HD Heads-Up: August 20 – 26

➢➢ George Clarke’s Flipping Fast (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Wednesdays from August 24) gives six teams of novice property developers £100,000 each to see who can make the biggest profit over 12 months. The Guardian dubbed it “an addictive journey into stupidity” while The Telegraph observed “this curious offering from Channel 4, amid a cost of living crisis, feels in poor taste, and plunges hapless contestants in too deep” …

➢➢ In any event, it should get off to a fast start here as TVNZ 1 will precede its launch with the 7.30 season premiere of Beat the Chasers. The same week the network will anchor Thursday nights with the S4 premiere of The Great Kiwi Bake Off, which will have a new co-host (Pax Assadi) and two new judges (Peter Gordon, Jordan Rondel). It will be paired with the 9.00 debut of Hard Quiz, in which contestants are tested on specialist topics, ranging from Kylie Minogue to cremation …

➢➢ A new season of Friday night perennial The Repair Shop will start on August 26 ahead of the return of The Dog House in arguably the ultimate feelgood double-bill …

➢➢ The latest UK mystery to be burned off late-night Saturdays on TVNZ 1 will be The Deceived (August 20). About a university student who begins an affair with a lecturer, it was described as everything from “manic, corny and hopelessly muddled” (The Times) to “the viewing equivalent of comfort food, combining classic film tropes with timeless, undemanding subject matter” (The Age) …

➢➢ Eden will premiere its own dodgy thriller, the four-year-old Bite Club, in its 8.30 premium drama slot. “The acting in this shark-based serial killer thriller is bad,” The Guardian said, “but the script is worse. How did the efforts of so many talented people result in such a dud?” Echoed the Sydney Morning Herald. “Selling a glossy crime show overseas with sharks and sunshine should be a no-brainer. But if we send them shows with clumsy dialogue and a twist that’s about as obvious as the dodgy CGI in Bite Club’s opening scene, we’re not doing ourselves any favours” …

➢➢ Whakaata Māori will premiere two lifestyle shows in the last week of August: David Rocco’s Dolce South East Asia (7.30 Tuesday), which samples the cultures and culinary worlds of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore …

➢➢ 15 Minutes of Shame (Prime, 9.40 Wednesday) is a 2021 documentary about public shaming from executive producers Monica Lewinsky and Catfish’s Max Joseph. Said Decider: “It’s tightly constructed, occasionally funny (you have to be, lest you risk needless doomsaying), and nuanced without going too deep down rabbit holes” …

➢➢ Also new will be S2 of Disasters Engineered (Duke, 9.30 Wednesday) and Secrets of the Supercars (Duke, 9.45 Thursday) while ending their runs will be Screw, Pact of Silence, Joanna Lumley’s Great Cities of the World, The World’s Most Luxurious Holidays, Top Gear and Million Pound …

➢➢ Screening for the first time on free-to-air TV will be Trolls World Tour (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday), Rams (Eden, 8.30 Saturday), Saw 5 (TVNZ 2, 10.40 Saturday) and The Happy Prince (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Bon Voyage Charlie Brown – And Don’t Come Back (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• Downsizing (Three, 8.25 Saturday)
• Raging Bull (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Saturday)
• What Happens in Vegas (TVNZ 2, 8.45 Saturday)
• The Lost Boys (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• Saw 5 (TVNZ 2, 10.40 Saturday)
• Blackhat (Three, 10.55 Saturday)
• The Apparition (Duke, 11.20 Saturday)
• War Dogs (TVNZ 2, 12.40am Sunday)
• Stuart Little 2 (TVNZ 2, 4.25 Sunday)
• Edge of Tomorrow (Three, 8.00 Sunday)
• Den of Thieves (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday)
• The Founder (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• Critters Attack! (TVNZ 2, 2.35am Monday)
• Poi E (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• David Brent – Life on the Road (Duke, 8.30 Monday)
• The Peacemaker (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Mission: Impossible II (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Disaster Movie (Duke, 9.25 Friday).