Entertainment picks: Enter make-believe land

Television

Now that NZ Idol, the bastion of our national identity, has come to an end, what is there to warm up with before Desperate Housewives on a Monday night? Why, it's the equally manipulative reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, (TV2, 7.30pm). Like Idol, EM:HE aims to induce an emotional response for profit - to make chicks cry while pulling in lucrative advertising from hardware stores. Tonight, the team builds a house with padded walls for a boy with brittle bones. Aww.

Maori TV also has a new house, although this one's in the vein of the Kumars'. B&B, the channel's new comedy-chat show, stars comedians Te Radar and Hori Ahipene as a bicultural couple running a bed and breakfast.

With guests arriving each week, the idea is to highlight social issues of the day, an interesting concept considering Ahipene dresses up as a woman.

Also this week, someone wins the big prize on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (tonight, Prime, 7.30pm) without resorting to a sneaky coughing code; TV2 screens Florian Habicht's fantastic festival fave, Kaikohe Demolition, (Wednesday, 10.30pm); a key character on Shortland Street has a serious car crash (Thursday, TV2, 7pm); and a white woman gives birth to a black couple's child in Born with Two Mothers (Thursday, TV One, 9pm).

It's also your last chance to catch Survivor Palau (Tuesday, TV3, 8.30pm), bro'Town (Wednesday, TV3, 7.30pm) and LAX (Friday, TV2, 8.30pm).

Movies

In all the publicity hype surrounding Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's animated film, Corpse Bride (screening from Thursday), got a little lost in the wash. But critics are already dropping the word "Oscar" into reviews.

Loosely based on a Russian folk tale, the gothic romance follows a villager in a small, 19th-century European town who is taken to the underworld to marry a dead woman (Helena Bonham Carter). And yes, it "may scare very young children".

So might another flick from that part of the globe. Vampire thriller Night Watch (opening Thursday) has some calling director Timur Bekmambetov Russia's answer to Tarantino, but Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw suggests you're better off to "pay someone in dark glasses and a leather trenchcoat to hit you over the head with a frying pan for a couple of hours with death metal playing in the background".

Depending on your state of mind, Mysterious Skin (Rialto from Thursday), could have a similar effect. The story reveals how a paedophile has tragically shaped the lives of two young men.

By the time they are 16, Neil is a teenage hustler and Brian has completely erased the memory of the abuse by convincing himself he was abducted by aliens.

While we're on the topic, if Angelina's anatomically absurd boobs in Tomb Raider weren't enough to put you off video game-inspired movies for life, brace yourselves for Doom (opening Thursday). Kiwi actor Karl Urban and the Rock star in this thriller about a bunch of scientists on Mars at the mercy of hideous space creatures.

Art

Further confirmation that West Lynn has shaken its reputation as Grey Lynn's dreary cousin - the Compose Art Gallery on the corner of Hakanoa St and Richmond Rd celebrates its opening on Tuesday. Featuring works by Anita Blanchett, Chiara Corbelletto, Tabatha Forbes, Janet Muir and more, it's worth a look, even just online.

The same night, Objectspace in Newton is holding a fundraising auction for the Maori and Pacific Island artists exhibiting at the Pasifika Styles exhibition at Britain's Cambridge University next year.

Music

Salmonella Dub return for the Dub Conspiracy Tour (St James, Friday) and support act Kora will be worth checking out for the ticket price alone.

Hillbilly rockers Hayseed Dixie (Studio, Friday) promote their new album, A Hot Piece of Grass.

Alt country Kiwis and one-time backing band for Will Oldham, the Renderers play the Kings Arms on Friday. Described in their press release as "OLD", they'll be on stage early to promote new album Ghosts of Our Vegas Lives with Maryrose Crook and whippersnapper support band the Boxcar Guitars. The following night the venue can expect a younger crowd at the Bleeders' gig for a taste of their upcoming album.

Frontline play their first headlining tour with P-Money, PNC and D-Form at Rising Sun on Saturday.

Theatre

The Land of Make-Believe, (Silo, November 12) is a tribute to the Generation Xers who have fond memories of shoulder pads, Miami Wine Cooler and Wham. Written by Vanessa Rhodes and starring it-girl actress Aidee Walker of Outrageous Fortune and Shortland Street fame, the story follows Hutt Valley teen Carol-Ann, who dreams of escaping her banal existence and goes to London in 1989.

And one for those suffering Fashion Week withdrawals: The Women (Concert Chamber, Town Hall, November 11), is back after a sell-out season last year. Written by socialite and Vanity Fair editor, Clare Booth Luce, and originally staged on Broadway in 1936, The Women is a satire on the idleness of wealthy wives and divorcees.

The film adaptation in the 40s starred Joan Crawford and a stage revival in 2000 featured Sex And the City's Cynthia Nixon. Ours is a Shortland Street reunion as Katie Wolfe directs Sally Stockwell, Anna Hutchison and Hannah Tolich.