HD Heads-Up: December 20-26

The free-to-air Christmas schedules predictably are more ho-hum that ho-ho-ho but at least most of the stocking filler programming is in HD.

The networks are over-stuffed with movies for Christmas week, mostly repeats, amid an exodus of favourites (Radar Across the Pacific, The Night Shift, Hawaii Five-O, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist and, in a 90-minute finale on Tuesday, Home and Away).

TV One’s Christmas night HD line-up includes the network movie premiere of Red Dog and re-runs of The Bucket List and Home by Christmas while TV2 has the network movie premiere of The Muppets and re-runs of The Blind Side and Ocean’s 13.

TV3 is counter programming with HD movies as well, sandwiching the network premiere of Les Miserables with repeats of Home Alone 2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

TV3 has wall-to-wall repeats on Christmas Eve (Home Alone, Love Actually, The Graham Norton Show, Outrageous Fortune: Wherein Our Saviour’s Birth is Celebrated) but is premiering the Kiwi black comedy Two Little Boys on Tuesday while TV One will debut the comedy Holy Water on Christmas Eve and Call the Midwife Christmas Special on Boxing Day.

Other coming attractions in HD include:

• Herbie: Fully Loaded (TV2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Man on Fire (TV3, 8.30 Saturday)
• Semi Pro (TV2, 9.00 Saturday)
• A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (TV2, 10.55 Saturday)
• The Lovely Bones (TV3, 11.30 Saturday)
• Separation City (TV One, 11.40 Saturday)
• Arthur Christmas (TV2, 7.00 Sunday)
• Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (TV3, 7.00 Sunday)
• Love Birds (TV One, 8.35 Sunday)
• Bad Santa (TV2, 9.00 Sunday)
• Just Go With It (TV2, 8.30 Monday)
• The Day After Tomorrow (TV3, 8.30 Monday)
• Wedding Crashers (TV2, 8.30 Wednesday)
• A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas (TV2, 10.55 Wednesday)
• You’ve Got Mail (TV One, 11.10pm Wednesday)
• The Young Victoria (TV One, 1.45am Thursday)
• Michael (TV2, 2.15am Thursday)
• Mao’s Last Dancer (TV One, 3.35am Thursday)
• Cars (TV2, 5.00 Thursday)
• The Princess and the Frog (TV2, 5.00 Friday)
• Green Lantern (TV2, 7.00 Friday)
• Police Academy (TV2, 9.15 Friday)
• Wolf Creek (TV2, 11.15 Friday).