HD Heads-Up: October 7-13

September 28, 2023 0 Comments

➢➢ UK critics were skeptical of the need for yet another property makeover show but so popular was Channel 4’s Worst House on the Street in its first run that two more seasons were commissioned. TVNZ 1 is jettisoning its 7.30 Wednesday game show slot to double-bill it with Location Location Location Australia. It’s fronted by brother-and-sister property developers Scarlette and Stuart Douglas, who guide homeowners through their money-pit transformations. Pondered The Guardian: “What does our nation need to see in these straitened times? Surely not a young couple who have ‘just’ 40k to do up an already over-priced doer-upper? … You’ll be screaming at the TV, ‘WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?'” …

➢➢ The latest season of pirate romp Our Flag Means Death launches on free-to-air TV within days of its streaming premiere on Neon (Sky Open, 8.30 Wednesday). It’s being double-billed with one of the funniest HBO comedies in years, Crashing (Sky Open, 9.30). It stars Pete Holmes as a struggling stand-up comic in New York City — imagine Seinfeld as a Christian — and ran for three charming and uproarious seasons …

➢➢ Wildlife buffs can feast on three series premieres: Edge of the Earth (Sky Open, 9.00 Saturday), A Year on Planet Earth (TVNZ 1, 2.05 Sunday) and Planet Shark (Whakaata Māori, 8.00 Tuesday). Edge is a four-part HBO Max series about extreme outdoor pursuits. Decider said it “balances character-based drama-building with truly epic cinematography that’ll drop your jaws and fill your heart” and the San Jose Mercury News declared: “If you like getting your nerves frayed, filleted and fricassed, this is a must” …

➢➢ A Year on Planet Earth is a “deja vu-inducing” Stephen Fry take on a Sir David Attenborough epic. “This six-part story of the seasons has gobsmacking camerawork harvested in 60 corners of the planet,” The Telegraph said. “As a whistle-stop globe-trotting primer for younger viewers, the series does everything necessary – although it mainly keeps quiet about climate change” …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 is pairing 1News Your Vote 23: Final Leaders’ Debate (7.00 Thursday) with Jay Blades: Learning To Read at 51 (8.30 Thursday), in which The Repair Shop presenter reveals his reading struggles. The Guardian hailed it as “a fine, tightly focused look at the many interdependent causes of illiteracy, and its effects, with unusually honest appraisals of them” …

➢➢ Returning are Build Your Dream Home (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Saturday), The Casketeers (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Monday) and Helicopter ER (Sky Open, 7.30 Tuesday) while ending their runs are In For a Penny, Freddie’s Field of Dreams, George Clarke’s Remarkable Renovations, For Her Sins, Rain Dogs, World’s Most Dangerous Roads, Paramedics and Resident Alien …