TV critic's choice: Dying Laughing, Wanted, Acquitted and How 'Mad' Are You?

DYING LAUGHING

★★★★

Sunday 8.40pm, SBS

"Comedy is not an art. It's a magic trick." So sayeth Jerry Seinfeld in this fantastic documentary exploring all things comedic. Composed almost entirely of talking heads shot crisply in black and white, it covers the epic fails, methods for overcoming fear, the journey, the process, the discipline and what exactly it is that makes other people laugh. It's fascinating – especially as it includes a genuine who's who, from Jerry Lewis through Billy Connolly and Seinfeld to Jim Jefferies.

HOW 'MAD' ARE YOU?

New series ★★★★

Thursday 8.30pm, SBS

This warm-hearted and enlightening two-part documentary puts 10 people in a country house, then asks them to perform various tasks and psychological tests while three mental health experts watch from afar and try to determine which have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Five of them have – but which five? Apart from anything else, this is a powerful reminder that the line between normal and not is a very blurry one.

WANTED

Series return ★★★

Thursday TIME TBC, Seven

A great little recap gets us nicely up to speed on the rather convoluted previous two seasons. Then we're enjoying a bit of Wentworth-style action as Lola and Chelsea negotiate life on the inside. I don't quite understand why the mean girls have got it in for Lola but it certainly makes for an action-packed opening – and a devious solution to our heroines' immediate problems. Of course, trouble is never far away and by the end of this "movie length" opener, they're in all kinds of grief.

ACQUITTED

★★★1/2

Stan.com.au

There's always room for bit more Scandi noir, isn't there? And this handsome Norwegian thriller brings together the best bits of lots of favourites, including Eyewitness and the underrated The Legacy. Here a super-suave businessman returns to his home town hoping to nail a major deal. It soon becomes apparent why he's spent the last 20 years in Asia: as a young man he was acquitted of the murder of his girlfriend, but plenty of townsfolk – including his own mother – don't believe in his innocence one bit.

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