HD Heads-Up: May 22 – 28

➢➢ Given the themed programming of its Monday and Tuesday crime franchise double-bills, you would thought Three might have replaced The Rookie with Magnum P.I. as the new Wednesday night Hawaii Five-O stablemate. Instead, it will launch on May 26 a two-year-old procedural that’s since been canned. L.A.’s Finest stars Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union as the bad-babe cops answer to Bad Boys in what The Guardian dubbed “a female-led action-comedy where both leads are capable badasses who are partial to a shag and a laugh: broadly, good. But LA’s Finest is so obvious with it” …

➢➢ Jamie’s Easy Meals for Every Day (TVNZ 1, 7.00 Saturdays from May 22) is a variation on his previous series, using household ingredients to reinvent everything from roast chicken and cauliflower cheese pasta to garlic prawn kebabs, sausage and mash pie, butter chicken and steak …

➢➢ TVNZ 2’s Popstars in the week starting May 22 will see the finalists face a fashion challenge with celebrity stylist Sammy Salsa (Monday); shoot music videos ahead of their VIP music industry gig (Tuesday); and perform before NZ music VIPs (Wednesday) …

➢➢ The same week VF 48Hours Film Festival (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Thursday) will showcase 18 of the best short films from this year’s competition ahead of announcing the winner …

➢➢ Apex Gangs (Maori TV, 7.30 Sunday) is a 2017 SBS documentary that asks if they are a serious threat or just a bunch of kids demonised disproportionately to their activities …

➢➢ Returning for new episodes that week will be Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords (Prime, 9.30  Wednesday) while ending their runs will be Crazy on a Plane, Cornwall With Simon Reeve, Murder on Middle Beach, FBI: Most Wanted, Bay Patrol and Young Rock …

➢➢ Networks running movie franchises as weekly instalments is commonplace. But TVNZ 2 will take the sequels sequencing a step further on the weekend of May 22-23 when it double-bills on Saturday from 9.30 Sicario and Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado, and on Sunday from 7.00 Rogue One: A Stars Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi …

➢➢ There will be three network movie premieres the same weekend: Storm Boy (Three, 7.00 Saturday), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Three, 8.00 Sunday) and Breathe (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Finding Dory (TVNZ 2, 6.30 Saturday)
• Red Planet (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Saturday)
• The Breaker Upperers (Three, 11.45 Saturday)
• Run All Night (TVNZ 2 ,1.30am Sunday)
• Tales of Halloween (TVNZ 2, 12.05am Monday)
• Black Hawk Down (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Vanilla Sky (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• The Fast and the Furious (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Unfinished Business (Duke, 8.30 Sunday).