HD Heads-Up: August 13 – 19

➢➢ Three will try to re-energise Wednesdays and Thursdays with new factual and comedy line-ups. High-rating David Lomas Investigates will air 8.40 Wednesdays from August 17 ahead of the 9.40 premiere of Million Dollar Murders. The latter is a Channel Nine series hosted by a former detective who re-opens cold cases in which the killers have never been caught, despite million-dollar rewards …

➢➢ Leading off Thursdays at 7.30 will be a local version of Comedians Giving Lectures. Standing at the podium for the premiere will be Abby Howells (on ghost stories), Matt Heath (on surviving planet earth), Jamaine Ross (on the economics of happiness) and Brynley Stent (on art). The show will lead into new episodes of Mean Mums and The Stand Up Sketch Show …

➢➢ Prime will continue to pump up its post-commonwealth Games schedule with the free-to-air premiere of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (9.30 Monday) and the return of Kalgoorlie Cops (8.00 Sunday), The Equalizer (8.30 Sunday) and Ballers (11.40 Monday) while Game of Thrones will be dusted off for a 9.30 Sunday double-episode run from the beginning …

➢➢ Beanie Mania (Prime, 9.40 Wednesday) is a 2021 documentary about how a group of suburban women helped launch a soft toy craze 30 years ago …

➢➢ Wild Wars Australia (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Tuesday) is a new four-part series about how Aussie creatures great and small compete for mating rights, to eat, and avoid being eaten …

➢➢ One of SoHo’s most mind-bending dramas, Counterpoint, which can be streamed at TVNZ+, will screen free-to-air for the first time from August 17, albeit in an ultra-late slot: TVNZ 2, 12.20am. The network also will burn off season two of Alex Rider late-night: 11.45 Fridays from August 19 …

➢➢ And Duke will strip Star Trek: Discovery 1.55pm weekdays from August 15. It will be the first time the first three seasons have been broadcast in NZ (TVNZ 2 aired S4 on Saturday afternoons; all can be streamed on TVNZ+) …

➢➢ New to Duke’s Monday night ‘toon block will be Ten Year Old Tom (9.35), which asks: can a kid grow up these days without being corrupted by the world around him? Created by and starring Steve Dildarian (The Life & Times of Tim), it features the voices of Byron Bowers (The Chi), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Jennifer Coolidge (2 Broke Girls) and David Duchovny. The HBO Max show was warmly reviewed when it launched nearly a year ago …

➢➢ Its premiere will precede Robot Chicken: Star Wars (10.35). Said Variety: “Self-proclaimed Star Wars geeks, the producers of Robot Chicken, deliver a big wet kiss to the film series’ fans with this clever animated special — a rapid-fire barrage of gags that includes George Lucas and Mark Hamill among its expansive vocal cast … Deftly recreates Lucas’ far-far-away galaxy through surprisingly good stop-motion animation” …

➢➢ Duke also will premiere S2 of Police – Hour of Duty (8.30 Wednesday) while ending their runs will be Give Us a Clue, Location Location Location, Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms, Rich House Poor House, Secret Nazi Bases, Highway Patrol, Mega Metro and The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge …

➢➢ HD coming attractions for the third week of August will include:

• Boss Baby (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday) 
• Zeus and Roxanne (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• Friends With Kids (Three, 8.30 Saturday)
• Young Ones (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• American Animals (Whakaata Māori, 8.40 Saturday)
• Baby Mama (TVNZ 2, 8.55 Saturday)
• Body Snatchers (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• Ladies in Black (Three, 10.30 Saturday)
• Saw 4 (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Saturday)
• Natural Born Killers (Duke, 11.10 Saturday)
• Reign of Superman (TVNZ 2, 2.10am Sunday)
• Stuart Little (TVNZ 2, 4.25 Sunday)
• Skyscraper (Three, 8.00 Sunday)
• The Mountain Between Us (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday)
• Truth (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• The Happy Prince (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Sunday)
• Exit Through the Gift Shop (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Mercury Rising (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Chef (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Mission: Impossible (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Guess Who (Duke, 9.30 Friday).