HD Heads-Up: October 10 – 16

October 1, 2020 0 Comments

➢➢ TVNZ 2 will use the return of Late Night Big Breakfast as a centrepiece of its Tuesday night comedy block. The Leigh Hart lifestyle show parody will premiere weekly on Duke (8.30 Sundays from October 11) and also air 9.55 Tuesdays on TVNZ 2, where it will follow the network’s top-rating Young Sheldon and Mom, pushing back Will & Grace even later to 10.30. The publicity promises “rapid-fire interviews with bewildered guests, infomercial heavy breaks and bizarre hilarious segments” …

➢➢ HBO Max series Love Life is graduating from TVNZ OnDemand to primetime. TVNZ 2 is adding the Anna Kendrick comedy to its Monday night schedule (9.20 from October 12). It follows the evolution of a New Yorker’s love life from her 20s to her 30s. “Love Life‘s first season breezes by on Anna Kendrick’s charms, but those looking for a real connection may find its featherweight familiarness frustrating,” was the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes …

➢➢ Another late-night rom-com Mad About You will screen 10.35 Wednesdays on TVNZ 2 from October 14. It’s a reboot of the ’90s hit in which Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser reprise their roles as a New York couple. “Naturally it’s now something of an intergenerational comedy, but the scripts are still strong and Hunt and Reiser amply demonstrate that they still have chutzpah and chemistry in spades,” Stuff said of its TVNZ OnDemand premiere in March. But most US critics agreed with TV Guide’s verdict: “A relic of a different time” …

➢➢ Friend of the Friendless (TVNZ 1, 8.00 October 15) is a posthumous tribute to controversial defence lawyer Greg King, who died in 2012. The 90-minute docudrama uses interviews, dramatic reconstructions, news and trial footage to depict King’s defence of Ewen Macdonald for the murder of his brother-in-law Scott Guy. “Many people in society think, ‘How can criminal defence lawyers sleep soundly at night for the stuff that they do?’,” presenter and Massey University law professor Chris Gallivan told The TV Guide. “I hope that this shows that actually they work very, very hard and they are driven by a sense of what’s right and fairness and justice more than the notion of money, ego or notoriety” …

➢➢ Friend will follow the last leaders debate (TVNZ 1, 7.00) before the election while Newshub Decision 2020: The Euthanasia Question (Three, 8.30 Wednesday) will debate whether assisted dying should be legalised …

➢➢ Billionaire Kids (TVNZ 1, 8.25 Tuesday) is the sister show of Billionaire Babies, focusing on how they grow up to enjoy everything from gold-plated iPads to a $20,000 miniature sports car. Here’s how one teenager describes his lavish lifestyle: “On weekdays lots of sleep, less homework, maybe a personal training session, a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and a good Netflix series before bed. On weekends, lots of clothes, lots of shoes, sushi” …

➢➢ Wildlife buffs should set the PVR for Lions on the Move (Three, 4.50 Saturday), a two-part series about the relocation of 28 lions and 14 hyenas to a sanctuary on the edge of a South African game reserve that was filmed over six months. It follows another natural history premiere, Mystery Monkeys of Shangri-La (Three, 3.45), about a family of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys living in the Himalayas …

➢➢ Returning for new seasons that week will be Motorway Patrol (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Wednesday) and Renters (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Wednesday) and, for a one-off special, Highway Patrol: Cops Tell All (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Tuesday), while ending their runs will be MasterChef Australia, Spy Wars With Damian Lewis and The Sex Clinic …

➢➢ The only network movie premieres in the week starting October 10 will be Stray (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday) and Kedi (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday). Other HD coming attractions will include: