WEEK 37 Saturday 12 September - Friday 18 September 2009

TV2 jump-starts the week with ordinary Kiwis attempting extraordinary feats in NZ Smashes Guinness World Records on Sunday at 7pm. Tune in to see the Whakatane Top Town team taking to a piano with sledge hammers as they attempt to break a world record, and Christchurch contortionist Bendy Skye attempts to squeeze through a tennis racquet.

On Monday at 8.30pm, The Mentalist sees Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) investigating the case of a murdered casino owner, using his mentalist skills to ultimately entrap the killer, and win big at the card tables. In ER: The Final Season at 9.30pm, Morris (Scott Grimes) takes Pratt's brother under his wing and teaches him some risky medical procedures, Gates (John Stamos) oversteps his bounds with Sam (Linda Cardellini), and Banfield (Angela Bassett) undermines Neela (Parminda Nagra) in front of her interns.

In Friday's Gary Unmarried, Gary (Jay Mohr) struggles to keep his old and new lives separate, when he notices his ex-wife Allison (Paula Marshall) and new girlfriend Vanessa (Jaime King) bonding, and worries that Allison will taint Vanessa's impression of him.

Drama - Gossip Girl, Sunday 13 September, 3pm: It's prom season, this week on Gossip Girl, and Blair (Leighton Meester) looks set to spend the evening as she had always envisioned it, with Nate (Chace Crawford) by her side, but is Chuck (Ed Westwick) really out of the picture for good?

Since she was 12 years old, Blair has dreamed about and planned out her prom night, down to the last minute detail. But things don't go quite as planned. When her corsage disappears, her dress gets ruined, and their limo and hotel suite booking gets cancelled, Nate suspects Chuck of sabotage. But is Chuck truly to blame?

Ed Westwick talks about the contentious relationship his character, Chuck has with his best friend Nate, fuelled on by their rivalry over Blair, musing whether this is the end of their long friendship.

"There is that relationship and that history of the two best friends," Westwick tells the TV Guide USA, "but there is always that possibility of them getting back together."

The dark horse among Gossip Girl's trust fund children, Chuck has always remained inaccessible to the viewer, except for his brief and emotional dealings with Blair, in which he is painfully withheld.

Westwick says it is the multiple layers of Chuck that make him such a beguiling character. "He has this dark side which is an interesting angle because the other characters are a nicer bunch, and Chuck has this demonic, evil side."

But when Chuck is with Blair, we see a softer side of him. "He does help other people out," Westwick is quick to point out, "and then he goes back to his old ways with the whole love affair with Blair. He's actually in love with her. He thinks he's found the one."

It would seem that in this case the old adage of 'opposites attract' is incorrect. "They are very much the same, though the extent of her attraction toward him is not as much as his attraction for her," says Westwick. "To put two characters like Chuck and Blair together and to see them go at it and see what they fire up can definitely provide very, very good entertainment," he finishes.

Also this week, Gossip Girl goes back to the 80's in a special flashback, and meets a young Lily van der Woodsen, which adds an interesting perspective on Serena's recent run-in with the law. Also featuring a performance by No Doubt.

If you have missed an episode, full episodes of Gossip Girl will be available free online 12 hours after the show has aired on TV2. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the 'ondemand' button.

Local Reality - Island Wars, Sunday 13 September, 7.30pm: Tonight on TV2, it's bigger than the Bledisloe in the ultimate battle between Australia and New Zealand - the Island Wars finals!

It's do or die for our last remaining Kiwi, the mighty Logan Swann. Up against three Australians, Logan faces a series of daunting challenges in his quest for trans-Tasman domination. in the other camp, the flirtation between Craig and Jaime seems to have come unstuck, and Craig is in the girls' bad books for getting Jaime into the final over Amelia.

"He realises he's been had by Jaime," explains Executive producer Maria Handas. "The blonde party girl says that she didn't ask him to get her into the final, and frankly 'if he wants a wife, he needs to look for one on the farm.' Boy do things get tense in camp. His mates warned him about girls like her and he fell for it hook line and sinker."

And as Aussie 'funny chick' Amelia helpfully puts it, "farm dogs and city poodles don't make good babies."

Back in the game, and the finalists have to face Slugstocks, one of the most gruesome challenges yet, which sees the group locked into stocks with their foot just over a hairpin trigger, which, when touched, releases all kinds of unpleasantness.

"When they drop their leg onto the trigger, they end up covered in dirty, smelly, slimy sea slugs that excrete what looks like intestines - it's nasty," Handas explains. "The challenge is intense. You could cut the air with a knife - the focus, the determination, the deep concentration. You just want our man Logan to make it through."

For Handas, the show tested her impartiality to the utmost. "Finally we find out who has what it takes to win it for their country - this is the grand finale, someone will be going home with all that money, and as unprejudiced, unbiased, and neutral as we are - lets hope it's not an Aussie, and it's Logan Swann!"

After the ickiness of the sea-slugs, the finalists will have a mad dash across an obstacle course to get their hands on the cash. Who will prevail and bag the $25,000 grand prize, and, more importantly, who will claim the ultimate glory for their country?

