FREE TO AIR
The Agony of the Mind, ABC, 9.30pm
It is always a pleasure to welcome a new member of Adam Zwar's excellent Agony series, where celebrities and public figures discuss life's trials and tribulations with a light-hearted touch. This special is concerned with mental health. Deftly handled with the right balance of humour and sincerity, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Dave Hughes, Julia Zemiro, Dawn Fraser and father-and-son team John and Tom Elliot are among those who open up their private experiences with mental hell and heaven.
Thai Street Food with David Thompson, SBS One, 6pm
Remember when television cooking shows featured a daggy kitchen set with ingredients pre-measured in those little glass bowls? Nowadays, not a foodie show exists without a cook or chef travelling the globe to show how cultured they are. The concept might be wearing a little thin but David Thompson's offering does manage to add a little spice - figuratively and literally - to his travels around Thailand. The food looks delicious, but what is best about this show is that instead of talking about locals in front of them, which often appears patronising in some shows, Thompson interviews vendors. It is good to learn about Thai food from the experts themselves, and Thompson realises that.
Beauty and the Geek, Seven, 8pm
Much like The Bachelor and all its sexism, this is car-crash television at its best. This sixth season starts in Las Vegas, where the geeks have been flown to meet their US beauties. The geeks have been amped up to look like Shrek, with glasses. Not to be outdone in the stereotype department, the beauties are the human equivalent of a packet of Smarties. The geeks are essentially told they are social failures. It is the beauties' job to transform these man-boys into stylish love assassins. Watching the geeks try to gain the same social skills as a golden retriever and the beauties identify any city outside of the US is a delight. This two-hour season premiere sets up a beauty with her geek, with one couple to be thrown out and the rest flown back to Australia for the rest of the season. The beauties' job descriptions are brilliant - "aspiring beautician", "gymnastics teacher" and "wannabe trophy wife". This is the most glorious TV show ever. Once you watch the first episode, you will never want to watch anything else ever again.
Alana Schetzer
PAY TV
Invasion Earth, National Geographic, 8.30pm
Well, here's something rare - a documentary series that takes a suitably sceptical approach to the subject of UFO sightings. And one that provides plenty of pertinent information about such things as sensory illusions in aviation, radar anomalies and social psychology. This episode begins with the tragic story of Frederick Valentich, whose light plane disappeared over Bass Strait in 1978. Moments before Valentich disappeared, he reported being harassed by a strange aircraft. While UFO enthusiasts lean towards extraterrestrial explanations, an aviation expert interviewed here points to the possibility of Valentich having been unwittingly flying upside-down. This could have caused him to misidentify his plane's reflection in the water and then to stall. Tonight's other segments look at sightings of mysterious lights over Texas, and near a Peruvian jungle town.
Grand Designs Australia, LifeStyle, 8.30pm
A new season begins with Melbourne architect Peter Maddison heading to Brisbane, where builder Todd is building himself a three-storey family home using 31 shipping containers. It's an interesting design born of financial necessity, but the build proves much tougher than Todd had expected. Maddison is intrigued, but wisely reserves his judgment until the house is finished.
Brad Newsome
MOVIES
No Strings Attached (2011), Eleven, 9.30pm
In this amusing romantic comedy, star Natalie Portman and writer Elizabeth Meriwether (television's New Girl) strive to put aside the conventions of the genre. As an ambitious intern at a Los Angeles hospital, Portman's Emma is a smart, focused woman, who doesn't desire a relationship. "Sometimes my neck gets sore," she mockingly confesses to Ashton Kutcher's Adam, "because my brain is so big". Initially he's merely the source of sexual release, without a time-consuming date or the need for breakfast, and that's about right for a character played by the Two and a Half Men star. But expectations, and veteran director Ivan Reitman, bring the story around, and Emma must care for Adam even as he walks away. Despite the fact that she's the catch, it's Emma who must go through romantic comedy contrition, with Portman proving that she can master the genre, right down to the drunken outburst and the heartfelt admission of true love.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), Premiere Movies (pay TV), 4.55pm
The dystopic shock of 2012's The Hunger Games, where children from the provinces of a future American dictatorship fight to the televised death to entertain those in the capital, had given way to blockbuster thrills by the time of this tidily executed sequel. Once again built around the roiling commitment of Jennifer Lawrence's bow and arrow-wielding Katniss Everdeen, the plot has the teenager being returned to the deadly competition as a means of lessening her inspirational power for those opposed to the rule of President Snow (a deliciously malevolent Donald Sutherland). The mechanics of the romantic triangle - between Katniss and local boys played by Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson - are doleful compared to the defiant political vigour the heroine comes to embody. Francis Lawrence (Water for Elephants) took over from Gary Ross, and his direction is anonymous but agreeable, which suits the young adult novel adaptation.
Craig Mathieson
