Muriel's Wedding (World, 10.25 pm) was not just a well-acted comedy, it hit a nerve among some women viewers who found it too cruel to be really funny.
The reaction was interesting, because this is not a film about being unpopular at school, it is a film about triumphing over the adversity of being the most unpopular girl at school.
In the early scenes set in her hometown of Porpoise Spit, Muriel does suffer. When her ghastly so-called friends reject her telling her 'we don't want you Muriel' her tearful response 'I'm not nothing!' is a plea for pity almost everyone can relate to. But very quickly she leaves the world of listening to Abba songs alone and begins to have fun.
She even gets to humiliate some of the hags who humiliated her. Muriel gets out, the harpies do not.
So why do so many women find this film so unbearable? Even successful beautiful ones who have also, metaphorically speaking, left their Porpoise Spit behind as well? It all says something sad about how horrible it is to be a vulnerable teenage girl.
South Park (Cable Entertainment Channel 12, tomorrow, 11 pm) is a cartoon from the same kind of sick minds who produced Beavis And Butthead and King Of The Hill. Some people say it even surpasses those shows - and mean that as a compliment.
It is certainly not mainstream television, nor a cute kids' show, and has offended audiences all over the United States.