tv previews
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday November 16, 2009
Gardening AustraliaABC1, 6.30pmLife after Peter Cundall continues for the dappled bunch of hosts guiding Gardening Australia through its 20th season. In this episode, Jane Edmanson shows how to prune a range of native plants and explains the best time to do it, John Patrick visits a carbon-neutral garden in Canberra, Angus Stewart controls pests and diseases in the garden and Tino Carnevale plants some new fruit and vegetables in the vegie garden. Interestingly, he's planting a banana tree, a coffee plant, two types of pumpkins and lebanese zucchini instead of the regular ol' tomato vine and parsley bush. In true Gardening Australia style, it's lo-fi, hands-on and packed with practical, realistic advice rather than bells, whistles and Backyard Blitz-style merriment.Iron ChefSBS One, 8.30pmA Saturday night in front of the box befits a bit of mindless drivel such as Iron Chef, which delivers up equal parts eccentric humour, entertainment and utter ridiculousness. Repeats from the show's six-year run remain on high rotation, continually transporting us to flamboyant host Takeshi Kaga's culinary thunderdome.In this episode, Yokohama chef Masanobu Watabe, who claims he runs the kitchen of his 22-seater restaurant entirely by himself, challenges resident Iron Chef Italian, Hiroyuki Sakai. Watabe insists on competing without assistants and, eight minutes in, Sakai tells his to leave the kitchen stadium too. Absurdly expensive peaches are the key ingredient, some costing up to $40 each, and the peach battle goes right down to the wire with some typically crazy concoctions.If you can handle the hopelessly dramatic music, camp American dubbing and Asian game show eccentricities, you'll revel in the sideline commentary (which even delves into Watabe's failing marriage), competitor baiting and marvellous cooking techniques. MasterChef, Top Chef and the rest have never been able to match this show's outlandish extravagance and quirkiness.MythbustersSBS One, 7.30pmAdam Savage and Jamie Hyneman test the classic physics textbook theory that a bullet fired and a bullet dropped will hit the ground at the same time and Kari, Tory and Grant test whether it's possible to actually "knock the socks off" a human being by applying a sucker punch, a bulldozing pendulum or 500 tonnes of explosives.The real-life science in Mythbusters is always fascinating and the copious amounts of money spent busting myths is mindboggling. But is anyone else baffled as to why TV producers still think cheesy on-screen banter is a) realistic or b) enjoyable? I dislike being spoken to like a three-year old as much as the next person, I'm assuming.RageABC1, 11.10pmA 1990s music spectacular? That's enough to make my '90s-raised self cancel any plans, stay in for the night and bring the party to me. Australian rock group Spiderbait have guest-programmed tonight's Rage with a top selection of bands from their heyday such as Tumbleweed, Metallica and X-Ray Spex, as well as clips from the 1970s and '80s, such as Ram Jam's Black Betty (a song Spiderbait covered in 2004) and Pink Floyd's Echoes. There are "first gig" stories from Spiderbait members and a tribute to Cosmic Psychos, Magic Dirt and the Meanies, all contemporaries who have had a band member die in the last few years. Following this is an Ausmusic month special featuring all-Australian '90s music, including the line-up from the first Homebake and bands such as Jebediah, Silverchair and Regurgitator.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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