The Honourable Woman: DR2, Wed 21:00
With a score of 82 on Metacritic and a Golden Globe award for best actress, the accolades for political spy thriller The Honourable Woman have come quick and fast since its screening on HBO last year.
Created and directed by Hugo Blick (The Shadow Line), the eight-hour miniseries is an intricate story of deception, loyalty and forgiveness set in the Middle East.
When Nessa Stein (Maggie Gyllenhaal) inherits his father’s arms business she finds herself in the centre of an international incident, forced to forge peace between Israelis and Palestinians while trying to make amends with her past.
Perfectly timed given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that broke out barely days after its debut, the miniseries succeeds in humanising the conflicts for the viewer at home.
But above all, its fast-paced suspense will leave you glued to the couch.
Named by many as their favourite TV show of 2014, it offers a complex, mysterious plot that will, episode after episode, keep sucking you in for more.
Also new:
Going down with a bang in the first episode of Blowdown (DR3, Fri 20:00), a series about an explosives team, is a casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Fireworks have been promised that make the demolition job harder.
Refusing to go down without a fight is a Pakistani rape victim in Outlawed in Pakistan (DR2, Tue 23:00) and the female soldiers sexually assaulted while serving in the US military in The Invisible War (DR2, Tue 20:45).
Refusing to go away without a fight were the Boy Soldiers (DRK, Thu 23:55), as young as 14, who enlisted to fight in WWII, and those who joined The Legion (DR2, Tue-Thu 00:35) – the French Foreign one, that is.
Elsewhere, New Zealand has joined the Midsomer Murders bandwagon with Brokenwood Mysteries (DR1, Sat 23:45); there’s another chance to see the mafia drama series The Mob Doctor (DR1, Tue 00:15); Find out how the Devil got his Horns (DRK, Tue 23:55) investigates why we depict Satan that way; and there’s a chance to watch the first episodes of British sitcom Men Behaving Badly (DR2, Wed-Thu 19:30) – the ones that featured Harry Enfield before Neil Morrissey took over.
Coming soon: Big time in Hollywood
If the idea of two jobless 30-year-old men being asked to finally move out of their parents’ house strikes you as funny, then Comedy Central’s new sitcom might be for you.
Scoring 68 on Metacritic, with Ben Stiller on board as an executive producer, the dark comedy follows the amusing journey of a delusional man-child, Jack (Alex Anfanger), and his younger brother Ben (Lenny Jackobson) as they devise a shaky plan to rise to fame as filmmakers.
Sport of the week:
Liverpool face a make or break week. First off, they travel to Arsenal in the EPL (K6, Sat 13:00), and four days later, they’re away at Blackburn in the FA Cup (K6, Wed 20:30). Elsewhere, the US Masters starts and Brøndby face new firm rivals FCK in the Superliga (SVT1, Thu 22:50) – still the only Danish game worth finding time for.
Film of the week:
Two coming-of-age films set in city suburbs, Pariah and Broken, are gritty and well-acted. Not sure the same can be said about coming-of-old age yarn The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Old classic The Great Escape (DR2, Sun 15:45) never disappoints at Easter, while Reel Steel (K5, Mon 21:00) just disappoints. (BH)
