HD Heads-Up: January 18-24

➢➢ From the Green Wing crew comes absurdist police recruits comedy Piglets (TVNZ 1, 8.55 Monday). Reviews of the 2024 ITV series were mixed, with The Telegraph noting, “Mark Heap and Sarah Parish lead this so-so comedy that has prompted a backlash over its title … The show has its amusing moments … but overall it is pretty weak stuff. Too often it mistakes crudeness for humour.” But The Times argued: “For the most part this is clever, rude, decidedly weird and sharply funny … Gripes aside, this is a proper sitcom, a sign of renewed faith in funny from ITV as well as a general industry move away from emotional journey shows led by a comics on rollerskates or with mascara streaming down their face” …

➢➢ Sky Open steams into mid-summer with a new-look mid-week line-up that opens with World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys (8.00 Wednesday), in which Bill Nighy narrates unforgettable trips through the spectacular landscapes of NZ, Norway, Wales and North Spain. The widely-streamed series dates to 2019 and has chalked up six seasons. It precedes the S2 premiere of Mental Samurai (9.00), the free-to-air debut of paramedics comedy Bloods (10.00) and the return of female assassins romp Hitmen S2 (10.30) …

➢➢ The Telegraph dubbed Bloods, which streams on Neon, “an enjoyably silly odd-couple comedy … the paramedics attend drugs overdoses and grisly road traffic accidents and the humour is just dark enough.” While The Guardian thought it “patchy … after a perilously laugh-free opening episode, things begin to improve” …

➢➢ There She Goes (8.30 Thursday) is a 2018 BBC dramedy about a couple coping with raising their learning-disabled daughter (it launched a year ago on Neon). “Calling it a comedy is a stretch, but the parents Simon (David Tennant) and Emily (Jessica Hynes) navigate the black humour with tender empathy,” said The London Evening Standard …

➢➢ It’s double-billed with the 2023 comedy Dreamland (10.00), which one critic likened to a “part Mike Leigh pastiche and seaside melodrama” about four sisters living in a seaside town. Based on Sharon Horgan’s Bafta-winning 2017 short, Morgana Robinson’s Summer, it stars Frances Barber and Lily Allen …

➢➢ Belatedly debuting on Duke is TVNZ+ thriller From (9.30 Saturday), a series about a family’s road trip that turns into a nightmare when a detour traps them in a terrifying small town. The MGM+ shocker has spawned three widely acclaimed seasons. “The horror is real — and it gets real gory — but this is no simple splatterfest,” the Sydney Morning Herald said. “Series creator John Griffin has built his world meticulously, and all his characters have their own fraught back stories and their own personal demons” …

➢➢ Three refreshes Friday nights with S2 of Thank God You’re Here (8.00) and The Big Swindle (9.00). The former opens with new host Celia Pacquola, and Urzila Carlson, Aaron Chen, Julia Zemiro and Mark Bonanno stepping through the blue door; the latter is a docuseries about brazen con artists who devastate their victims’ lives …

➢➢ Poi Takitini (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Wednesday) follows seven Black Ferns as they try to master the traditional Māori art of poi and perform as a group on stage while training and travelling for their international games. Reads the blurb: “Each player recalls their individual rugby journeys and challenges they’ve faced in the past, then several unexpected twists take their toll as the reality of life as a female professional athlete is revealed” …

➢➢ Two top crime dramas roll over late-night for second seasons — The Responder (TVNZ 1, 10.50 Sunday) and Tokyo Vice (TVNZ 2, 12.25am Wednesday) — while Grand Designs UK returns for a 25th anniversary special (TVNZ 1, 8.45 Sunday) …

➢➢ Ending their runs are:

• The Man Who Played With Fire
• Four Kings
• The Act
• Grand Designs Australia
• Building Superhomes Monaco …

➢➢ Live/delayed FTA sport includes:

