HD Highlights: July 26

Inside New Zealand: Inside Tattooing (TV3, 9.30)  The art of prison tattooing is illustrated through candid discussions with inked-up ex-prisoners, gang members and wardens. “Presented in a deceptively straightforward manner, Inside Tattooing accumulates complexity and a quiet power as it patiently probes beneath its subject’s surface,” Nick Grant wrote in The Herald on Sunday. “Not so much a thesis as a tapestry, it uses tattooing as a window into the world of a very specific subculture of our society. By the time it ends, the programme has earned positive comparisons to Maori Television’s rightly celebrated Songs From the Inside for the way it humanises a group who are routinely demonised.” ✭✭✭✭

SoHo Highlight: Weeds (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) Andy and Jill are interrupted by Jill’s husband; Silas maintains an unconventional affair with Kiku; Shane makes new friends; Doug and Whit are pitched new business ideas. Despite “A Beam of Sunshine” being set 77 days on from the season premiere, when combined with last week’s “Messy” it “still feels like an introductory chapter to the season,” the AV Club said. “We end the episode with the promise of a new beginning for Nancy, and the promise of a real beginning to the final season.” ✭✭✭✭

Episodes (TV One, 10.10) Convinced that Sean is having an affair with Morning, Beverly packs her bags and leaves. But in her distress, she doesn’t realise she’s driving on the left side of the road until she has a head-on collision that leads her down a road with even more dire consequences. ✭✭✭✭

Fringe (TV2, 10.35, 5.1) Peter, Olivia and Walter come face-to-face with a mysterious and terrifying Fringe event as they become trapped in a town on the brink of destruction from which there’s no escaping. “’Welcome To Westfield’ was the game-changer that Fringe fans have been waiting for  – the ‘Happily Ever After’ that brought long-awaited relief to a season of sometimes-frustrating ‘Sideways’ world storytelling,” argued Entertainment Weekly. Star John Noble (Walter Bishop), whose sleep disorder has disrupted shooting of season five, told the magazine it was one of his favourite episodes because “it was the first time that really the old team had got back together again — Walter and Olivia (Anna Torv) and Peter (Joshua Jackson). It was a very interesting story for all sorts of reasons.”  Said the Los Angeles Times: “Fringe is science fiction at its best, and the great thing about science fiction is that it’s a pretty big genre. There are endless variations. You have your hard science fiction, your soft science fiction, time travel and alternate history, space operas, suspense, anything you can imagine. The great thing about Fringe is that it dips into every realm. This week, Fringe gives a try at science fiction survival horror and it pulls it off very well.” ✭✭✭✭