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Jamie’s Super Food, Ten, 7.30pm
Thank god for Jamie Oliver. I say that in all seriousness because he is one of the few high-profile chefs to have always taken a sensible approach to food. Not for him the ridiculousness of paleo or the madness of quitting sugar, instead it’s eating sensibly and healthily without reaching for a goji berry. In this series, Oliver visits five places that research says have got it right in terms of eating and longevity. Tonight he stops by the Greek island of Ikaria, where he picks wild herbs and gets schooled in the art of pastry rolling by an 88-year-old grandmother, and Okinawa in Japan, where their high consumption of tofu is cited as the reason behind their longevity. It’s top stuff and all translated into accessible recipes.
Chaser’s Media Circus, ABC, 8pm
Coming hard on the heels of Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell and The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, the Chaser’s Media Circus had some big satire shoes to fill this year (FYI: satire shoes are not as large as clown shoes, more a sharp polished brogue). Thankfully they have rocketed along, gifted with the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel demise of Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey’s political careers and the continual stumbles of Bill Shorten. This season has been sharper than last year’s, the games more polished and the guests willing and able (Tom Gleeson should be compulsory on all panel/game shows). As host, Craig Reucassel brings just enough bite, while Chas Liccardello’s continual playing of the ‘‘happy Eric Abetz’’ clip is enough to give you nightmares.
The Amazing Race, Seven, 10.30pm
Hello, my name is Louise Rugendyke and I am an Amazing Race addict. I’ve been hooked since season three in 2002 (winners: Flo and Zach) and still find it hilarious every time host Phil Keoghan mangles the word ‘‘spa’’ in his hybrid New Zealand/American accent (although I wish he wouldn’t wear his pants so high and the shawl-collared jumpers have to go). Unbelievably we’re up to season 27 and even more unbelievably people still sign up for this show without the ability to run/read a map/drive a manual car/ride a bike. Although it’s still earlyish days, my money is on the journalists Kelsey and Joey, while green team Justin and Diana (well, mainly Justin) deserve to be stuck in a taxi heading in the wrong direction.
Louise Rugendyke
PAY TV
Grand Designs Australia, LifeStyle, 8.30pm
Peter Maddison and the Grand Designs Australia team have returned for a new season in typically assured style. Tonight they’re in Launceston, where building-restoration specialist Mark and his wife, Karen, have grand plans for a grand old 1920s hydroelectric power substation in acommanding position on a hill overlooking the city. The cost blowouts begin straight away, but the result is impressive.
MOVIES
Tropic Thunder (2008) ONE, 9.30pm
Easily one of the 10 funniest films of the century and well worth watching just for Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) dancing.
Room 237: Being an Inquiry into The Shining in 9 Parts (2012) SBS 2, 10.45pm
One of the most heralded film openings of 1980 was The Shining, directed by the great Stanley Kubrick and based on a bestseller by Stephen King. It was a movie every film buff just had to see. The problem was that many people, including myself, left the cinema feeling incredibly disappointed. ‘‘We had waited so long and heard so much about this?’’ Calling it a damp squib was to be kind. Yes, there was the odd eccentric who declared it a masterpiece and when asked why would answer cryptically, ‘‘Well, if you don’t understand it, then there’s no point in trying to explain it to you’’, or that hippie classic, ‘‘You’re just not ready’’. You could comfortably think the true believers had no idea why they liked the film, or that they were just adopting a pose.Impenetrable, confusing and utterly dreary, The Shining would have sunk for all time without trace but for the eccentrics. And one is Rodney Ascher, who has made a 102-minute documentary exploring myriad interpretations from people with too much time on their hands. First up, we are told that shots of cans of Calumet Baking Powder mean The Shining is about the genocide of Indigenous Americans, because a calumet is a peace pipe. Next, the ever-present German typewriter reveals the film is about the Holocaust. Or that the Apollo 11 sweater indicates it’s about the moon landing being faked ... and so on. As there is no attempt by Ascher to preference one view over another, to take sides, many an internet scribe has turned furious with rage over such out-there views, with no omniscient authority figure telling them what to believe. But, as all cinema-studies students are – or should be – taught, a film is an open text. That means any conclusion that can be logically drawn from the film’s elements (images, words, gestures) is as valid as any other logically deduced meaning, irrespective of what the filmmakers intended, or were thought to have intended. I have never liked The Shining, but I really like this film. It suggests possible meanings to a film I felt had none. Did it make me want to watch The Shining again and have my eyes potentially opened to its greatness? Absolutely. Did the rewatching prove to be a Damascene moment? Ah, now there’s the rub ...
Scott Murray