Whale Rider, Selling Houses Australia and Accused top TV picks of the week

REDEMPTIVE reality in Selling Houses Australia, astonishing drama Accused and outstanding movie Whale Rider are among the top picks.

Switched on tv

SWITCHED On writers review your evening television this week.

Wednesday, February 1
Selling Houses Australia
7.30pm, LifeStyle
Rating: 4 Stars

CAN you believe it has been a year since Queensland's devastating floods?

While the anniversary was marked this month with sombre prayer services and rosemary "remembrance" plantings, the real impact of this natural disaster is still being felt.

If the human losses weren't enough, the economic toll can be seen in this new episode of Selling Houses Australia.

When the banks of the Brisbane River broke, waterside suburbs such as Yeronga saw property values sink under a tidal wave of murky, muddy floodwaters.

For Paul and Gloria Chapman, who had their Oriana Crescent home on the market for $750,000 before the 2011 flood, it hit hard - wiping an estimated $310,000 from their neat bungalow's value. After the floods the Chapman place was left a shell of what it used to be - the happy retreat for two hard-working parents and their two teenage daughters.

Traumatised by the event, the exhausted family only wanted to fix up and sell out, relying on this program to restore their home.

When Andrew Winter and his team arrive on the scene, this is a sales challenge like none they've faced - no walls, bedrooms or kitchen and no buyers on the horizon.

With affected suburbs now rezoned as "flood prone" by some insurance companies, potential bidders have been unable to secure mortgages without insurance.

Risking $60,000 of their own insurance payout to fund the makeover, the Chapmans are relying on the expertise of the Selling Houses crew more than most.

The result is not what is expected, but it's an inspiring tale of turning adversity to your advantage. Redemptive reality television at its best.

- By Holly Byrnes

kings cross er

Thursday, February 2
Kings Cross ER,
CI Network, 6.30pm
Rating: 3 Stars

WE'VE been sneaking around hospital corridors following television camera crews for years.

Weird and wacky medical conditions titillate us, births and deaths are life-affirming.

But rarely are producers allowed to clutter up the busiest department in any hospital - the emergency room.

Kings Cross ER combines the usual medical drama with the colourful people from all walks of life. At the heart of Sydney's notorious nightclub district, Kings Cross ER is shot at St Vincent's Hospital that serves the very wealthy suburbs nearby as well as the homeless and disorientated.

The opening moments of this premiere episode will be familiar viewing for fans of the Underbelly franchise when a young man is rushed in after suffering a near fatal stab wound. Doctors must puncture a tattoo that runs almost the length of his left side to drain blood away threatening to end his life. This is not Firass Dirani in make-up, play-acting John Ibrahim in The Golden Mile, this is dangerously real.

With a cardiac surgeon on his way, the minutes tick away along with the man's chance at survival. Keeping her head at the centre of efforts to save him is Iromie Samarasinghe, one superwoman making a profound difference.

The staff talk through the challenges they face each working day, from the medical care to the personal toll it takes on their private lives.

While we want our medical professionals to keep calm and stoic in a crisis, it is also comforting to know that humanity remains key to the way they approach their work.

For senior registrar Dr Kate Sellors, the death of one patient hits home in a heart-breaking, but beautifully observed moment.

- By Holly Byrnes

neighbours

Friday, February 3
Neighbours
Eleven, 6.30pm
Rating: 3 Stars

WHEN was the last time you checked in with the Neighbours?

Hard to gauge where I should start to fill you in, but there's probably no one you still recognise, except Susan, Karl and Toadie.

Yes, a grown man - a lawyer even - and he still goes by the name of a poisonous fish. Despite the dodgy name, he is lip-locking with a beautiful woman called Sonya Mitchell, who ended up admitting she was the biological mother of Toadie's adopted son Callum. What are the chances?

Anyway, they're trying to have a baby, which leads to all sorts of frisky behaviour at their Ramsay St home.

The problem is Sonya's nesting instincts are incompatible with his decorating style. Think bad Casablanca - mission brown walls and low-lighting.

She starts the interior intervention by tossing out his retro beanbags, which get picked up in the council clean-up.

But poor Susan, the garbos also mistakenly collect a portable cooler containing something close to her heart.

If you hadn't heard already, Karl and her are splitting up, so when this chiller goes missing it causes tense times between them.

Meanwhile, Lincoln Lewis makes an appearance on the show, the start of his four-episode guest stint.

He's not in Erinsborough at all, but at a beach somewhere tropical (though Lassiter's is looking really lush these days).

Not to spoil things, but he finds the phone of someone who does live on Ramsay St. Or did, only by the time friends back in the neighbourhood realise, the phone owner's missing. Well, that's when the drama begins.

And cue the closing credits.

- By Holly Byrnes

accuse

Saturday, February 4
Accused
ABC1, 8.30pm
Rating: 4 Stars

IT'S very rare that TV delivers a drama of such quality. This is the first episode of Accused I have watched, but it will not be the last.

The writing is superb and the performances delivered by the cast are nothing short of astonishing.

Each of the six episodes follows a different character as they await their verdict in court, and tells the story of how they got there.

This episode, the third in the series, is titled "Helen's Story" and details a mother's grief at the loss of her son, and how far she will go to find justice.

