Tonight in HD: March 5

Series Highlight: Modern Family (TV3, 8.00, 5.1) Jay helps Manny to sell wrapping paper for a school fundraiser to teach him the value of hard work, Cam and Mitchell (above) have an Odd Couple stand-off, and Phil and Luke try to create a viral video sensation. The episode was one of season three’s best reviewed and prompted Entertainment Weekly to observe: “Ty Burrell is having an incredibly amazing, you-earned-your-Emmy season — and not just because we got to see him pelted with a basketball in the face … His lines and delivery have been incredible this season, and the cherry on top of this sundae of hilarity was seeing Phil and Luke answer the door without pants.” Echoed New york magazine: “Ty Burrell is killing it this season — he can create funny little moments out of the most throwaway of lines.” Arrested Development’s David Cross guest stars. ✭✭✭✭✭

Saving Grace (TV3, 11.15, 5.1, R) Season premiere: TV3 reaches deep into the video vault to dust off the second season of this five-year-old Holly Hunter flop, about a train wreck of a cop with a guardian angel, but the long wait at least means fans get to see it in HD. If you're new to the show, bear in mind Variety's verdict: "Saving Grace is less about its procedural storytelling than it is about simply creating a venue to showcase Hunter's undeniable small-screen star quality." Similarly, Salon: "Hunter is just so good and the writing is subtle enough that we're willing to go along for the ride, from those looming-tornado opening credits to the last scene of each episode, in which a new heartstrings-plucking tragedy is neatly and satisfyingly resolved." ✭✭✭

Home & Away (TV3, 5.30) Casey is angry with Tyler for stealing John’s car; Ruby continues to push everyone away; Romeo is reluctant to continue his career path in sales. ✭✭

Friends (TV2, 6.30, R) Janice asks the gang if any of them have ever slept together … with surprising results. ✭✭✭✭

Shortland Street (TV2, 7.00) TK’s loyalties are doubly tested; Sarah mixes pleasure with business; Callum’s control causes serious friction. ✭✭✭

Piha Rescue (TV One, 7.30) Flash rips cause mass rescues in Raglan; with no guards on duty, a man clings desperately to a flimsy board; a kite surfer is lost at sunset. ✭✭

Last Man Standing (TV3, 7.30, 5.1) Mike feels let down when his daughters aren’t into celebrating Halloween with him the way they used to. ✭✭

Rapid Response (TV One, 8.00) Paramedics tend to a child hit by a car while riding her bike; a grandmother collapses in the street; an Intensive Care paramedic is called to a tagger badly beaten by an angry local. ✭✭

Criminal Minds (TV One, 8.30) A case turns personal for Garcia when a friend of hers goes missing, seven years to the day after her daughter disappeared. ✭✭

Desperate Housewives (TV2, 8.30) Gaby vows to get even with a parent volunteer after she’s banned from dropping Juanita off at school; Susan takes an art class to help ease her guilt about the murder. ✭✭

Homeland (TV3, 8.30, 5.1) The political powers that be make big plans for national hero Brody, but his increasingly erratic behaviour threatens his media-darling status. ✭✭✭✭

Person of Interest (TV One, 9.30) When Reese and Finch discover that their latest person of interest has connections to Cold War Soviet espionage circles, they quickly learn how covert ops were handled in a world before The Machine. Kiwi Alan Dale (Lost) guest stars. ✭✭

Revenge (TV2, 9.30) Emily’s next victim is a renowned therapist in this tight-knit community, and her very public takedown will also expose some of these women’s darkest secrets. ✭✭

CSI: Crime Scene International  (TV3, 9.35, 5.1) A former mayor of Las Vegas is shot at the Mob Museum and the CSIs embark on a Vegas history lesson to find clues to the crime. ✭✭

Hank (TV2, 12.00, R) ✭✭

Sky Movies: Survival of the Dead (Sky 20, 10.20, 5.1) The Hollywood Reporter dubbed George A Romero’s latest zombie sequel “a polished, fast-moving, entertaining picture whose mainstream success will depend on audiences’ tolerance of its tendency to become an abattoir of extreme carnage”. But Variety thought it “steeped in fan-pleasing gore but woefully thin on ideas, originality (beyond new zombie-offing methods) or directorial flair”. (2010) ✭✭