HD Heads-Up: January 15 – 21

➢➢ TVNZ 1 will use a new bloopers edition of The Chase on January 19 to launch Under the Vines. The former will premiere at 7.00 and the latter at 8.00. Set in Central Otago, Under the Vines stars Rebecca Gibney and Charles Edwards (The Crown) as strangers who inherit a failing vineyard. She’s a gregarious Sydney socialite, he’s a UK-born lawyer desperate to start life over in a  new country. Kiwi vets John Bach, Sarah Pierse, Sara Wiseman, Catherine Wilkin and Dean O’Gorman co-star in the six-part romantic-comedy that was commissioned internationally for Acorn TV …

➢➢ The premise reeks of co-production contrivance, teaming an NZ-born Aussie with a Brit in a Kiwi setting but earned the thumbs-up from streaming site Decider: “If we were to describe to you a show like this: ‘City dwellers get in over their heads in the country and meet quirky townspeople,’ you could name probably about ten series like this over the years, from comedies like Green Acres to light dramas like Virgin River. Acorn TV is giving us another iteration of this story, with two very charming leads — and lots of great views of New Zealand’s hills and mountains” …

➢➢ Shortland Street will return with an hour-long season premiere on January 17 (TVNZ 2, 7.00). It will be preceded by a 90-minute compilation of the on-demand Retribution miniseries (TVNZ 2, 9.25 Sunday) that will conclude the same week on TVNZ OnDemand. This year also will make the soap’s 30th anniversary …

➢➢ Martin Freeman will promote his new BBC police drama The Responder in the January 20 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.30) …

➢➢  New to Maori TV will be flagship news programme Te Ao I Te Raumati (6.30 weeknights) and Hunting Aotearoa (9.30 Tuesday) …

➢➢ Mom will end its run with a double-episode series finale on January 19 (TVNZ 2, 9.40). The later time slot and summer burn-off mirror the show’s decline in popularity from its heyday as one of TVNZ 2’s Wednesday comedy block staples. Also ending their runs that week will be Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport, Innocent, First Dates Australia and Cafe Melanesia …

➢➢ John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Thursday) heads the network movie premieres for the third week of January. Also new will be Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite! (TVNZ 2, 8.20am Sunday) and Slam (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday) while other HD coming attractions will include:

• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Sherlock Gnomes (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Water Horse (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• He’s Just Not That Into You (Three, 8.30 Saturday)
• Moon (Maori TV, 9.00 Saturday)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Saturday)
• Pitch Black (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• Maternal Secrets (Three, 10.30 Saturday)
• The Hollow Man (Duke, 11.35 Saturday)
• Sphere (TVNZ 2, 12.25am Sunday)
• Step (TVNZ 2, 12.00 Sunday))
• Batman Returns (TVNZ 2, 2.30 Sunday)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• The Fate of the Furious (Three, 8.25 Sunday)
• Alien (TVNZ 2, 11.05 Sunday)
• Doom (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• The Dukes of Hazzard (Three, 8.35 Monday)
• Hellboy (Three, 8.40 Tuesday)
• I Am Legend (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Tuesday)
• Reservoir Dogs (Duke, 10.00 Tuesday)
• Think Like A Man (Maori TV, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Transformers: Age of Extinction (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• A Good Day to Die Hard (TVNZ 2, 8.55 Friday)
• Borat (Duke, 10.00 Friday)
• Yoga Hosers (TVNZ 2, 4.10am Saturday).