It restores your faith in the human ‘spirit’ to see that someone was nice enough to hire Gabriel Macht after his turn in The Spirit. And while Suits has a solid 60 on Metacritic, fans site IMDB gives it a high 8.8, suggesting there’s more to this than its done-to-death ‘criminal ends up working in law’ premise suggests. One critic described the leads as a smarty-pants and swaggering ass, and your enjoyment will depend on whether you find their banter witty or irritating. USA Today verged on the latter, describing it as “ludicrous, ill-cast and ill-conceived, with a premise that’s idiotic”.
A safer bet must be David Attenborough’s look at how it all began in the two-parter First Life (DR2, Mon & Tue 19:00) in which he studies the habits of creatures that have been around longer than Henry Kissinger. While Great Rift: Africa’s Wild Heart (DR2, Sun 20:00) is a three-parter BBC series that also really delivers.
Who will take delivery of the world’s most famous statuettes? Talking Movies (BBC World, Sat 20:30) previews the show, TV2 Film shows it (early Monday morning) and the Oscar highlights (DR2, Mon 20:30) reviews it, starting with a 30-minute visit to the red carpet.
The subjects of Once Upon A Time: Some Like It Hot (DRK, Fri 20:00) have been there – this is worth watching simply for Tony Curtis revisiting what it was like kissing Hitler – and Boy Cheerleaders (SV2, Mon 18:00) is a nicely-paced doc about Britain’s top boy’s team in a pastime that’s popular in Leeds.
Elsewhere, in Cocaine Diaries with Alex James (TV2, Sun 20:00) in which Blur’s bassist finds out what happened to his million plus quid in Colombia; don’t miss John Lithgow in series four of Dexter (TV3 Puls, Thu 22:00); there are new seasons of Royal Pains (TV3 Puls, Wed 22:00) and DCI Banks (SV1, Sat 21:30); there’s a special piracy (the Somalian, not Sparrow kind) theme night on Monday on TV3+ that includes the BBC doc The Trouble with Pirates (19:40); Dagestan’s Football Dreams (BBC World, Fri 21:40) is possibly the craziest ever example of throwing money at the game; and Perez Hilton: Superfan Lady Gaga (TV2 Zulu, Tue 21:45) is too ghastly for word – see it if you hate yourself.
