This Week on TV

So what's worth watching this week? having flicked through the listings here's what's worth your time.

KEY
[show name]
[type]
[channel]
[day]
[time]
[description]

W.I.T.C.H
Shoujo Anime
Jetix
Saturday and Sunday
4:30pm
I only just remembered this was on today. The trailers for this new anime have been interesting me for a while and I'm happy to say it's lived up to it's promise. The manga was licenced by Disney at the same time as the anime. Don't scorn this, Disney were the ones that brought the awesome Spirited Away to the UK and have a surprising record with anime. Look out for the W.I.T.C.H manga in shops this week.

Teenage Kicks
Gameshow
Sky One
Saturdays
10:30pm
This looks interesting. Described as a Home Alone style gameshow. Hopefully its as good as another Home Alone style gameshow on CITV (the superb Scary Sleepover).

South Park
Comedy
Paramount Comedy
Weekdays
9pm
Series 8 of the fantastically immature comedy appears on its new home Paramount Comedy.

One Piece
Shonen Anime
Toonami
Monday
5pm
Yarrrr. The ever-naive UK mainstream press have described this as the new Dragonball Z. In the same way Yu-Gi Oh was. And the same way Outlaw Star was. Anyway, this is awesome pirate comedy and you should watch it. I can already guess what the mainstreams are gonna call Naruto when it inevitably hits the UK.

Scrubs
Comedy
E4
Wednesday
9pm
E4's It A 9 Thing slot finally comes up with something worth watching. Series 3 of Scrubs kicks off. You may have seen it already as Paramount Comedy nicked it off Sky One early this year.

Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind
Entertainment
E4 and Channel 4
E4 on Monday and Channel 4 on Friday
9:30pm
Charismatic, witty, entertaining and unbelievably honest. He can't read your mind but he can sure fuck with it. After the superb Russian Roulette, the ill-advised (but so good to watch) Seance and critically ignored Messiah Derren turns from the big stunts to the much more entertaining Trick of the Mind series. Playing showman like tricks and Paul Zenon style pranks on members of the public and celebrities. Can be watched with either an open or skeptic mind, you'll still be impressed.

Have I Got News For You
Comedy Gameshow
BBC1
Friday
9:30pm
A nice move by the beeb to take on Mr Brown. More Gordon Brown than Derren Brown here. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton return to the captain seats and who knows who's gonna get the host's chair. I'm still hopeful that Angus Deayton's coming back.

ONLINE
Quite a bit hitting the BitTorrent networks this week. Look out for Air, Beck and Bleach on AnimeSuki. Check out Viva La Bam series 4 and Amazing Race 7 on BTF-Net.

Must go now, Doctor Who's on.

FYI
Shounen and Shoujo are Japanese words used to refer to genders. Shounen is male and Shoujo is female. When in anime and manga terms they refer to the target audience. This basically means something like One Piece is referred to as Shounen (the original manga was serialised in a magazine called Shounen Jump) while something like W.I.T.C.H is known as Shoujo. Most manga scanulation groups and anime fansubbing groups stick to one type or the other. The same is true for most manga artists and anime directors. The most famous exception to the rule is the 4 girl collective CLAMP. Famous for the shounen (X/1999), the shoujo (Card Captor Sakura) and the god-knows what (Chobits).