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Sydney Morning Herald

Monday December 1, 2008

Brad Newsome

Eureka

Sci Fi, 8.30pm

A quirky new series set in a tiny US town populated by eccentric geniuses and shadowy government types. Manic boffins cook up big explosions in their basements, kids scrawl long and complicated equations on the footpath and the podgy old sheriff is equipped with serious Men In Black-style weaponry.

Into this curious burg stumbles US Marshal Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), who has totalled his car while transporting a fugitive teenage girl. Before the secretive locals can hurry him on his way, however, some sort of space-time anomaly starts swallowing up chunks of the town - and the people who live there.

Some fine, low-key humour and charismatic actors make this well worth a look.

Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Christmas

Lifestyle Food, 7.35pm

Did you know that sea urchin goes well with frankincense? Well now you do. Mad culinary scientist Heston Blumenthal is cooking Christmas dinner for a table of celebs, including Terry Wogan and Richard E. Grant, and he's determined to outdo himself. He's also determined to rack up a few frequent flyer miles - he heads to Oman to get the gold, frankincense and myrrh that he'll incorporate into the starters; to Siberia to get reindeer milk for the ice-cream; and to Paris to visit a perfumery so he can work out how to make an entree that smells like leather, tobacco and an open fire. The mains? Geese fed on the essence of Douglas fir pine so they taste a bit like a Christmas tree.

It's reasonably entertaining but not the sort of stuff you'll make yourself unless you have an industrial chemistry lab at home - even the ice-cream is scrambled in liquid nitrogen.

Gone Country

CMC, 7pm

Poor old Bobby Brown. Like the rest of the C- and D-list celebs in this reality show, he's ostensibly trying to become a country music star but the bottle is well and truly beating him.

Tonight Dee Snider (pictured), Carnie Wilson, Julio Iglesias jnr and the rest are competing in the "Redneck Games" at a Nashville nightclub but Brown manages to get completely smashed again and stumbles off into the night. Even after the others finish the competition, round him up and drag him home, the drama continues.

There is still no sign of progress on the writing and rehearsal of the new songs that are supposed to be at the heart of this enterprise. Oh well, maybe next week.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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