If you have missed an episode, full episodes of Island Wars will be available free online 12 hours after the show has aired on TV2. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the 'ondemand' button.

Local Drama - Shortland Street, Weekdays, 7pm: Brooke Freeman (Beth Allen) faces the wrath of Maxwell Avia (Robbie Magasiva), this week on Shortland Street.

When Brooke finds out that Maxwell has suffered a large loss during a gambling session, she comes to the realisation that he can no longer pay the rent, and she confronts him about it.

"Let's just say Maxwell doesn't take kindly to having Brooke point out that he really is in dire straits," she says. "His pride is wounded as it is, he definitely doesn't need Brooke to tell him he has hit rock bottom. His anger is as much at himself as it is at Brooke, but it's most definitely intimidating for her."

Meanwhile, away from her high-heel strutting Shortland Street character, Beth Allen is sinking her teeth into a different kind of role this month, starring alongside her real life partner Charlie McDermott in the play, Killer Joe.

A world away from her character Brooke on the Street, this is a savagely funny, pitch black comedy, directed by local talent Cameron Rhodes. Leave the kids at home though, as this play is full of adult themes.

"It's a totally different character to Brooke Freeman," says Allen. "She's going to be slopping round in T-shirts and no make-up, not strutting around in high heels."

So is it difficult for Allen to balance her demanding role on Shortland Street with theatre performances?

"It's warming me up a lot better than I thought it would," says Allen. "It keeps me performance ready. Acting is like a muscle - the more you warm them the better they work."

If you have missed an episode, full episodes of Shortland Street will be available free online 12 hours after the show has aired on TV2. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the 'watch episode' button.

Drama - Fringe, Wednesday 16 September, 8.30pm: A conspiracy theorist gets a glimpse into the Pattern, this week on Fringe, and Olivia is horrified when a grizzly case hits too close to home.

Called in to investigate the death of a car salesman who was found in a pool of 'goo,' the trio discover that this is not an isolated case. When Walter discovers that the 'goo' is brain matter, the trio tries to figure out how the killer can liquefy human brains. As the deaths pile up, the investigation reveals a common thread linking the victims together in an unthinkable manner.

Revealing more of the Pattern each episode, creator JJ Abrams says that while they have an ultimate plan for the series, the show drives itself.

"The crazy thing is, as you work on it, you start to get resistance, not from an actor and not from a director, or even other writers on the show, but the show just sort of defines its shape in a strange way."

Admitting that the ideas in Fringe can be fairly fantastical, analysing new and often gruesome phenomena in each episode, Abrams says that it is the humour in Fringe, which keeps the audience connected.

"I do think that one of the great things about the show is the kind of inherent humour in the insanity of it. If the show takes itself too seriously, then I'm afraid people will laugh at it. But if the show has humour inside of it, then the show itself is embracing and admitting to the preposterous nature of many of the episodes and stories."

This week, work finds Olivia at home when her young niece, Ella is implicated as a victim in the event they are investigating.

Abrams says that while Olivia is ostensibly a fairly closed character, the addition of Olivia's sister and daughter as housemates has began to reveal more about the private side of her personality.

"Bringing in Olivia's sister has given her opportunities to be warmer to someone. She's a character who admitted in the show that she doesn't really have friends, so I think that the story for Olivia over the course of time is one of a guarded, protective woman who in due course is, in a sense, forced to be more vulnerable, and something that happens in the next season will force this further, but it is an evolution for her."

If you have missed an episode, full episodes of Fringe will be available free online 12 hours after the show has aired on TV2. Go to tvnz.co.nz and click the 'ondemand' button.

Drama - Ghost Whisperer, Thursday 17 September, 8.30pm: While Melinda prepares for her upcoming nuptials, she still finds the time to help out the undead, in the two-hour season finale of Ghost Whisperer, tonight on TV2.

In the first half of the season finale, Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) encounters a teenager who's become enchanted by a ghost that has tapped into her vampire fantasies, and she must come to her aid before the girl becomes a ghost herself.

Following on, the mysterious 'Book of Changes' is introduced - an esoteric tome that will have far-reaching consequences for the next season. In an interview with TV Guide USA, executive producer P.K. Simonds reveals the book's significance.

"It has something to do with the Watchers," he explains. "It has information about Melinda and the people close to her, and a new person in her life, who will be more important to her than anyone else."

Not only does Melinda have the wedding to contend with, which is fast being taken over by an enthusiastic wedding planner, she also has a potential pregnancy looming. What's more, she is being plagued by dreams that seem to threaten the life of the unborn child, nightmares which suggest that her baby could have a different set of powers from her own.

After Jim's death earlier this season, and his subsequent reincarnation in Sam's body, viewers will be left wondering who the father of the baby actually is. Simonds remains tight-lipped about the paternity of the baby, but is convinced that viewers will be delighted with the writer's carefully plotted story.

"The entire season was built and designed and carefully engineered to give this particular episode the biggest possible punch," he explains, "and the best payoff to our audience - especially the loyal viewers who stuck it out."

Elsewhere, there's a tragic end for one of the characters, which highlights "the dangers that lie ahead for Melinda's young family," Simonds hints. "Next season will explore the dark side: who lives there and what they want."