• Super Smash Women’s Cricket: Otago Sparks v Wellington Blaze (Duke, 10.30am Saturday)
• Super Smash Men’s Cricket: Otago Volts v Wellington Firebirds (Duke, 2.15 Saturday)
• SailGP Auckland – Days 1 & 2 (Three, 4.00 Saturday & Sunday)
• L2D A-League Men’s Wellington Phoenix v Central Coast Mariners (Sky Open, 4.30 Saturday)  
• Cricket: T20 Black Clash (TVNZ 1, 6.30 Saturday)
• Hungry Jack’s NBL25 Season: BNZ Breakers v South East Melbourne Phoenix (Sky Open, 7.30 Saturday)
• Tennis: Australian Open (Sky Open, 9.00 Saturday/9.30 Sunday)
• Premier League: Goal Rush (Sky Open, 10am Sunday)
• Super Smash Women’s Cricket: Northern Brave v Canterbury Magicians (Duke, 12.30 Sunday)
• UFC 311 Prelims (Sky Open, 2.00 Sunday)
• Super Smash Men’s Cricket: Northern Brave and the Canterbury Kings (Duke, 4.15 Sunday)
• NFL: Playoffs (TVNZ 2, 10.25am/2.10 Monday; 8.55am/12.30 Tuesday)
• Super Smash Women’s Cricket: Wellington Blaze and the Auckland Hearts (Duke, 12.30 Monday)
• Super Smash Men’s Cricket: Wellington Firebirds v Auckland Aces (Duke, 4.15 Monday)
• Super Smash Women’s Cricket: Northern Brave v Central Hinds (Duke, 2.00 Tuesday)
• Super Smash Men’s Cricket: Northern Brave v Central Stags (Duke, 5.45 Tuesday)
• Super Smash Women’s Cricket: Wellington Blaze v Canterbury Magicians (Duke, 12.30 Wednesday)
• Super Smash Men’s Cricket: Wellington Firebirds v Canterbury Kings (Duke, 4.15 Wednesday)
• Super Smash Women’s Cricket: Auckland Hearts v Otago Sparks (Duke, 12.30 Thursday)
• Super Smash Men’s Cricket: Auckland Aces v Otago Volts (Duke, 4.15 Thursday)
• Super Smash Women’s Cricket: Canterbury Magicians v Wellington Blaze (Duke, 2.00 Friday)
• Super Smash Men’s Cricket: Canterbury Kings v Wellington Firebirds (Duke, 5.45 Friday)
• Hungry Jack’s NBL25 Season: BNZ Breakers v Brisbane Bullets (Duke, 9.15 Friday) …

➢➢ HD coming attractions include:

• Daddy Day Camp (TVNZ 2, 12.30 Saturday)
• Bernie the Dolphin 2 (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Smurfs (Three, 7.25 Saturday)
• He’s Just Not That Into You (TVNZ 2, 8.05 Saturday)
• The Beautiful Fantastic (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Saturday)
• Parker (Three, 9.30 Saturday)
• All My Life (TVNZ 2, 2am Sunday)
• Fantastic Beasts – The Crimes of Grindelwald (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• The Last Full Measure (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• The Dark Knight (Three, 8.35 Sunday)
• Operation Mincemeat (Whakaata Māori, 8.50 Sunday)
• Sherlock Holmes (Sky Open, 8.00 Monday)
• Wrath Of The Titans (Three, 8.05 Monday)
• Fast Five (TVNZ 2, 8.05 Monday)
• Co-Extinction (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Jackass Number Two (Duke, 8.40 Monday)
• Jackass 2.5 (Duke, 10.20 Monday)
• Fast & Furious 6 (TVNZ 2, 8.10 Tuesday)
• The Italian Job (Duke, 9.15 Tuesday)
• 17 Again (TVNZ 2, 8.15 Wednesday)
• Herself (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (TVNZ 2, 8.20 Thursday)
• Gringo (Three, 8.35 Thursday)
• Sing (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Friday)
• Open Season 3 (Sky Open, 7.00 Friday).