It is hard not to be instantly impressed by a television show that starts with a pair of eyeball retractors, nurses with syringes full of bright blue liquid looming over unwilling patients, and the main character getting shot in the stomach in the first few minutes.
It is also hard not to be impressed by a new New Zealand programme that holds the attention to the very end of an hour-long show, and leaves a thirst for more.
The Cult (TV2, September 24, 8.30pm) has a very busy first episode.
Lead actor Michael Lewis (Renato Bartolomei) has a terrible time of things.
Apart from being shot, he has to deal with people hitting him on the head with hard things, a nasty car crash, and both his sons being inveigled into a sinister cult.
He escapes the eyeball retractors and the large syringes, but I wouldn't bet he won't have to deal with them later.
The Cult tells the story of a group of people from around the world, who are trying to extricate their children from the "Two Gardens" cult, hidden deep in the bush in Northland.
Lewis, a lawyer who has managed to drive his family away, now wants them back, but finds the Two Gardens crew less than welcoming, if not down-right homicidal.
Cult leader Edward North (Latham Gaines) is busy talking Lewis' sons not only into renouncing their father, but renouncing each other.
The families, all strangers, band together to save their kin, but some already seem to know more than they should about each other, and everything is apparently not what it seems.
Most pleasing about the show is its believable acting, and professional production.
It benefited from a New Zealand on Air grant of $6.4 million, and the money shows.
It looks really good.
Watch it.
Maori Television tomorrow night has what looks like an extraordinary story of a Ngai Tahu man with a remarkable life.
Riki Ellison: The Defender (Wednesday, 9pm) looks at the life of a former Christchurch boy who became a legend in American football, and a key figure in United States missile defence.
Ellison was a three-time Super Bowl winner with the San Francisco 49ers and later, impressed by Ronald Reagan's famous 1983 speech calling for a missile defence system as an alternative to the cold war, he began campaigning for the cause in his off-season.
He founded the Missile Defence Advocacy Alliance upon retiring from pro-football in 1992, and has become one of America's greatest authorities on the subject.
While Star Wars defence systems may not be your thing, Ellison's journey looks fascinating.
