Tv Previews

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday July 3, 2006

CLARE MORGAN

The Insiders Guide to Love

SBS, 8.30pm

Love takes many forms: unrequited love, dangerous love, the love of being in love, the guy who has two lovers (and children) but can't choose between them.

This excellent drama from New Zealand takes seven seemingly disparate people who are thrown together after a bizarre incident that we get a partial glimpse of at the start. The story, told in flashback, takes a while to unfold, but as the characters are revealed and their lives intersect, it becomes engrossing.

The dialogue is snappy, the performances believable and there's lots of that jerky camera work so beloved of directors after that gritty, real-life look. Can't anyone afford a tripod any more?

H20 - Just Add Water

Ten, 4pm

Trapped on a mysterious island off the Gold Coast after a naughty nautical adventure, Emma (Claire Holt), Cleo (Phoebe Tonkin) and Rikki (Cariba Heine) swim to freedom through an underwater channel. But the full moon has a magical effect and the girls now find that contact with water turns them into maids - and not the parking-metre variety.Even better, each has a magical power over the H20 - just the ticket when they're being hassled by the resident bad boy.

This first episode sets up the story, so it's occasionally slow but there is the promise of many adventures to come.

It's a quality piece of Australian children's television - it looks good, the three female leads are engaging and there's some lovely underwater photography.

Message Stick

ABC, 6pm

This is the first of a two-part series that delves into the experiences of indigenous people who moved away from their families and communities in the country in the 1950s and '60s.

Writer, director and producer Ivan Sen has unearthed fascinating archival footage that eloquently explains why they were so keen to leave - rampant prejudice and a lack of employment, education and housing. Not that the towns and cities gave much respite, as some arrivals explain 40 years later. Perhaps the most depressing aspect is the realisation that we're still going over the same arguments and issues.

Sketchmen

TVS, 9pm

What's a fair way to assess a community-television show? Apply the same standards as those for the better-resourced networks or make allowances for the production being put together by well-intentioned amateurs on the smell of an oily rag?

We'll have a bob each way. Credit to the show's four Sydney writers and actors for having a go. Sadly, intentions aren't enough. Sorry, guys, but the ideas are lame and the acting veers into high-school-end-of-year-show territory. The sketches need to be shorter and snappier. And, er, funny. Seriously, you're in trouble when you make Comedy Inc look intellectual.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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