Today's TV highlights

8.30PM, TV ONE
ROME

In the past few years there have been more swords-and-sandals epics on the big and small screen than you could shake a standard at, the ABC mini-series Empire the most recent. Now the genre gets the HBO treatment - that is, graphic sex and violence, but with a quality cast and high production values.

This $162 million co-production involving the BBC and HBO was filmed on location in Italy, including a 2ha set with six soundstages.

The soon-to-be Roman Empire is rendered in gaudy and gory detail in a 12-episode series that begins in 52BC, with Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) on the verge of returning to Rome after eight years of fighting wars, culminating in a victory over the Gauls. He is rich, a man of the people and has legions of fierce and loyal soldiers.

Back in Rome the aristocracy, rife with corruption and slaves to excess, are worried about their privileged positions, so the manoeuvrings against Caesar begin.

The story of the transformation from crumbling republic to empire is told through two central characters - Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson), soldiers in one of Caesar's legions.

In tonight's double episode, Vorenus and Pullo travel deep into Gaul to retrieve their legion's stolen standard. In the second part, Mark Antony (James Purefoy), anointed people's tribune by Caesar, returns to Rome with Vorenus and Pullo. Caesar's rival, Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham), tries to strip Antony of his power. This series has been described as The Sopranos of the ancient world and, with a second series ordered, we might be at the beginning of a journey that takes us from one empire in Rome to another in New Jersey.

- Graham Hepburn


8.30PM, TV3
CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION
It's a horrible feeling when you lose something valuable of someone's and you can't find it. How do you think Nick feels when his car gets stolen and the evidence from a high-profile murder case goes with it?

8.35PM, PRIME
PLANET EARTH
In the final of this excellent nature series, Sir David Attenborough heads into the desert to witness Saharan sandstorms more than 1km high, desert rivers that run for a single day, and in Death Valley, California, there's a plague of locusts 65km wide and 160km long.

10.30PM, TV ONE
ARTSVILLE
Tonight, the programme features glass artist Ann Robinson, a new work by poet Glenn Colquhounon, and organist David Burchell explaining the inner workings of the Dunedin Town Hall organ otherwise known as "Norma".


MOVIES
Rated out of 5 stars

6PM, SKY MOVIES 2, 8.30PM, SKY MOVIES 1
xXx: THE NEXT LEVEL
* *
Ice Cube replaces Vin Diesel for the third xXx-flick plays an imprisoned marine busted out of jail to foil a plot to overthrow the US Government. Unfortunately, it's largely popcorn action with no real merit. Lee Tamahori directs and Samuel L. Jackson returns to picK up his cheque. (2005)

8.30PM, TV2
BAD BOYS II
* *
The sequel to the hit action comedy reunites Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as bickering cops up against Cuban traffickers smuggling ecstasy inside cadavers. The pair's odd-couple double act wears out fast and there's a nasty violent streak to its action scenes. (2003)

10.55PM, TV3
SPEED
* * * *
Absolute cracker of an action thriller, starring Keanu Reeves as a Los Angeles cop who must save the passengers of a bus that has a bomb strapped to
the bottom of it. If the bus drops below 80km/h the bomb will explode. Sandra Bullock plays an unwitting passenger who must take the wheel and Dennis Hopper is the mad bomber. (1994)