HD Heads-Up: June 18 – 24

➢➢ Team of rivals: TV networks will join forces for a four-hour live broadcast to mark Matariki on June 24. Following the hautapu dawn ceremony and an address from the Prime Minister, there will be commentary and panel discussions based on the three themes of Matariki. It will screen on not only Whakaata Māori (the new name for Māori TV) but also across TVNZ 1, Prime, Three and Radio New Zealand. It’s part of a week-long marathon of Matariki-themed programming that will include series premieres, specials and movies …

➢➢ The pick of these promises to be East Coast Rising (TVNZ 2, 9.10 Thursday), an underdog reality series about Ngati Porou East Coast, the Heartland Rugby team that represents an isolated East Cape community that’s home to NZ’s second largest iwi, Ngāti Porou. The players haven’t won a game in eight years but Gisborne-born ex-All Black winger Hosea Gear plans to change this when he returns home. East Coast Rising will be teamed with S2 of The Walkers …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 will dedicate June 24 to a night of Matariki programming, from Give Us A Clue Matariki Special at 7.00 to the movies Billy and The Dance Exponents: Why Does Love?. TVNZ 2 will premiere at 7.30 Stan Walker: Impossible Live Matariki Special (Britain’s Got Talent will shift to 8.30) while Duke’s 8.30 Friday movie will be Sione’s Wedding. The latter will screen ahead of Purapura Whetu – Stars of Matariki, which will explore the attributes of the main nine stars of the cluster. And at 8.40, Whakaata Māori will premiere Legacy, a documentary about how whānau band Katchafire survived the COVID-19 lockdown by asking themselves what truly connects an artist with their fan-base. Lastly, TVNZ OnDemand will stream from Monday Kiwi & Cat – Manawatia a Matariki, in which the animated duo discover the story of Matariki with with help from iconic Kiwi characters …

➢➢ This Is Going to Hurt (TVNZ 1, 9.30 Sunday/full season, TVNZ OnDemand) promises to be the best new hospital drama series since Bodies. “The BBC’s take on NHS doctor Adam Kay’s memoir pulls no punches in portraying the difficulties of life as a junior medic – be it fatigue, bullying or falling asleep at the wheel,” said The Guardian while The Hollywood Reporter thought it “emotionally complex and uneasily hilarious“. The premiere will follow Amazing Spaces: George’s Icelandic Adventure, in which George Clarke and Will Hardie explore the best of Iceland’s architecture …

➢➢Travel Man will switch channels (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Mondays) for its latest series, in which new host Joe Lycett and some of his comedian pals, including Aisling Bea and Katherine Parkinson, embark on popular short-to-medium haul trips around the world. The same night Extreme Weddings will premiere (TVNZ 2, 8.40) while new to Three will be Kiwi decluttering series Sort Your Life Out NZ (8.30 Wednesday) and This Time Next Year Australia (9.30 Wednesday), an Australian series about people tackling monumental personal goals during the most challenging year of their lives …

➢➢ Four Weddings and a Funeral (TVNZ 2, 11.05 Sunday) is a 2019 Hulu commission that Variety thought a “pleasant distraction that doesn’t quite capture the magic of the original movie … The limited anthology series from Mindy Kaling and Matt Warburton — the team behind The Mindy Project, a sitcom love letter to the rom-com genre — isn’t a reboot of Richard Curtis’ 1994 film. It rather just uses its premise of a group of friends weathering four weddings and a funeral together (for better and for worse), as a basic structure for their own perfectly pleasant stories. It’s also still based in London for seemingly no reason other than nostalgia; all four of the main characters are American Anglophiles who returned to the U.K. after spending a transformative semester there in college” …

➢➢ The Pacific (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Tuesdays from June 22) is a 2019 National Geographic series that explores the wildlife, geology and weather of our own big blue backyard …

➢➢ Returning for a second season will be Secret Nazi Bases (Duke, 9.20 Wednesday) while ending their runs will be Storage Wars, Taskmaster and Pawn Stars …

➢➢ Heading the network movie premieres for the week starting June 18 will be Goosebumps 2 (Three, 7.00 Saturday), Gringo (Three, 8.45 Saturday), Destination Love (TVNZ 1, 9.00 Saturday) and Judy and Punch (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Goodbye Christopher Robin (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• Love Sarah (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• Viceroy’s House (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Saturday)
• Born to Dance (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Saturday)
• Beowulf (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• The Zookeeper’s Wife (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Saturday)
• Top of the Class (Three, 10.55 Saturday)
• My Cousin Rachel (TVNZ 2, 1.10am Sunday)
• Teen Titans Go! to the Movies (TVNZ 2, 4.15 Sunday)
• The Expendables 2 (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• The Imitation Game (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• Furious 7 (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Sunday)
• Chasing Great (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Dirty Harry (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Gattaca (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• The Legend of Baron To’a (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• McLaren (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Friday)
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Billy (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Friday)
• Sione’s Wedding (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• The Dance Exponents: Why Does Love? (TVNZ 1, 10.00 Friday)
• Midnight Special (TVNZ 2, 2.55am Saturday).