HD Heads-Up: March 16-22

HD isn’t the only new normal on TV3 — it’s also the name of its latest gay parenting sitcom.

Not surprisingly, the network is teaming it with Friday night re-runs of Modern Family from March 22.

From Glee creator Ryan Murphy, The New Normal stars The Hangover’s Justin Bartha and Girls’ Andrew Rannells as a gay couple who start a family with the help of a single mother (Georgia King) who becomes their surrogate, despite the interference of her mother (Ellen Barkin).

The show divided US critics as sharply as the issue of gay marriage.

The Chicago Sun-Times thought it one of the best new series of the 2012 season, dubbing it “a witty-but-poignant look at what it means to be a modern family.

“Watch out Archie Bunker; no one plays a bigot better than Ellen Barkin.”

But the Miami Herald said, “Where Modern Family is sweet and funny, The New Normal is cheap and hectoring.”

In-between was TV Guide: “The tone can wobble from sappy to flamboyantly snarky, but there’s a real emotional undercurrent that makes Normal a good fit with Matthew Perry’s new sitcom Go On.”

But Entertainment Weekly gave Normal “a slight edge because it’s tighter and more assured“.

Also of note in HD for the week starting March 16:

❑ The movies Who’s That Girl on Saturday (TV2, 10.20), X2 on Sunday (TV3, 8.30) and Batman Begins on Friday (TV2, 8.00)

❑ Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and star John Slatterly (left) in a Simpsons parody of the Madison Ave drama on Sunday (TV3, 7.00)

❑ Jude Law, Mila Kunis and Dame Judi Dench on Friday’s The Graham Norton Show (TV3, 8.30).