could possibly desire.

So it makes sense that Maeve O’Meara, Australia’s grand dame of food touring would choose water as the next element in her long-running Food Safari series.

Across 13 episodes, O’Meara takes viewers on a smorgasbord journey of the most delectable morsels fished from the oceans and rivers, visiting a cavalcade of chefs, cooks and the men and women who know their barramundis from their kingfishes by glancing at some discarded scales.

You’ll drool over Peter Conistis’ scallop and taramasalata moussaka, eat Nelly Robinson’s ridiculously good fish pie with your eyes and learn to properly cook fish (because I bet you’ve been doing it wrong, god knows I have) with Steve Hodges. Anyone else hungry already?

Tasty TV

ELEMENTARY

(Ten — Sunday, August 5 at 10.15pm)

I used to think Elementary was my number one guilty pleasure TV show but now I reckon there’s nothing guilty about it. Before it started, piggybacking on the success of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, we all expected the worst.

But the modernised American retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories has been a constant throughout its six seasons, which started last night but can be watched on TenPlay now.

It’s a solid drama with intriguing, puzzling crimes and the right balance between case-of-the-week and longer-running narrative arcs. But where it really excels is in the screen chemistry between Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock and Lucy Liu’s Joan Watson.

This is a proper male-female platonic relationship based on respect, affection and deep friendship. There is not the distraction of will-they-won’t-they, even though those characters have few other paramours over the course of the show.

That’s a kind of dynamic that you don’t see on TV all that often and what Miller and Liu have done with it is what makes Elementary a not-guilty pleasure.

They won’t — unequivocally won’t.

SIREN

(Fox8 on Foxtel — Monday, July 30 at 8.30pm)

In the coastal town of Bristol Cove, local legend has it mermaids used to roam. When a mysterious new girl (because it’s always a mysterious new girl) comes to town, she may just prove the folktales true, and set the scene for a species-against-species battle.

Perfect for fans of The Vampire Diaries, Sirens swaps out the pointy teeth for fins and a tail — actually, these mermaids also have pointy teeth. A fantasy drama aimed at a younger, though not too young, audience, Sirens is all about the magical creatures that lurks beneath the surface of the water.

And if you’re looking for something to tie you over until Aquaman and you love pulpy, teen soaps with a whiff of murder in the air, then this might appeal.

She looks real friendly

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Originally published as What’s on TV this week: Russell Coight, Siren, Elementary