Top 10 TV picks: September 8-14

The Press

SENASTIONAL: Episode two of the week's most sensational drama series screens on Wednesday.

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Television critic Philip Wakefield chooses the best shows on the box this week, for Tuesday, September 8 to Monday, September 14.

1 Big Love: The final of a drama series  that deserves more tender loving care  than scheduling such as this. The good  news is a fourth season has been  commissioned; the bad news is Big  Love's being replaced by first-run  episodes of another top drama, The  Closer.
TV One, 11pm Tuesday.

2 The Riches: US spin on Cape Wrath (aka Meadowlands), starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as modern- day gypsies who move into a swanky McMansion and assume the dead owners' identities. Funny, creepy, beguiling.
C4, 9.25pm, Monday.

3 Harper's Island: C4's Monday makeover continues with a new whodunit that the doyen of America's TV critics, Tom Shales, called "a cunningly constructed, habit-forming mystery that makes for an intriguing departure from normal episodic television". Follows the premiere of My Name Is Earl's fourth and final season.
C4, 8.30pm, Monday.

4 Prime Presents: 9/11: The Phone Calls From the Towers: Movie-length British documentary that uses, for the first time, audio recordings of people trapped in the Twin Towers and shows how they've helped the victims' friends and relatives cope with their grief.
Prime, 8.35pm, Sunday.

5 Islam: The Empire of Faith: It was made in 2001 but this is the first time this PBS series about the first 1000 years of Islamic power has screened on New Zealand TV. Part one of three.
History Channel, 7.30pm, Wednesday.

6 The Last Beekeeper: Heartbreaking documentary about the impact of Colony Collapse Disorder on the livelihoods of three North American beekeepers.
Documentary Channel. 8.30pm, Sunday.

7 True Blood: Talk about a fang- banging feast - episode two of the week's most sensational drama series coincides with Buffy the Vampire Slayer being rerun twice daily on Vibe.
Prime, 9.30pm, Wednesday.

8 This is Civilisation: In the footsteps of Sir Kenneth Clark, Matthew Collings traces mankind's evolution through art, starting with the influence of the gods. Part one of four.
History Channel, 6.30pm, Saturday.

9 What's Really in Our Food? Petra Bagust dishes up more dire titbits about the trade-off between nutrition and convenience.
TV3, 8pm, Tuesday.

10 Crimes That Shook the World: Free-to-air premiere of an acclaimed 2006 British series that opens with an investigation into Australia's Backpack Murders. Next week, it will air opposite TV One's Real Crime slot, which this week is being pre-empted by international netball coverage.
TV3, 9.30pm, Wednesday.

- © Fairfax NZ News