HD Heads-Up: December 28

➢ Prime will uncork a new season of Louis Theroux documentaries on January 11 at 9.35 with Drinking to Oblivion. The Guardian hailed it as “brilliant television … honest, brutal, numbing, sad.” And the Daily Mail reports a young alcoholic shown drinking himself to death on the programme has been sober for a year. Other episodes in the season include A Different Brain and three Dark States instalments: Heroin Town, Trafficking Sex and Murder in Milwaukee …

➢ The History of Comedy is an eight-part CNN series that TVNZ 1 will air 8.45 Thursdays from January 11. The New York Times said it was “full of illuminating perspectives on how far comedy has evolved — or, some might say, degenerated — over the decades” while the Associated Press says it “keeps the funny in the fundamentals of the comedy it probes” …

➢ The latest Aussie foodies duel, Family Food Fight, will air 7.30 Monday-Wednesday on TVNZ 2 from January 8. Said the Sydney Morning Herald: “No bitching. No backstabbing. Just good, clean, highly competitive family kitchen fun. After the TV food competition world’s annus horribilis of 2016, Channel Nine’s latest suck of the orange with Family Food Fight is evidence of a kinder, gentler approach to the kitchen wars” …

➢ TVNZ 1 will screen Criminal Minds in double-eps from January 8 while TVNZ 2’s 7.00 summer run of Home and Away will close with a movie-length special on January 11 …

➢ TVNZ 1 will also dust off the visually spectacular 2013 BBC Earth series, Wild Kingdom – The Great British Year, which will screen 3.50 Sundays from January 7. The Daily Mail carped Joseph Fiennes banal voiceover “nearly ruined this beautifully shot show” while The Independent observed: “Any old nature programme can capture the drama of the natural world as prey eludes predator or mate attracts mate, but what this one did so elegantly was demonstrate the symbiosis of the entire British ecosystem. More photographers than have ever been used on a British wildlife series were dispatched across the country to employ an exciting variety of techniques” …

➢ After multiple runs on TVNZ 2, The Lord of the Rings trilogy will roll out on TVNZ 1 from January 7 at 7.00. The only free-to-air premiere that week is Steve Jobs (Three, 8.35 Wednesday). Other coming attractions in HD include:

• Sister Act (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Agent Cody Banks: Destination London (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Shanghai Noon (TVNZ 2, 8.50 Saturday)
• Jewel of the Nile (Three, 8.50 Saturday)
• The Marine (Three, 10.50 Saturday)
• Wreck-It Ralph (TVNZ 2, 5.10 Sunday)
• Die Hard: With a Vengeance (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (TVNZ 2, 8.50 Sunday)
• V/H/S (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Sunday)
• Along Came a Spider (Three, 10.55 Sunday)
• The Proposal (TVNZ 2, 9.10 Monday)
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets (TVNZ 2, 8.45 Tuesday)
• Batman (Prime, 8.30 Wednesday)
• The House Bunny (TVNZ 2, 8.50 Wednesday)
• The Core (Three, 8.30 Thursday)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Friday)
• Jurassic World (Three, 7.30 Friday).