TV listings | ‘Prison Break’ for ‘Lost’ fans

New TV drama Alcatraz doesn’t have much to lose. After all, nothing could be as bad as The Rock again. Throw a creator of Lost into the mix and we’ve got a time-travel/mystery/crime series starring Sam Neil and Parminder Nagra (ER, Bend it like Beckham) in which 50 inmates and guards from the 1962 prison start turning up in modern-day San Francisco, complete with obligatory back-stories and surreal moments that end with either “But, that’s impossible” or “That would make you 117 years old.”

While Newsday liked its “weird, fun, trippy” vibes, Entertainment Weekly felt it lacked “humour and suspense but could morph into something interesting”. Time, though, questioned the point: “There’s a coldness and no sense that these are characters I want to invest in and spend time getting to know.”

The same can’t be said of Sailor Ripley. No! Not Alien, but David Lynch’s most fun outing, which is revisited in Once Upon A Time: Wild at Heart (DRK, Tue 22:15).

From fairy tales to dairy tails and The Private Life of Cows (DR2, Sun 21:30), which seeks to answer all those burning questions you’ve ever had, like what does Moo mean and why do they keep on shouting it? The Guardian felt it quickly “became apparent that cows don’t really have a private life”. The programme concludes: “So we may be using the cows, but you could equally say they are using us.” The Guardian begged to differ: “I don’t remember seeing any humans getting artificially inseminated or being sent off to the abattoir.”

Elsewhere, one year on from the Japanese tsunami, the horrors are recalled in Fast Track: Japan (BBC World, Sat 19:30) and Children of the Tsunami (DR2, Sun 19:00 & SV2, Sun 22:00); give a wide berth to Extraordinary Women: Audrey Hepburn (DRK, Thu 21:00) because this series is clueless; the engaging Seven Wonders of the Industrial World (DRK, Mon 19:05) charts the constructions of the Panama Canal and the London sewage system; and the 2012 Brit Awards (DR HD, Sat 21:00) includes an extremely miffed Adele getting interrupted five seconds into her acceptance speech, offering proof that nobody takes her generation more seriously than they do.

Read this week's TV listings.




  • How saying ‘yes’ to doing things led international Martijn Koekkoek to carve out a career in networking in Denmark

    How saying ‘yes’ to doing things led international Martijn Koekkoek to carve out a career in networking in Denmark

    Entrepreneurship wasn’t on the cards for Koekkoek when he moved to Copenhagen 15 years ago, but both by design and necessity, he laid the foundations of Everybody Networks Here—a networking community that encourages internationals to come as they are and connect over shared stories, passions, and struggles in an informal and inclusive setting.

  • Is Denmark’s budget surplus thanks to internationals?

    Is Denmark’s budget surplus thanks to internationals?

    Between 2002 to 2023, Denmark’s annual public balances have been underestimated by an average of 1,8% of GDP each year by the Ministry of Finance. The continued error accumulates 1,049 billion DKK unaccounted for the whole 20-year span. As the Danish government increasingly attracted international residents over that period, to what extent are internationals contributing to the country’s economic growth?

  • Bringing international theatre to the masses

    Bringing international theatre to the masses

    In a continually more globalized Copenhagen, the international crowds’ increasing demands for English entertainment have so far not been met. Now, an English-language theatre troupe, made up of internationals, is trying to bring Nordic high culture to the international crowd of Denmark

  • Trained nurses trapped in the system: Is it discrimination?

    Trained nurses trapped in the system: Is it discrimination?

    Despite language skills and years of experience, international healthcare professionals are unemployed due to system failures at SIRI and hospital recruitment.

  • Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen removed as CEO of Novo Nordisk

    Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen removed as CEO of Novo Nordisk

    According to a “mutual agreement” between board members of the global healthcare company Novo Nordisk, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will step down from his position as CEO. He was appointed at this position since January 2017

  • “More internationals should learn Danish”: interview to Studieskolen director

    “More internationals should learn Danish”: interview to Studieskolen director

    Qasim Shaikh, Managing Director of Studieskolen since August 2024, comments on the survey, pointing out that more Danes are becoming uncomfortable with English replacing Danish: “More internationals should consider learning the language. It would make their lives here easier.”