HD Heads-Up: June 15 – 21

➢➢ Three will use The Block NZ: Firehouse to launch the latest season of Westside, the return of Hawaii Five-O (from episode 21 of season seven) and the premiere of The Titan Games. Season five of the Outrageous Fortune spin-off (8.30 Mondays from June 17) is set on the eve of the 1987 America’s Cup, when the Wests take on the old school of Auckland criminals. It introduces Jessica Grace Smith as a young Cheryl West and will mark the 150th episode of the 15-year-old family saga …

➢➢ H5O fans will want to hold their breath about the show’s umpteenth return. It was meant to resume two months ago but was pushed aside by unexpectedly long episodes of Lego Masters Australia. At this stage it’s due to screen 9.35 Wednesdays after Magnum P.I. from June 19, but Magnum’s ratings have tanked so badly that I wouldn’t be surprised if Three replaces it with movies in the short term, which, once again, would derail H5O’s comeback …

➢➢ In The Titan Games (7.30 Thursdays from June 20), Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson offers exceptional everyday men and women the chance to push themselves against one another in extreme tests of strength, endurance and mental fortitude that he designed. The show rated strongly in the US and the season finale hit a four-week high. A second season already has been filmed …

➢➢ Three also is bringing back Roseanne spin-off The Conners that week but in a weird slot: 9.45 Fridays, following 7 Days. Don’t expect the series to continue there for long as it seems a mismatch for the Kiwi panel hit and will be trounced by the tail end of TVNZ 2’s 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown …

➢➢ The stars of the latest X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix, will take over the couch when Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Michael Fassbender appear on the June 14 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.00) …

➢➢ And the movie franchises won’t end there on Three: the network also will roll out a Saturday night double-bill of Shrek (7.00) and Back to the Future (8.45), and on Thursday, Jurassic Park (8.30) …

➢➢ The same week Maori TV will premiere the James Rolleston movie, The Rehearsal (8.30 Sunday), as well as the series, Off the Grid (8.30 Tuesday), in which Pio Terei goes off the beaten track to visit those living off-the-grid …

➢➢ Other HD coming attractions for that week will include the network movie premieres of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Sunday) and Going in Style (Three, 9.00 Sunday) plus:

• Tron: Legacy (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Da Vinci Code (TVNZ 2, 9.15 Saturday)
• Predator II (Duke, 9.25 Saturday)
• Kick-Ass 2 (Three, 10.55 Saturday)
• The Conjuring 2 (TVNZ 2, 12.10am Monday)
• A Good Man (Prime, 9.30 Monday)
• White Chicks (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• Wish I Was Here (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday) …

➢➢ Chaos at the Castle (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Tuesdays from June 18) follows two high-flying lawyers who buy a rundown pile in France to convert into a country house hotel. “The wisdom of swapping a semi in Teddington for a château in Limousin started to look somewhat dubious as predictable disasters ensued from the usual over-optimistic budgeting and inexperience,” said The Telegraph …

➢➢ Weather Gone Viral (Prime, 8.30 Saturdays from June 15) captures incredible weather phenomena on camera, from tornadoes in outer space, to a volcanic eruption that creates a sonic boom, to a thick fog that overwhelms the Grand Canyon and makes it vanish …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 will resume Station 19, from episode four of season two, on June 12 (9.35 Wednesdays) while ending their runs that week will be WhichCar, Dancing With the Stars, Top Gear, George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and The Pacific War in Colour.