What's on TV: Thursday, August 9

Batavia Revealed: Shipwreck Psycho

SBS, 8.30pm

The story of the Batavia, the Dutch ship that sank off the WA coast in 1629 and stranded 360 passengers and crew on a small island, became one of gruesome excess and mad slaughter when apothecary Jeronimus Cornelius established a cult-like society and slaughtered people indiscriminately.

A team of forensic scientists sets out to discover if Cornelius fits the mold of what would in today's terms be called a psychopath, while archaeologists use modern know-how to sift through a site of mass murder. This production revels in slow-mo re-enactments of barbarity and presents little that is new in proving what they excitedly proclaim to be "the truth" of the 400-year-old story. LD