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Sydney Morning Herald

Monday July 7, 2008

Greg Hassall

Hi-5

Nine, 3.30pm

This perky local program, which has been entertaining two- to eight-year-olds since 1999, returns for a 10th season. Time takes its toll on the most harmonious groups, however, and the original members of Hi-5 are gradually falling by the wayside. Kathleen de Leon left in 2006, replaced by Sun Park, and this series sees the fashionably dishevelled Stevie Nicholson take over from Tim Harding. Since this series was shot, Charli Delaney has also moved on.

Not that any of this will concern the littlies - they just want to see chirpy people performing happy songs and stories. In fact, after 10 years you'd want a bit of cast turnover. Am I the only person who finds grinning fortysomethings in skivvies a bit creepy?

Living On The Coast

TVS, 7.30pm

Community station TVS (UHF channel 31, analog only) contains some gems and this travel and lifestyle show is one of them. It's a little clunky and rough around the edges but in a genre typified by slick commerciality, that's not a bad thing. And it has a first-class host in Julia Achilleos.

Tonight, the team visits the area around Jervis Bay on the NSW South Coast. It includes a cooking segment, lots of nice scenery and interviews with former ABC newsreader Richard Morecroft and tennis great Evonne Goolagong Cawley. It's refreshingly free of plugs for resorts and holiday packages and even features a discussion about overdevelopment in Huskisson, something you'd never see on Getaway or The Great Outdoors, for fear of spooking the sponsors.

South Park

SBS, 8.30pm

First aired in 2005, this South Park episode famously irritated Tom Cruise and caused Isaac Hayes (who plays Chef) to quit the show over its mockery of Scientology. Hayes's reaction seemed excessive, given the show has attacked all religions, but Cruise's ire was unsurprising, as this is a savage - and very funny - attack on his religion and sexuality.

When Stan is audited at the local Church of Scientology he achieves such high "thetan" levels he is hailed as the reincarnation of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Devotees, including Cruise and John Travolta, descend on his house but when Stan says he prefers Leonardo DiCaprio to Cruise, the actor is devastated and locks himself in Stan's closet. This sets up the show's extended punchline - variations on the phrase, "Tom Cruise [and later John Travolta] won't come out of the closet."

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone taunt the notoriously litigious Church of Scientology mercilessly, deriding its beliefs and having Stan conclude that "Scientology is just a big fat global scam". It ends with Stan challenging Scientology supporters to sue him, followed by a list of credits comprised solely of the names John and Jane Smith.

For all its venom, this episode contains a typically sensible message, advising we not let our desire for answers about who we are cloud our better judgment. Classic South Park, really.

Media Watch

ABC1, 9.20pm

Jonathan Holmes got off to a shaky start when he took over as Media Watch host this year. His initial attempts at jocularity looked painfully uncomfortable, as if someone was standing off camera pointing a gun at him. But he has warmed to the role and his attempts at humour look increasingly natural.

Holmes said at the outset that he wanted to look as though he was having a good time and he now does. It's a smart approach. The show's criticism is no less acerbic than in recent years but Holmes's affability softens the impact and makes the show seem less po-faced.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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