BITE CLUB Wednesdays on Nine: Nine are determined to get a local cop show up and running, but it’s back to the drawing board after this lame effort. Filmed in Manly, it’s got beautiful cops searching for a serial killer that has somehow to do with a group of shark attack victims missing body parts. This show is as believable as the CGI shark that gives new meaning to the term “jumping the shark”. Rating: C-

800 WORDS Tuesdays on Seven: This co-production with New Zealand has always been a joy to watch, with its Kiwi cast and nutty coastal town setting. Sadly, it’s romantic entanglements often bog the show down but hopefully, now that widower George (Erik Thomson) has finally picked a local lady, exciting new possibilities may be on the horizon … or maybe just at the local nude beach. Rating: B-

A PLACE TO CALL HOME Sundays on showcase: This beautifully-made period drama has just begun its sixth and final season. Famous for being axed by Seven because its viewers were ‘too old’, Foxtel rode to the rescue and have kept it going another four years, picking up a truckload of awards in the process. Expect the Bligh family to grapple with plenty of big social issues from the 1950’s as they move towards a big ending. Rating: B+ 

WENTWORTH Tuesdays on showcase: As the sixth season hurtles towards another breathtaking finale, fans still don’t know for sure if next year will be the end. Nobody can ever predict where this show is going, with outrageous violence and major characters getting killed when you least expect it. Now being seen overseas in more than 90 countries, this show has the best female cast on TV, but is not for the faint-hearted. Rating: A- 

DOCTOR DOCTOR Mondays on Nine: If Nine really want a cop show (see Bite Club above), they need look no further than how they re-jigged the tired medical show genre by setting it in a modern and multicultural country town where there's a micro brewery instead of a pub, and a leading doctor (Rodger Corser) who is morally corrupt but still adorable, as is his scene-stealing mother Meryl (Tina Bursill). Rating: A

RAKE Sundays on ABC: They’ve said it before, but this time they might be telling the truth when they say this is the scoundrel’s ‘final fling’. And what better place to flame out spectacularly than in our nation's Parliament where Senator Cleaver Greene (Richard Roxburgh) is causing a scandal every time he opens his mouth. Watch out for Jane Turner playing a conservative politician who is probably going to run foul of Cleaver. Brilliant stuff. Rating A+

Andrew Mercado is a television and film entertainment commentator and critic with extensive and diverse experience in the entertainment industry – in front of the camera and behind it. Andrew made the sea change some years ago to South West Rocks where he owns the South West Roxy Cinema. Despite his sea change, Andrew continues to work in the metropolitan media.