Top five TV picks of the week: Tears and triumphs

The sexy boys from J-Geeks are among Rachel Hunter's favourites. Photo / Supplied

Pick of the week: New Zealand's Got Talent

The public votes are in and all there is to do on the final of NZ's Got Talent is to announce the winner.

Oh, and in the fine tradition of TV talent shows, there will also be a healthy dose of reflection about the highs and lows of the journey the 12 finalists have been on during the series. And, no doubt, there will be tears, laughter and more tears.

Judge Jason Kerrison confirmed himself as a crier after last weekend's grand final sing-off.

The OpShop frontman wiped away a few tears following 14-year-old Clara Van Wel's poised performance of her original, Where Do You Find Love?, and he couldn't help himself when 11-year-old diva Jessie Hillel finished the show with a passionate rendition of Ave Maria.

But he played hardball with 18-year-old Logan Walker, who had impressed the judges with his original song Where's the Love?. For the final he chose to sing a cover of Justin Bieber's Christmas-themed Mistletoe - and didn't quite pull it off.

Kerrison reckoned it was a step backwards.

You also had to feel sorry for jugglers Zane and Degge, who tried a daring new routine that fizzled when Zane couldn't get on to the seat of his high-rise unicycle.

The results show will reveal the public votes for each act, culminating in the winner who gets $100,000, a car, and, hopefully, the competition becomes a springboard to making a go of it in the entertainment world.

Also during the final show there will be guest appearances from pop rock star Dane Rumble, band of brothers Evermore and judge Ali Campbell, as well as the return of some NZGT favourites Billy's Big Brass Band, Ji Ye and Top Shop.

Following the last show Rachel Hunter made no secret of who she thought deserved to win, telling young Jessie that the best was saved for last, though she still has a soft spot for the "hot and sexy" Maori boys from J-Geeks.

Meanwhile, Canterbury University student Dudley Fairbrass wasn't at his best during his performance of The Scientist by Coldplay and revealed later he had the flu.

Loopy lady Mihirangi Fleming impressed again with her bombastic beats, and "Big" Dane Moeke channelled his inner Whitney to hit the high notes in I Will Always Love You.

When: 7.30pm, Sunday
Where: TV One
What: And the winner is ...

Drama pick: Sunday Murder Mystery: The Crow Trap

It seems like it should almost be a Sunday evening tradition, watching good quality murder mysteries and trying to figure whodunnit before the fictional detective does.

Sherlock Holmes, David Frost, Jim Taggart, Jonathon Creek, Jane Tennison - there are many much-loved crime solvers in British TV history, and the first mystery in this new Sunday Murder Mystery season brings us a new one: Detective Vera Stanhope, played by Brenda Blethyn, who comes from the books of Ann Cleeve. The Crow Trap sees the no-nonsense, but very passionate, if somewhat shambolic detective heading to the Northumberland countryside to investigate a murder.

When: Sunday, 8.30pm
Where: TV One
What: Cop this one

Doco pick: Karli Thomas and the Raiders of the Lost Tuna

Karli Thomas has been a Greenpeace campaigner for many years, her main project being to raise awareness about the overfishing of tuna.

The Pacific Ocean supplies 60 per cent of the world's catch. Stocks are already over-fished and big-eye tuna and bluefin tuna are in danger of extinction.

This locally made documentary follows Thomas and her crew of protesters as they go on a three-month voyage around some of the most remote international waters on the planet. It's in these international waters that thousands of legal and illegal vessels are racing to take as much as they can.

Thomas aims to document some of the dodgy fishing practices.

When: Tuesday, 7.30pm
Where: TV One
What: Saving Pacific tuna

Comedy pick: Bleak Old Shop Stuff

With products like a "slippers and kippers gift set" or a "pineapple Duke of Wellington" the Old Shop of Stuff is no ordinary store, and this BBC production is no ordinary Dickensian tale.

This series features marvellously over-the-top characters with names like Mr Jedrington Secret-Past (the kindly, upstanding shop proprietor played by Robert Webb), Mr Skulkingworm (an evil lawyer played by Stephen Fry), and Mr Jollyfirth Jollington (David Mitchell) in a pantomime-like set of storylines that delight in parody and colourful language (words like "softyboots" and "ratsufferer" feel perfectly at home).

The first episode is a Christmas special, with the Secret-Past family being taken to a debtors' prison.

When: Sunday, 7pm
Where: UKTV
What: Dickensian parody

Drama pick: Alcatraz

Alcatraz, the high-security San Francisco prison on an island that housed notorious criminals like Al Capone in its time, has long been a source of fascination for the public.

Now it's become the subject of a modern crime drama with a sci-fi twist, and with JJ Abrams (of Lost and Fringe fame) in the executive producer's seat you can bet it's going to be a confounding and creepy ride.

It stars Sarah Jones as Detective Rebecca Madsen, who finds that one of her suspects in a grisly homicide is an Alcatraz inmate who supposedly died 30 years earlier.

Trying to unravel the seemingly impossible situation, she soon finds herself entangled in the work of secret government agent Emerson Hauser, played by Sam Neill.

When: Wednesday, 8.30pm
Where: TV One
What: Disappearing prisoners

- TimeOut