PICK OF THE WEEK: The Look of Silence
SVT1, Mon 22:00 or Wed 23:50
Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to The Act of Killing (2012) is so powerful everyone should watch it.
Once again dealing with the 1965-66 Indonesian genocide, it follows a family of survivors who, in a bid to understand how and why their son was killed, confront their demons and his killers.
The youngest son, Adi, does the unimaginable by breaking his silence in a country where the perpetrators are still very much in power. An optometrist by trade, he sits down face-to-face with the men who killed his brother, and while testing their eyesight, tried to get them to take responsibility for their actions.
The documentary has received stellar reviews, with The Guardian calling it “piercingly and authentically horrifying”.
Featuring haunting visuals and delicate storytelling, it demands to be seen. So do yourselves a favour and do just that.
ALSO THIS WEEK:
A woman in the British three-part miniseries Without You (DR1, Sun 23:55) is informed by the police that the owner of a car with the number-plate “November, Uniform, Zero, Two, Alpha, Oscar, Pappa” has been found dead.
Shocking! Is un-necessary phonetic alphabet use normal procedure in such cases?
She (Anna Friel) is even more miffed to learn that dead hubby (Marc Warren) perished with a mystery, and now ice cold, blonde. The reviews were luke-warm.
Red hot off the press comes The Long Road: Europe’s Border Crisis (DR2, Wed 23:15 or SVT2, Sun 22:10), a Panorama special from the UK. For current affairs, the Scandis are happy to let the Brits do all the work and then simply subtitle their docs.
Other docs whose titles speak for themselves include: Al Shabaab and the rise of jihad in Kenya (DR2, Wed 23:15) and The Missing 43: Mexico’s Disappeared Students (DR3, Sat 17:45).
Elsewhere, DR3 is finally moving on a decade after showing every episode of The Sixties 200 times with The Seventies (Wed 22:00); the Guardian found Alex – A Life fast forward (DR3, Mon 20:30), a doc about a young man with terminal bone cancer, “uplifting” and “beautifully done”; and Reptilian Battleground (DR3, Sun 20:00) depicts a seaside showdown between some crocodiles and thousands of turtles that ends surprisingly. (BH)
COMING SOON: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Love is giving up New York to move to West Covina, a small town in California. Only two hours from the beach … well at least that’s what they promise!
Rebecca (introducing an outstanding Rachel Bloom) resigns to her successful job at a law firm just to follow her teenage love crush in this TV musical series written by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada).
This gleeful comedy with a 78 score on Metacritic will hook you from the start on Rebecca’s pursuit of happiness. You might think she is crazy, but hey, don’t blame her, she is just blind in love.
SPORT OF THE WEEK:
This is the first Oz vs NZ meeting in the Rugby WC final (The Globe, Sat 17:00) and only the second between two southern hemisphere sides. But it’s still more international than baseball’s World Series (3+, Sun 01:30) featuring New York Mets vs Kansas City Royals. Elsewhere, we’ve got the Champions League (3+, Tue & Wed 20:00), X Fighters motorcross (DR3, Fri 16:30) in Abu Dhabi, the Mexican GP (3+, Sun 19:55), and Chelsea vs Liverpool (K6, Sat 13:00) in the EPL. (BH)
FILM OF THE WEEK:
The best and worst performances of 2013 this week. Cate Blanchett is mesmeric in Blue Jasmine (SVT2, Fri 21:45), deservedly winning an Oscar, while model-turned-actor Ashton Kutcher is turgid in Jobs (TV2, Sun 01:00), but we’re only saying that because he’s soooh good looking. Not much for Halloween beyond oldies The Omen (DR1, Sat 02:00) and 28 Days Later (3+, Sat 00:20). (BH)
