HD Heads-Up: September 14

TV3 writes off The Blacklist? … Dead of Sunday … Encore for The Voice … 

Tomorrow I will post news of a raft of new shows for TV3 but the bad news for fans of The Blacklist is the line-up doesn’t include the latest season of the James Spader drama. Moreover, it doesn’t even look as if season four will be fast-tracked on 3Now. The network says the transmission date is still undecided, even though the show resumes in the US on September 22. It’s not surprising TV3 has gone cold on the once red-hot thriller given its NZ ratings have gone off the boil. But you’d have thought, given the show’s loyal fan base, at least an 11pm slot could have been found for it given the preponderance of late-night re-runs on the channel …

Capping TV2’s new-look Sundays from September 25, when Lethal Weapon and The Exorcist premiere, will be Dead of Summer. The summer camp murder mystery was first seen here on TVNZ OnDemand after being poorly reviewed in the US, where Variety complained “every twist is a cliché, and every character is playing to type”. The Los Angeles Times thought it “disjointed, absurd and only mildly frightening” while TV Guide quipped “the supernatural shocks are less scary than the bad acting”. But kudos to TV2 for humorously double-billing it with The Exorcist …

Despite the previous season hitting too many bum rating notes, TV2 will give the US version of The Voice another primetime run from September 30, when it will air 8.30 Fridays after the return of Take Me Out. The series will lag nearly two weeks behind NBC’s broadcast of the talent quest …

Prime will premiere the “docu-series“, The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey, on September 25, a week after it goes to air on CBS. The network hasn’t released episodes for previewing but according to the New York Times, “the clips promise a longer, more drawn-out dissecting of the same material covered in the other programmes” that US channels are running to commemorate the case’s 20th anniversary. The series was meant to run for six hours but because of the programming glut, Variety reports CBS has cut it back to four. CBS is running The Case as two two-hour instalments back-to-back whereas Prime will air them a week apart …

Also new to Prime the same night will be The Story of China. The Telegraph dubbed Michael Wood’s series “a brilliant but breathless history of modern China” while the Daily Mail thought the approach “hypnotically slow … dreamy and reverential”. The Guardian called it “weighty and a little sticky” but said “Wood’s history lesson is more fun when he gets to the dynasties, with warring warlords, wicked kings and human sacrifice” …

TV One will wrap Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders with a double-episode on September 26. Also ending their runs that week are Hillary, Jericho and Undercover Boss USA while new to TV One off-peak will be the BBC wildlife series, Nature’s Boldest Thieves (4.55 Sundays), and season four of Major Crimes (11.00 Tuesdays) …

The only network movie premiere for the week starting September 25 is Prisoners (TV2, 9.45 Saturday). Other coming attractions in HD that week include: The Sword in the Stone (TV2, 5.25 Saturday), Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (TV2, 7.00 Saturday), Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (TV3, 7.00 Saturday), About Time (TV3, 8.50 Saturday), Easy A (TV2, 12.45am Sunday), Rabbit Hole (TV2, 3.35am Sunday), Runner Runner (TV3, 10.30 Sunday), Underworld: Awakening (TV2, 11.35 Sunday), