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So You Think You Can Dance USA, Eleven, 5pm
Is anyone else disappointed that when the SYTYCD (US chapter) judges exhort contestants in this American dance-a-thon to ‘‘dance for your life’’ they aren’t announcing a Hunger Games-style elimination? There are no crossbows in sight, sadly, but as the young folk say, whatevs. The Yanks prove that they have it all over the ersatz Australian product when it comes to young folk who can pop and lock (whatever that is) and generally dance their butts off (not literally). Head judge Nigel Lythgoe and his arresting dental work is joined at the judges’ table this week by former pop star Paula Abdul and current pop star Jason Derulo as they whittle six contestants down to four with no bloodshed but plenty of damned impressive dancing.
Bondi Vet, Ten, 6pm
Expensive surfer enclave Bondi is the home of record-breaking species diversity: along with an abundance of international backpackers it can also boast pigs, crocodiles and even the odd panda, if the Bondi Vet titles are to be taken at face value. This week finds Dr Chris adding a distressed swan named Wayne to his retinue of saved animals. Meanwhile, a 400-kilogram killer alligator named Brutus terrorises bathers at Bondi Beach – sorry, has been acting aggressively at the Australian Reptile Park. Anyway, in footage edited to make it look far more dangerous than it really is Brutus must be moved for the sake of the other ’gators. Meanwhile bad boy labrador Hero has to excrete a four-centimetre rock with the help of a kind vet and a tube of KY.
Last Tango in Halifax, ABC, 7.30pm
There’s really nothing like an ill-fated wedding episode to show a beloved series the end-of-season door, especially in the case of Last Tango in Halifax when the aforementioned union is between Gillian and Robbie, a couple not entirely made from fairy dust sprinkled over domestic bliss. Viewers may groan at the inevitable delays and nail-biting will-they-won’t-they scenarios, and especially the flat tyre en route to the ceremony. But Last Tango is a show rooted beautifully in the minutiae of domestic reality, and thus it is refreshing to see a family degenerate into petty bickering in the wedding car and refuse to let their personal grievances rest at the altar.
Larissa Dubecki
PAY TV
Code of a Killer, BBC First, 8.30pm
John Simm, David Threlfall and Anna Madeley star in a decent-looking three-parter telling the story of how a 1984 breakthrough by DNA-profiling pioneer Alec Jeffreys helped solve two murders and usher in a new era in criminal investigation. Broadchurch director James Strong calls the shots.
Brad Newsome
MOVIES
Munich (2005), SBS, 8.30pm
“Inspired by real events”, Steven Spielberg’s Munich explores the aftermath of the landmark terrorist attack by the Palestinian group Black September at the 1972 Munich Olympics which resulted in the deaths of 11 Israelis, with the state’s retribution put in the hands of Avner (Eric Bana) and his team. They are patriots, and the film takes care to show the Palestiniansas the same, but Avnerand his crew, which includes Daniel Craig and Ciaran Hinds as fellow operatives, become outcasts who slowly start to lose their bearings once they are cut off fromhome and set adrift in Europe with money and a hit list of names. The picture wants to be more than a slick action thriller – the team’s operations are defined by ropey technology and a vivid depiction of the results – but it slips back into one as Avner’s teamalso become targets, and the screenplay sometimes makes clumsy connections and stretches the plot’s authenticity to breaking point. Bana’s stoic endurance is certainly a strong match for his role, and Munich ultimately gets bythrough emphasising that nothing will truly change in a cycleof violence except the year.
No (2012), netflix.com.au
Chile, 1988: the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet has called for a national vote on their own legitimacy, giving the brutalised opposition a foothold complete with matching television access. The no vote’s chosen advertising creative is Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), an apolitical former exile who has come home to look after his son due to his dissident ex-wife’s tenuous freedom. An apolitical skateboarder – “Free” is literally the name of a soft drink he’s pitching to represent – Rene refuses to highlight the past’s bloody injustices, instead crafting a campaign based on populism and happiness; and he does such a good job that he becomes an enemy of the state. Chile’s turbulent history in the years after the democratic Allende government was deposed in 1973 has been a recurring touchstone for filmmaker Pablo Larrain, but where the likes of 2008’s Tony Manero dug directly into the era’s diseased pathology, No uses playfulness to explore the psychology of repression, highlighting the uncertain mindset that totalitarianism brings to bear – the opposition don’t know what result is more dangerous: winning or losing. Rene (a composite of historical figures) is faced by his own boss, Pinochet loyalist Lucho (Alfredo Castro), and the two productively pitch together to a soap opera before fighting for the soul of their country.
Craig Mathieson