HD Heads-Up: November 6 – 12
October 28, 2021 
3 Comments
➢➢ TVNZ 1 will continue its Sunday night crime drama strand with the November 7 premiere of Bloodlands. It stars James Nesbitt as a detective who reopens a 20-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of his wife to solve a new missing person mystery. The Guardian dubbed the four-part procedural “enjoyably dense with enough black humour to let it breathe” but Radio Times thought “it too convoluted for its own good”. Decider recommended it as “a solid drama that moves through its story efficiently without a lot of fuss. And that’s a pretty welcome thing these days”. The BBC has commissioned a second series from producer Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty, Bodyguard) …
➢➢ TVNZ 2 will refresh its primetime line-up in the second week of November with two new comedies and a revived dating show. Spreadsheet (8.35 Tuesdays) is an Australian series about a divorced, hectic mother-of-two whose quest for sex without commitment leads her to develop “a database of sex options, customised to ensure variety and order amidst the chaos of her life. Unexpectedly, she finds a slew of needy men, which even a well-managed Excel tracker can’t control.” The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson and Kiwi Robbie Magasiva star in a series that streams across the Tasman on Paramount+ …
➢➢ Call Me Kat (8.00 Wednesdays) stars Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) in a US version of UK comedy Miranda, about a woman who struggles to prove that she can still live a happy and fulfilling life as a 39-year-old singleton. The series was poorly reviewed when it debuted 10 months ago on US TV, with Rotten Tomatoes summing it up this: “More gimmick than sitcom, Call Me Kat buries a charming Mayim Bialik in a sandbox of toothless jokes and shallow 
characterisations”. But the show’s ratings were “modest but respectable” enough for Fox to renew …
➢➢ Mondays will become Date Night on TVNZ 2, with the network adding a 2021 reboot of Beauty and the Geek with Love Island’s Sophie Monk from November 8. It will be the new 7.30 lead-in for First Dates Australia and Naked Attraction, and also will air 7.30 Tuesdays. “It’s a competition show, a dating show and social experiment all rolled into one, and damn, we’re excited,” MamaMia! said of its July launch on Australia’s Channel Nine …
➢➢ Indicative of how Three’s programming strategy has changed under Discovery’s ownership in the past year is the late-night scheduling of Magnum PI. S3 will air midnight Fridays from November 12 as primetime increasingly becomes the domain of reality and documentary series. S4 of Magnum PI went to air this month in the US …
➢➢ Impossible Railways (Duke, 9.30 Thursdays from November 11) is billed as “a unique science and history series that showcases some of the world’s most extraordinary railways and the daring engineering that made them possible … using a trademark combination of exclusive access, exciting graphics and stunning footage” …
➢➢ TVNZ 2 will complement its primetime run of The Voice Australia with off-peak weekend broadcasts of its US stablemate (4.10 Saturdays and Sundays from November 6). S21 will lag two months behind the US broadcasts. Said TV Line: “You could tell that the Season 21 premiere of The Voice was going to show you a good time from the start, when returning coaches Blake Shelton, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson teamed up with first-timer Ariana Grande to turn ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ and ‘Respect’ into the most rollicking mashup of songs since Olivia Newton-John and The Tubes went ‘Dancin” in Xanadu. From there, we were treated to some by and large extremely good Blind Auditions” …
➢➢ Also returning that week will be Midsomer Murders (Prime, 8.30 Saturday)and Cold Case (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Tuesday) while ending their runs will be Kids Say the Darndest Things, Royals Declassified, The Red Stag Timber Hunters Club, 20/20, Rich House, Poor House, Growing Dope and When Big Things Go Wrong ...
➢➢ Billy Connolly, Jodie Whittaker, Tom Daley, Dame Eileen Atkins, Sir Lenny Henry and Coldplay will guest on the November 11 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 9.00) …
➢➢ There will be two network movie premieres in the second week of November: Emu Runner (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday) and 3 Faces (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:
- Despicable Me (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
- Cast Away (Three, 8.30 Saturday)
- Big Fish (Maori TV, 8.40 Saturday)
- Home Again (TVNZ 2, 8.45 Saturday)
- Within (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
- Fifty Shades Darker (Three, 11.20 Saturday)
- The Twilight Saga: New Moon (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Sunday)\
- Step Brothers (Three, 8.55 Sunday)
- Victor Frankenstein (TVNZ 2, 10.55 Sunday)
- Gamer (Prime, 9.35 Monday)
- The Mexican (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
- Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)
- 10 Cloverfield Lane (Three, 8.45 Friday)
- Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (Duke, 9.30 Friday)
- Semi-Pro (TVNZ 2, 3.05am Saturday).
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October 28, 2021 at 9:00 am
It’s wonderful to have 9 seasons of American Horror Story on Disney+. It’s a brilliant show ?
Glad you’re enjoying it, Trevor. I thought S1 was pretty good, S2 was brilliant but I felt quality dropped off so badly thereafter that I stopped watching post-S5. Did get a kick out of Ratched, though.
I watched the first 2 seasons on Netflix but I kinda lost interest with Coven so I decided to rewatch it again and quite enjoying it, those shows have such a great cast. I agree about Asylum, it definitely is indeed brilliant ?