Who’s Been Sleeping in My House, ABC, 8pm

Archaeologist Adam Ford finds himself investigating local folklore about the old Merton Hotel, in Victoria’s Strathbogie Ranges. Did Phar Lap really spend time in the stables? Was that bullet hole in the wall really made by Ned Kelly? The trail has cooled but Ford turns up some interesting angles. Interesting note: This episode is particularly bittersweet for history buffs, who will want to pay special attention to what is shown — this is the last chance they will have to see any of it. The hotel burned to the ground this year after this episode was filmed.

Go Back to Where You Came From – Finale, SBS, 8.30pm

The last and in many ways most confronting episode of this series takes the first group of participants to Iraq and Syria, to the front line of the battle against Islamic State  where they meet Kurdish fighters at a forward post trying to hang on to a desert town; see abandoned villages destroyed by years of civil war; and meet displaced people who have lost everything and who have no future. The second group goes to Myanmar where they learn about life for the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority fleeing the country in increasing numbers. The encounters are dramatic and affecting, and there’s a regular chorus of: ‘‘I didn’t understand’’;  ‘‘I had no idea’’; and ‘‘Why?’’. It’s admirable to want to show the shades of grey of an issue to people who prefer to see the world in black and white. But you can’t help thinking  the series is likely to be watched only by the already compassionate who want their compassion confirmed. Shame.

The Feed: Go Back to Where You Came From Forum, SBS2, 9.35pm

Several of those who took part in Go Back to Where You Came From had their hard-line stance on asylum seekers tested and, it seems, changed. This discussion brings participants together with some of the refugees they met before they left to talk about their experiences and how they feel now about asylum seekers. Hosted by The Feed’s Marc Fennell, it will be interesting to see whether the compassion the participants seemed to have developed on the road remains as firm in the comfort of an SBS studio back in Australia.
Gordon Farrer

PAY TV

Sing It On, V, 9.30pm

Blame the success of Pitch Perfect for this cheesy yet intriguing insight into the self-absorbed world of college a capella competitions. Executive produced by John Legend, the series chronicles the lead-up to the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella that inspired Jason Moore’s hit film and focuses on  certain teams competing in the tournament. The chosen ones all take themselves seriously and, in the opening episode, which follows auditions and callbacks for potential new members, many of the existing group members come on like mean boys and girls running exclusive clubs. ‘‘We tend to be very attractive people and we’re pretty aware of it ... We would all consider ourselves at least a seven on the hot-or-not scale,’’ says All-Night Yahtzee’s musical director, Michael. In addition to conveying a sense of the life-or-death seriousness with which the process is regarded, the opener features a tense showdown over a singer between Yahtzee and the AcaBelles at Florida State University. 
Debi Enker

MOVIES

The Naked Gun (1988) One, 9pm

A reliably enjoyable compendium of buffoonery and wordplay that delights in having too many gags for the one person to register, The Naked Gun was a sizeable success upon release, reminding audiences that the Airplane team of David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams had endless comic references. Leslie Nielsen, enjoying himself with a straight face, is Frank Drebin, a cop whose incompetence is boundless. ‘‘When I see five weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards,’’ Frank tells his indignant mayor. ‘‘That was a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar, you moron!’’ comes the reply. ‘‘You killed five actors!’’

The Fountain (2006) netflix.com.au

Darren Aronofsky was something of a wunderkind of the American cinema well into his 30s; that meant comparatively few people have seen his previous movies, 1998’s math and prophecy mystery Pi and 2000’s unyielding study of addiction, Requiem for a Dream, before he made The Fountain, a treatise on whether love is stronger than death  with the celebrity wattage of Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz (Aronofsky’s then wife). In 15th century Central America a Spanish conquistador, Tomas (Jackman), searches for the mythical Tree of Life on the orders of Queen Isabella (Weisz), who believes it holds the secret to immortality. They are, you learn, characters in a book being written by Izzi (Weisz), a contemporary author dying from a cancerous brain tumour. Her husband, Tom (Jackman), is a research scientist desperately searching for a cure. In the 25th century a man who may also be Tom (less his hair) is travelling through outer space, transporting a dying tree towards a star in a distant nebula about to explode. Haunted by memories of loss, he may be trying to resurrect Izzi, or deal with his own, long-suspended, mortality. The Fountain is concerned only with philosophical matters. If you’re more interested in how a clear bubble is transporting a tree through outer space, then this is not the filmmaker for you. But the film is so tightly wound that it barely breathes. It’s so caught up in the lives of the paired protagonists that the supporting cast is almost superfluous. It’s shot with a darkened palette and a claustrophobic feel, to match the disease engulfing Izzi, yet it remains the work of a young man, one fascinated by the weight of the metaphysical.
Craig Mathieson