John Byrne’s TV choices for the week ahead (Dates covered: Saturday Apr 04-Friday Apr 10)
Mad Men returns for its final seven episodes, The Zoo is also back, and it's time to say goodbye to Fortitude and Moone Boy.
Pick of the week
Mad Men, Thursday, Sky Atlantic
The greatest TV show that no one watches returns for its final run of seven episodes. Coming from the late 1950s up to a decade later, Mad Men covered perhaps the most dramatic decade of the 20th Century in terms of how much people's lives changed, moving from the stiff adult world of post-WWII America to the free-spirited youth-oriented 1960s counter culture.
These last seven episodes are collectively called The End of an Era, and will conclude the story of troubled ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his Madison Avenue colleagues. With details of the final storyline a closely guarded secret, there are no details of what's coming up. But chances are there won't be a happy ending.
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Star of the week
Catriona Balfe
Outlander, Tuesday, RTÉ2
A former model who was hugely successful, Dublin-born Catriona Balfe had originally planned to act, so she quit the catwalk, relocated to Los Angeles, took up acting classes and auditioned.
Balfe has appeared in films such as Super 8, Now You See Me and Escape Plan, but in September 2013 she was cast as Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser, the lead character on the Starz television series Outlander, based on the novels written by Diana Gabaldon.
Outlander blends romance, science fiction, history and adventure as it follows a married WWII combat nurse who finds herself back in time to 1743. As the first season resumes, Jamie and the Highlanders rescue Claire from Black Jack Randall. Back at the castle, politics threaten to tear Clan MacKenzie apart and Jamie’s scorned lover, Laoghaire, attempts to win him back.
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Starting this week
The Zoo, Thursday, RTÉ One
Back for a sixth season, The Zoo will once again showcase the passion and expertise the team at Dublin Zoo has for the animals in their care. Expectations soar with the announcement of three elephant pregnancies, crucial for the conservation efforts surrounding the Asian elephant. The show follows the progress of the herd, the momentous three successful births and watches on as the new elephant calves enjoy their first play time with each other.
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The unemployables, Thursday, RTÉ2
New series in which each week Darren Kennedy and Jennifer Maguire take two unemployed young people under their wings. First up are 23-year-old Waterford Student Chloe Dalton-O’ Neill and 19-year-old Jamie-Lee Connery, from Limerick.
The Island with Bear Grylls, Wednesday, Channel 4
Back for a second run, this time the survival challenge attempts to discover whether not just British men, but also if British women have what it takes to survive when pushed to the limits of human endurance. 14 British women are abandoned on one remote desert island in the Pacific Ocean, while 14 British men inhabit another, separate island. They are completely alone, filming everything themselves, with only a handful of basic tools and the clothes they stand up in. The story of each island will be told in separate episodes, with episodes from the Women's Island airing the following day.
Ending this Week
Stella, Friday, Sky 1
The finale promises to be a lively affair, what with the least traditional wedding ever seen on television. A bride and groom dressed, respectively, as Cleopatra and Antony. Big Alan and Celia nail their fancy dress theme as they tie the knot in front of their nearest and dearest. The only problem is how they’re going to pay for their big day.
Stella's Ruth Jones talks about season 4:
Big Star's Little Star, Wednesday, UTV Ireland
Stephen Mulhearn ends this season's run with DJ Jo Whiley and her six-year-old daughter, Dominic Brunt from Emmerdale competes with his son Danny, and Countdown's Nick Hewer is joined by his grandson Theo.
Drama of the week
Fortitude, Thursday, Sky Atlantic
The chilly thriller concludes with what's promised to be a dramatic and emotional finale. Vincent and Natalie’s investigation into the gruesome events that have occurred in the town over recent weeks leads Vincent into a life-threatening situation, while Markus offers an alternative theory on what is plaguing Fortitude. Dan and Hildur launch a desperate hunt for Jason as the need to locate the mammoth carcass escalates and, out in the wilderness, Eric and Yuri go head to head. With events taking an unexpected turn, Dan makes a devastating decision.
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Comedy of the week
Moone Boy, Monday, Sky 1
In the concluding season three episode of the award-winning comedy, Martin discovers an unusual connection when he and Sean realise old age has opened the door for the return of Grandad’s childhood imaginary friend, George Gershwin. Summer, meanwhile, is just around the corner, meaning exams loom for all the kids. As Trisha seeks peace and quiet away from the crowded family home, Martin takes an unusual approach to swotting up on the Irish Civil War - in which Godzilla played an important part, apparently.
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On Demand
The Returned, Netflix
Superb and utterly compelling, this French drama is one of the finest shows of recent years. Les Revenants (to give it its original title) tells the tale of a small mountain community that is inexplicably rocked when several dead locals come back to life.
It's based on the 2004 French film of the same name and the series debuted in 2012 and its first season consisted of eight episodes. A second season is in production, and it simply can't come soon enough.
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Documentary of the week
Camden Chaos: Reality Bites, Wednesday, RTÉ2
This ob-doc features the liveliest, most socially mixed area of Dublin: the Portobello/Camden Mile stretching from Aungier Street to Rathmines Bridge. The programme sets out to captures the personalities and tensions bubbling away in a Dublin neighbourhood that has changed from a homely strip of butchers and street traders to Dublin’s go-to ‘partyville’ over the past 20 years.
Filmed over a hectic Saint Valentine’s weekend, the focus in this documentary shifts from a relic of Valentine’s Heart famously mouldering in the local church, to the area’s nightclubs, bars, restaurants, flower sellers, jewellers and sex shop, as well as a newly-opened STD clinic.
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Film of the Week
Heaven's Gate (Friday, TG4)
The film that broke United Artists and got generally mauled when first released, Michael Cimino's spectacular film about the battle between rich and poor in 1890s' Wyoming remains a classic tale of how the less well-off get trampled by the rich and greedy in the name of progress. Nothing's really changed.
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