appointment viewing
0 Comments | Sunday Star – Times; Wellington, New Zealand, Aug 23, 2009 | by SMITHIES Grant
MASTERCHEF
TV One, Monday
and Tuesday, 5.20pm
Can Kiwis cook? It’s a question you’ll be dying to know the answer to if, like us, you’ve been sneaking home early from work to catch this addictive British cooking show. MasterChef is the country’s biggest amateur cooking competition that began with 132 would-be chefs. These everyday Joes from all walks of life looking for a new culinary career were put through a series of tests on skill, orginality and the ability to cook under pressure until the number was whittled down to just three.
And now Kiwi Mat Follas is competing against co-finalists Andy Oliver and Chris Gates, each cooking a busy lunch service at three of Europe’s top Michelin-starred restaurants for the title of MasterChef Champion 2009. It’s a right roaring nail-biter.
DEXTER
The Box, Sunday, 9.30pm
We love Dexter, so it’s frustrating we’ve fallen so far behind the United States when it comes to screening the show. To make up for lost time, Sky is screening double episodes of the second season right from the beginning with the promise of season three to come later this year. In the second season, our favourite serial killer is suffering a crisis of confidence after butchering his biological brother (who was also a serial killer, but without a moral compass). When treasure hunters discover his secret underwater dumping spot for the mutilated body parts of his victims, and with his suspicious colleague Sergeant Doakes hot on his tail, Dexter’s coming very close to being found out.
WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE
Prime, Sunday, 9.30pm
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans four years ago, most news reports focused on the epic “man versus nature” drama: the difficult evacuations, the tragic deaths, the heroism of emergency services.
But this was an entirely preventable tragedy. Local figures had warned about the impending failure of the levees for many years, only to see maintenance programmes cut rather than increased. Lack of action continued both during and after the hurricane, too, suggesting the welfare of poor, black neighbourhoods wasn’t a high priority to the Bush administration. In this poignant two-part doco, Spike Lee gives dozens of people – residents, journalists, musicians, politicians, historians, engineers – a platform to tell their Katrina stories, which range from bewildered to furious to downright heartbreaking. The second part screens next week in the same time slot.
GROW YOUR OWN DRUGS
TV One, Saturday, 7pm
The title of this may sound a tad dodgy, but we can assure you it’s not. This is the second episode of a new series about growing your own herbal remedies for minor ailments, and how to transform familiar plants into simple medicines. Ethno-botanist James Wong also gives viewers tips on making natural pampering beauty treatments.
Wong describes himself as more than “some hippy who believes in flower power”. He’s professionally trained at Kew Gardens, and promises to show us recipes to help with everything from coughs and colds to acne, using a mix of gardening, science and history. So far he’s already revealed to us there’s more to some fruit than just its nutritional value, by using figs to relieve constipation, hops to get a good night’s sleep, turning kiwifruit and papaya into a soothing face mask and making an immune boosting soup from fruit that viewers probably already have in their fruit bowl.
It’ll change the way you look at that overgrown lavender bush in the neighbour’s garden forever
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