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Brooklyn Nine-Nine, SBS One, 10pm
This warm-hearted and wacky cop comedy merrily continues to go its own way. The case under investigation involves the illegal steroids trade at a gym, but the real business is a concern by Jake (Andy Samberg) that his sergeant, Terry (Terry Crews), could be injured while working under cover. Meanwhile, Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) takes to his administration job at the gym with gusto. Built around Andy Samberg's man-child character, who is both a goofball and a surprisingly effective detective, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is happily bouncing through its first season, buoyed by a terrific ensemble.
Tyrant (premiere), Ten, 10.30pm
This is a clumsy mix of family melodrama and Middle East politics. Barry Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner) is the second son of the ruler of the fictional country of Abbudin. He's fled his homeland and made a life for himself as a paediatrician in America, but he's persuaded to return with his wife, Molly (Jennifer Finnigan), and their children for a family wedding. Barry (aka Bassan) is conflicted about the visit, as his father is a ruthless dictator and his older brother, Jamal (Ashraf Barhom), is a volatile thug. That Jamal's villainy is writ so large is a sign of the drama's lamentably ham-fisted approach. Created and written by Gideon Raff (Homeland, Prisoners of War), who should know better, Tyrant is an explosive mix but the opener doesn't engender confidence that it will be handled with care.
Parks and Recreation, Seven, 11.30pm
With the election recall under way, indomitable Pawnee councilwoman Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) is nervier than usual. So the self-appointed Leslie Knope Emotional Support Task Force of Ann (Rashida Jones) and Ben (Adam Scott) swings into action to bolster its leader, endeavouring to divert her from her election worries. Meanwhile, Ron (Nick Offerman) finds himself the subject of baffling attention from style guru Annabel Porter (Erinn Hayes), who's excited by a chair that he's made. The pronouncements of guru Annabel, "a simple former phonebook model who found her calling", enable jokes about quinoa and goji berries, and multiple well-aimed shots at air-headed arbiters of fashion. This isn't one of the better episodes, but manages to do what this appealing comedy does best - depicting a sweetly supportive community of oddballs.
Debi Enker
PAY TV
The Walking Dead, FX, 1.30pm, 8.30pm
The Walking Dead returns with a blast of horror and gore that's no less confronting for being entirely customary. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the gang are locked in a shipping container at Terminus - which turns out to be anything but the refuge it pretended to be. Everyone's trying to fashion what makeshift weapons they can, but the Terminus creeps are way ahead of them. Before they know it Rick, Daryl (Norman Reedus), Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Bob (Lawrence Gilliard Jr) have been bound, gagged and dragged into a new kind of nightmare. With Carol (Melissa McBride) and Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) poorly placed to rescue them, things look grim. But life in a zombie apocalypse is nothing if not unpredictable, and the episode provides some moments to cheer, along with plenty of set-piece spectacle and a reminder that the only thing more dangerous than being an established character in The Walking Dead is being a new one.
Brad Newsome
MOVIES
High Crimes (2002), GEM, 8.30pm
There was a brief moment in time when the lovely Ashley Judd was in seemingly every thriller being made in America, including Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy, Eye of the Beholder and High Crimes. They are a varied lot (Aussie Stephan Elliott's Eye of the Beholder is easily the best), but Judd is wonderful in them all.
In Carl Franklin's High Crimes, Judd's Claire Kubik is told that her adored husband is not who she thinks he is, but rather a ruthless killer. As is too often the case, Judd is the film's sole virtue.
The Maltese Falcon (1941), TCM (pay TV), 8.30pm
Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel The Maltese Falcon opens with Samuel Spade's secretary, Effie Perine, telling him, "There's a girl wants to see you. Her name's Wonderly ... You'll want to see her ... she's a knockout."
"Shoo her in, darling", says Spade. "Shoo her in." And thus begins what is still regarded by many as the greatest American detective story ever written.
Wonderly has a missing sister and needs help, a request that soon gets a man killed and forces Spade, whose principal interest is the next cutie walking through the door, to head out onto the San Francisco streets and deal with duplicitous thieves and killers – along with the scariest femme fatale in fiction.
The novel was first filmed in 1931 (with a far-too-sleazy Spade) and again five years later as Satan Met a Lady with Bette Davis. The Maltese Falcon would never have attained its iconic cinematic status today had not Warner Bros. asked director John Huston to re-make it. His 1941 version, with Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade and Mary Astor as Wonderly, is still regarded by many as the best detective film ever made.
This is a surprisingly brilliant film, surprising because it was Huston's first movie, Bogart was not yet a star, and Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre not yet the cult figures they would become.
Scott Murray