Channel hop
Winter is upon us and we can expect a mix of new shows, old favourites and a resurrected 1990s icon.
For Heroes fans the wait is over, as season three kicks off (Star World; Thursdays at 10pm) with the threat of apocalypse oozing out of the screen.
All your old buddies are here, with the psychopathic Sylar (Zachary Quinto) out to kill, maim and absorb the special powers of his enemies. Good guys Nathan (Adrian Pasdar), Peter (Milo Ventimiglia), Matt (Greg Grunberg) and Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) are ready to take on a group of super villains that has escaped from prison to wreak revenge on an unsuspecting world. Don't expect many character surprises this season. Creator Tim Kring says the series will 'concentrate on the core characters we've had for two seasons'. But he does hint that some of the good guys might not be as good as you think.
America's favourite zip code is back - 90210, a spin-off of the 1990 teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210. The faces are new but the format is the same, with the show (Star World; Tuesdays at 9pm) revolving around the lives of teenagers with more money than sense and with looks that only a rich father can buy. At the centre of the series is the Wilson family; Annie (Shenae Grimes) and her adopted brother, Dixon (Tristan Wilds), mother Debbie (Lori Loughlin) and father Harry (Rob Estes). The family move from the farmlands of Kansas to the badlands of West Beverly Hills, where Harry gets the school principal's job. Once at her new school Annie sets out to make friends then falls out and makes up with school rebel Erin (Jessica Stroup). Meanwhile, Dixon gets into a rough-house with a school football player and is almost grounded until hunky jock Ethan (Dustin Milligan) gets him off the hook. You also get to see Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty, stars of the original show, joining in the fun.
Fox's FX Channel adds some much-needed edge to a programme line-up largely made up of Peep Show, JAG and Frasier reruns. Two quality shows premier this week that pay homage to the archetypal hard-drinking, fast-talking and emotionally crippled man about town. Californication (FX; Mondays at 11pm) returns David Duchovny (pictured; X-Files) to the small screen. As anti-hero Hank Moody - a New York transplant to Los Angeles whose writing career and personal relationships took a wrong turn down a dead end street somewhere - Duchovny is now tackling emotional demons rather than aliens. A womanising cad still desperately in love with his former muse and the mother of his only child, Moody struggles to clean up his act enough for her to trust him again. Duchovny delivers line after breathtaking line - ones that any aspiring cynic/ladies' man will want steal.
Mad Men (FX; Wednesdays at 11pm) resurrects the glamour (and pre-women's lib ethos) of 1960s New York in an original drama about the lives of Madison Avenue's powerful ad men, whose business is to sell everything from cigarettes to presidential candidates to the American public.
Dark, smoky and boozy, Mad Men may single-handedly bring back pomade and bourbon-drinking at 11am in the office.
