So Entourage is all the more refreshing. The HBO series documents the lifestyle of young, horny actor Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier) negotiating the surreal and dodgy world of LA as his star is on the rise. In the hip hop fashion of all young stars, he brings his homies from Queens, New York, with him in order to keep it real. But the real star of Entourage is Chase's trusty . . . and rather outlandish . . . agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven). The script is sharp and witty, the characters likeable; more than enough to keep on watching. Actors playing actors always feels rather absurd, but Entouragemakes it real, perhaps the ultimate example of art imitating life - and back again.

Sex And The City for boys?

Much had been made of Aifric before it came to air. Mainly because a teen drama gives the tabloids an excuse to pour over the predictably attractive young stars and pant it as an O-with-afada-C. Of course, it's nothing like the OC, but nevertheless a delightful piece of work. Billed as teen drama, it aims under that demographic . . . far more 'My Parents Are Aliens' than 'Laguna Beach'.

Aifric (Cliona Ni Chiosain) has moved to Connemara and is determined to make friends in spite of her family's quirks. In the first programme, we're treated to Aifric planning a sleepover for all the popular girls and is besotted by worry as any teenager would be. The 'what ifs?' her imagination poses are brought Ally McBeal-like to life, with news reporters doing piece to cameras in the school hallway about what a disaster the sleepover is set to be.

Then Aifric has Claudia to contend with, the school bitch who subtly tries to sabotage Aifric's fun . . . telling her to dress in pink and then ordering the rest of the crew to arrive in black (the shame! ). Claudia throws a fit at the party, belittling Aifric's spread, as they're all too old for popcorn and coke. Just when you think she's going to demand a naggin of Vadsky, she bows out, saying she only eats macrobiotic food.

Of course, that's all Aifric's nutty family eats, so Claudia gets her rather tame comeuppance. The real winner here was Aifric's bizarre little brother, who had recruited local children on his spiritual journey of meditation and chanting. If only it had avoided that annoying Irish drama habit of all the shots remaining constantly up close, leaving the viewer short of any context. It's very safe, so far, completely vacant of grit, so don't expect the ecstacy-popping, lesbian, potsmoking, and punch-up beachhouse parties of the real OC to enter the frame. Shame, that.

TG4 was busy celebrating its breithla last week, and what better way to do so than for Grainne Seoige and Gillian Ni Cheallaigh to return and host a look back at the news stories from the past decade in Nuacht le 10 Bliana Anuas. Unfortunately, Seoige was the only reason to watch this awful feature, which completely missed the point of reflecting on some of the biggest events of the past 10 years. Instead of revisiting the news reports of the time, we were treated to a boring voiceover, and the silly idea of breaking the screen into a few sections in the name of graphics, provided nothing but headaches. The fact that every event, no matter what its gravity, was given the same time slot added to the redundancy of this anti-Reeling In The Years.

Pity the Americans. So discontent are they with their own president that they preoccupy themselves with inventing new ones. Now that the West Wing has served its term, it's time for a newbie. Enter Geena Davis as sassy Independent American vice-president, MacKenzie 'Mack' Allen in Commander in Chief. When Republican president Teddy Bridges dies, Mack steps up to the plate, against her party's wishes. "People who don't want power don't know what to do with it, " rants her arch rival, house speaker Nathan Templeton (Donald Sutherland). For the most part, everyone just babbles with cheesy sobriety about the "history" of the occasion behind soggy 'ohsay-can-you-see' orchestras and softly lit speeches in Congress.

This is all to the backdrop of crazy feminist MacKenzie's first step as president . . . sending the US army into Nigeria to rescue a woman who is due to be stoned for committing adultery. There are few complexities to the entire thing, the main plot being THE PRESIDENT IS A WOMAN, WOAH, and the chief signposter to that fact is MacKenzie herself, who makes jokes about everyone wondering whether once a month she'll get the urge to "push the button."

Cringe. We now know that this was axed after a first series in the US, so that's some excuse for the ridiculously late time RTE has allotted it.

Even on this slickly produced programme, the premise is just far too incredible. I mean, an Independent in the White House . . . are you crazy?