Tonight in HD: April 28

April 26, 2012 0 Comments

SoHo Highlight: Mad Men (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) Don runs into someone from his past; Joan makes a decision when her husband comes back from Vietnam with surprising news; Roger gives Peggy extra work. Or, as Entertainment Weekly put it: “Don murders his past, Peggy murders a budding friendship, Joan murders her marriage, and Sally learns about some very real murders.” It said the episode indulges in “some of the most abrupt tonal hair-pin turns in the show’s five year history” while The Hollywood Reporter thought it “worked wonderfully if in an overly obvious fashion… as purely an exercise in the thematic display of fear … But as a Mad Men episode, it felt wildly out of place – and not in that creatively adventurous and surprising way that some of the very best Mad Men episodes of the past seasons have turned out.” The New Yorker explained the the episode is named after the Milton Bradley board game, Mystery Date, “in which eligible, and not-so-eligible suitors rang to pick a player up for a date. If you had the right outfit, and the right accoutrement, you could go on a date; or you could get stuck with a dud. As in the game, each of the characters has an unexpected encounter that forces them to confront a truth they’d rather conceal.” ✮✮✮✮

Sky Movies Premiere: Hereafter (Sky 20, 8.30, 5.1) Hereafter bypassed local cinemas after suffering box office purgatory in the United States but the Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen) screenplay is one of Clint Eastwood’s finest films as director. It follows three lost souls wrestling with the meaning of death: a cursed San Francisco psychic; a Paris journalist who’s had a near-death experience; and a London lad whose twin brother’s just died. How their lives intersect makes for one of last year's most engrossing, thought-provoking and richly satisfying surprises. Matt Damon, Cecile de France and Bryce Dallas Howard star. (2011) ✮✮✮✮✮

TradeZone Gone Fishin’ (TV3, 5.30) ✮✮

Hyundai Country Calendar (TV One, 7.00) The pull of the remote Muzzle Station sees the next generation return to where they grew up. ✮✮✮✮

Terra Nova (TV3, 7.30, 5.1) Lucas races to assemble the final pieces of his mystery device in advance of the 11th Pilgrimage’s arrival. ✮✮✮

Movie: 28 Weeks Later (TV3, 8.30, 5.1, R) This zombie sequel to 28 Days Later is more exciting and thought provoking, with production values that belie its low budget and enlivens the living dead genre by eschewing clichés to focus as much on humanity as horror. Braindead bloodshed still abounds but the emphasis is on how two youngsters who may be immune to the “Rage” virus that’s swept Britain cope when their father (Robert Carlyle) is infected and turns into a contagious, cannibalistic psychopath. Damages’ Rose Byrne co-stars. (2007) ✮✮✮✮

Movie: Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (TV3, 10.35, 5.1, R) A group of reality show contestants deep in the woods of West Virginia split up into teams of two, where they must search the woods for supplies. As the day goes on, the contestants soon realise they’re not only being watched by cameras, but by inbred cannibals. Highly recommend if you liked the original as much as I did. IGN reckons this direct-to-disc sequel is “bloodier, funnier and, ultimately, more enjoyable than its predecessor”, which it accurately dubbed “a surprisingly effective horror experience that harkened back to those bloody films of old”. Quipped DVD Verdict of the HD quality: “The added amount of goop and guts look especially disgusting with the enhanced clarity.” (2007) ✮✮✮✮