Green Guide's Critical View

The Age

Monday April 23, 2007

Kenneth Nguyen, Brad Newsome, Andrew Tate and Scott Murray

Television Previews: Scrubs; Desperate Housewives; Digital Home Movie; Rugby League; Hot Enough For June (1964)

FREE TO AIR

Scrubs

Channel Seven, 11.30pm

SCRUBS, the surreal, pop culture-quoting sitcom is energetic comedy that speaks truthfully about the modern workplace. There are the impolitic bosses (Doctor Bob Kelso, played by Ken Jenkins, is quick to refer to a blonde staffer as Sugarboobs, and asks the African-American surgeon Turk, played by Donald Faison, to call Al Green for tickets); harried intermediate workers who take out their frustrations on those below them; and of course, those at the bottom of the food chain. Scrubs captures these doctors at a moment of life ripe for comedy and drama. Tonight, there are elements of both adolescence and adulthood in play as JD (Zach Braff) leads his friends on a road trip to the town of Tacoma, where his pregnant long-distance girlfriend is set to have her first ultrasound. The journey provides plenty of tangential, nonsensical yuks, as any good road trip should. -- KENNETH NGUYEN

Desperate Housewives

Channel Seven, 8.30pm

AFTER a slightly aimless second season, creator Marc Cherry has brought Desperate Housewives back to its character-driven strength. At least three of his four leads have a Technicolor pop to them, and the show sparkles most brightly when they - rather than those lesser characters behind Desperate Housewives' occasional mysteries - are in the centre of the frame. A particular pleasure to watch is Marcia Cross as Bree van de Kamp, who tonight is introduced to Alma (Valerie Mahaffey), the previously missing first wife of Bree's husband Orson (Kyle MacLachlan). Susan (Teri Hatcher) had assumed that Orson had killed Alma, and as Bree prepares to reveal the survival of Alma to Susan, you can see Cross' eyes capture a delightfully evil spark. Meanwhile, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is having trouble dealing with her stepdaughter Kayla (Rachel Fox) and Susan's teenage daughter Julie (Andrea Bowen) is considering going All The Way, which would seem to be a bad omen for Julie. Oh yes, finally, there's some plot about Susan. But really, do any of us care? -- KENNETH NGUYEN

PAY TV

Digital Home Movie

How To, 7.30pm

A GREAT little home-grown series in which cameraman Steve Davis (who has worked on Getaway as well as documentaries for the National Geographic and Discovery channels) gives easy-to-follow advice on getting the most out of your video camera. Tonight Davis is on assignment at his young daughter's birthday party, where he demonstrates how to make a home movie from start to finish. Among the useful tips is a reminder to also interview the kids, in order to capture the adorable things they say. -- BRAD NEWSOME

SPORT

Rugby League

Fox Sports 3, 7pm

THE NRL tries to find some room in the TV schedule with a Monday night live match between the Cowboys and the Rabbitohs. -- ANDREW TATE

MOVIES

Hot Enough for June (1964)

ABC, 1.20am

DIRK Bogarde should have rejected the role of Nicholas Whistler in Ralph Thomas' Hot Enough for June, wistfully called a spy spoof.Bogarde, who lived the high life, plays an unemployed writer who is sent to Prague by British intelligence. He knew how to play the star, even if the film glittered not, arriving for filming in Venice in his Rolls and staying at his beloved Gritti Palace hotel. Critic Thomas Wiseman suggested that Whistler "is the sort of secret agent who looks as menacing as a pop gun and probably isn't even licensed to kill grouse". -- SCOTT MURRAY

© 2007 The Age

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