HD Heads-Up: May 3-9

➢➢ Two home improvement satires premiere the same week as the doyen of another reality genre, MasterChef Australia, returns. The Feud (TVNZ 1, 9.30 Sunday) asks: How well do you know your neighbours? It depicts how one couple’s kitchen extension upsets their close friends next door so much “their lives are plunged into obsession, paranoia, and fear”. The Times thought it “a sly send-up … a darkly comic tale of neighbourly disputes” but The Telegraph dubbed it a dud of “a domestic thriller that is startling in its unoriginality” despite a strong cast (Jill Halfpenny, Rupert Penry Jones, Adam Macqueen, Louisa Harland, James Fleet) …

➢➢ Making its free-to-air debut is Neon’s The Curse (Sky Open, 10.00 Wednesday), a cringe comedy about newlyweds trying to start a family while wrestling with a curse and the filming of a property makeover series. Starring Emma Stone and The Rehearsal’s Nathan Fielder, it was widely acclaimed as a “surreal” reality TV parody that’s “skin-crawling” and “surprisingly moving” …

➢➢ Season 17 of MasterChef Australia anchors a revitalised weeknight menu on TVNZ 2 (7.30 Monday-Wednesday). It will provide an unbeatable lead-in to the likes of Monday night’s The Rookie and the Wednesday night return of Taskmaster UK (8.40) and Taskmaster Australia (9.40). Subtitled Back to Win, S17 features contestants from previous seasons vying to be top chef …

➢➢ Three also resurrects, albeit more belatedly, another primetime staple: S22 of NCIS (8.30 Monday), which has been screening since October in the US. Ironically, it airs opposite another law-and-order drama that used to screen on the network, The Rookie. Three’s also giving celebrated family wrestling drama Heels a late-night FTA run (10.50 Sunday) and premieres this year’s Best Foods Comedy Gala (8.30 Thursday) …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 offers a true-crime alternative to NCIS and The Rookie: Abused by Mum: The Ruby Franke Scandal (8.30 Monday). It shows how “Momfluencer” Ruby Franke used her 8 Passengers YouTube channel to document the daily lives of her all-American brood — until a 911 call went viral and exposed shocking child abuse …

➢➢ Duke refreshes Friday nights with the S2 premieres of Poker Face (8.30), which originally aired on TVNZ 2, and The Walking Dead: Dead City (9.30) …

➢➢ Other newcomers include The Choir Games (Sky Open, 7.30 Sunday), an inspirational Sky NZ Originals docuseries about a small-town Kiwi choir on the world stage, and:

• Curse of Oak Island (Duke, 4.10 Saturday, then daily)
• Neighbourhood Wars S5 (Duke, 9.30 Wednesday)
• City on a Hill S3 (Sky Open, 11.10 Wednesday)
• I Hate Suzie S2 (Sky Open, 9.30 Thursday) …

➢➢ Ending their runs are:

• Black Snow
• Wreck
• Everything I Know About Love
• Mrs. Davis 
• Interview With the Vampire 
• The Last Anniversary
• Down For Love …

➢➢ Live/delayed FTA sport includes:

• SRP: Blues v Western Force (Sky Open, 4.00 Saturday)
• SRP: Hurricanes v Chiefs (Sky Open, 7.00 Saturday)
• NRL: Warriors v Cowboys R9 (Sky Open, 9.30 Saturday)
• Premier League: Goal Rush (Sky Open, 10am Sunday)    
• Sal’s NBL: Manawatu Jets v Nelson Giants (Sky Open, 1.30 Sunday)
• SRP: Highlanders v Moana Pasifika (Sky Open, 3.30 Sunday)
• NRL: Knights v Titans R10 (Sky Open, 7.30 Friday) …

➢➢ HD coming attractions include the network premiere of 2021’s Dune (Three, 8.00 Sunday) and:

• Pan (Three, 6.30 Saturday)
• Dance Academy (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Saturday)
• Run All Night (Three, 8.30 Saturday)
• The Changeover (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Saturday)
• Brooklyn (TVNZ 2, 12.10am Sunday)
• LEGO Movie 2 – The Second Part (TVNZ 2, 2.55 Sunday)
• Mr Deeds (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• Mile 22 (Sky Open, 8.30 Sunday)
• Tulip Fever (Eden, 8.40 Sunday)
• Vermilion (Whakaata Māori, 8.45 Sunday)
• God’s Country (TVNZ 2, 12,35am Sunday)
• That’s My Boy (Duke, 9.30 Monday)
• Snowpiercer (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Living (Whakaata Māori,  8.30 Wednesday)
• Ella Enchanted (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Friday).