Top 10 TV picks: July 21-27

WHOLE LOTTA LOVING: Big Love returns to TV One on Tuesday nights.

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Television critic Philip Wakefield chooses the best shows on the box this week, for Tuesday, July 21 to Monday, July 27.

1. Big Love: After repeating season two of the fraught, funny polygamy drama about a Mormon businessman with three wives in this slot, TV One has launched season three without fanfare, which, for a drama series of this calibre, is sacrilegious.
TV One, 11pm Tuesday

2. Real Life: Chasing the Ghost: Paul Holmes comes clean with what it’s like to be the parent of a P-addict and asks what’s being done to smoke out pure methamphetamine dealers.
TV One, 9.30pm Tuesday

3. Moonshot: The pick of the commemorative moon landing specials is this stellar movie-length docudrama about the Apollo 11 voyage that hitherto has been overshadowed by the high-stakes drama of the Apollo 13 mission. Hotel Babylon’s Daniel Lapaine, Smallville’s James Marsters and Teachers’ Andrew Lincoln star.
Prime, 8.30pm Sunday

4. Dexter: The bad news is this is season two, which true fans of the serial killer sensation already will have seen on DVD or Sky’s The Box. At least it will look more blood curdling than ever in high definition.
TV3, 9.30pm Thursday

5.  True Stories: Farrah Fawcett: This ABC network ode to the Charlie’s Angels star out-rated three Michael Jackson tributes that screened the same night in the United States.
Prime, 8.30pm Wednesday

6. Law & Order UK: Quipped The Independent of this British spin-off: "Compulsory watching for television genealogists, I would say, but pretty good watching even for those who don’t give a damn about ancestry and pedigree."
TV One, 9.30pm Monday

7. The Wild West: The final in this fascinating season of frontier docudramas investigates what ensued after the gunfight at the OK Corral. True Brits like Liam Cunningham, Christopher Fulford and Nicholas Darrell get to show their true grit."
Documentary Channel, 7.30pm Saturday

8. Millions: A Lottery Story: See why winning millions of dollars in US lotteries isn’t always enriching.
Documentary Channel, 8.30pm Sunday

9. Futurama: C4 is promoting this as "all new" episodes of the sci-fi ‘toon when it’s merely the made-for-DVD movie, Bender’s Big Score, split into four parts. Unlike the 7pm re-runs, it’s in widescreen and has smuttier jokes. Precedes new episodes of American Dad.
C4, 8.30pm Thursday

10. The Late Show With David Letterman: Guests include Tom Arnold (Tuesday), Katherine Heigl (Wednesday), Kevin Spacey (Thursday), Tracy Morgan (Friday) and Vera Farmiga (Monday).
Prime, post-11pm weeknights/3.55pm weekday repeats

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Scott   #1   12:18 pm Jul 21 2009

If this is the best for the week then its a pretty poor look out. I gave up on Big Love - which although its very well done, suffered from always being in bad time slots. Plus its a soap. Dexter - yes ..like that, but its too much like rubber-necking at an accident scene. And Futurama - been there, seen that, got the DVD.

The rest of the list simply re-inforces my opinion that TV programmers wouldn't know quality if it bit them.