If there is one thing you can say about the British, their dramas are usually fantastic, and their comedies are more often than not funny.

When it comes to quality TV they have produced more than their fair share.

Mind you, as an Australian it feels a little odd to compliment a country that holds the Ashes, drinks warm beer and loves Neighbours, but credit where credit is due.

Despite low audience figures in the UK, Accused was renewed for a second season of four episodes.

"Viewer figures" are a bit of a double-edge sword, however, because so many great shows fail to rate, while so much terrible TV dominates.

People who complain there is nothing on TV, or that all TV is crap, spend too much time watching The Big Bang Theory and Rules of Engagement.

The fact is there is a lot of good quality television being made, people just need to be educated in the choices they make. Do not follow the pack, and do not be afraid to venture outside your comfort zone and check out what is on the ABC or SBS. If you do you will stumble on to superbly made and acted TV shows such as Accused.

- By Daniel Hoy

Sunday, February 5
Coast Watch
Lifestyle, 2.30pm
Rating: 2 Stars

THE problem with having so many channels, is you need to find content to fill them.

Freeview is finding this out at the moment - though the ads all seem to promise fresh new content, we seem to be getting a lot of Bewitched re-runs.

The fact that a terrible Kiwi show like Coast Watch is airing at all on Australian TV, on the Lifestyle Channel, is a good example of the desperate lengths programmers will go to fill the endless hours of subscription television.

In essence, a film crew follows the fishery department around New Zealand's coast to make sure people are not catching too many "fush" to eat with their "chups".

This episode opens with a large number of Kiwis who can't count and don't know their names.

When the fishery department arrives on an isolated beach in New Zealand it finds a group that has just exceeded its daily allowance by 10,000 or so.

When questioning begins group members all seem to forget their names, addresses and even which car they own. In the end, much to their surprise, they end up arrested and charged. Next is a fisherman who proves that no matter how stupid you think some people are, the reality can always surprise you.

After being caught fishing at night, with a few undersize snapper, he does a runner.

A few days later while checking one of the many false addresses he gave to the fishery officer before doing a runner, they find his boat, and impound it. The boat is named Wasn't Me, which is sort of ironic because it was him.

But proving the police can be just as clueless as the crims, after they arrest the man he does a runner again and apparently is still at large.

That sinking feeling.

- By Daniel Hoy

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

Monday, February 6
How I Met Your Mother,
9.30pm, Channel 7
Rating: 3 Stars

ABOUT this time last year, I was sitting in an ordinary meeting room in Los Angeles in pretty extraordinary company.

Just me and a few people you might know: Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders and Josh Radnor - better known as the cast of How I Met Your Mother. Invited to sit in on a script reading, then interview the actors was a great behind-the-scenes moment and a valuable insight into why this show is still so popular after seven seasons.

It was a Monday morning and the Twentieth Century Fox backlot was buzzing with activity.

The cast and an impressive number of writers, set designers and studio executives piled in, perky and super friendly in that American way.

The cast had been sent the script on the Friday night, spent some of the weekend getting used to it and now would read it together for the first time.

By the end of the same week, it would be in the can.

Later, Hannigan would share stories of how the production made working through her first pregnancy so easy. Harris happily answered questions and chatted about his manic career from Doogie Howser to Broadway.

As we walked off the lot, Smulders pulled up alongside in her car, waving us goodbye and pointing out all the good sets to snoop around. It was like spending the day hanging with friends.

We even pulled up a stool at their bar. It was easy-going, funny and a day well worth re-visiting, just like this double episode of repeats which begin with Marshall daring Barney to perform all of a teppanyaki chef's cooking techniques that he has been disparaging.

- By Holly Byrnes

Keisha Castle-Hughes

Tuesday, February 7
Whale Rider
Movie Greats, 7.30pm
Rating: 4.5 Stars

BASED on a 1988 novel by Witi Ihimaera, this moving fable strikes a universally accessible balance between old worlds and new.

The message at the core of Whale Rider - to embrace the future, we must first come to terms with the past - has been addressed by countless other movies.

Few, though, have stated it so warmly and eloquently.

The beautifully constructed storyline is framed around Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes), an eight-year-old girl whose life had a tragic start when her mother and twin brother died as she was born.

Pai's grandfather, Koro (Rawiri Paratene), a tribal chief, had designated the baby boy as his successor, and cannot hide his disappointment every time he looks at his granddaughter.

Despite the best efforts of his wife and family, Koro is too rigid in his devotion to Maori customs to recognise Pai as the true inheritor of his people's ancient legacy.

The contrast between the lead characters gives rise to an uplifting movie experience.

The stark and uncompromising simplicity of Pai's tale unfolds in tandem with an incredible feel for not only what has helped Maori culture to endure for so long, but also why many fear for its future.

Aside from the bewitching cinematography and an authentic grasp of its subject matter, Whale Rider owes much of its indelible connection with the audience to an astonishing performance by newcomer Castle-Hughes (Oscar nominated for the role).

The way in which her character combines the innocence and purity of youth with the wisdom and gravity of an old soul is a wonder to behold. This is not acting as we know it. This is something else again.

- By Leigh Paatsch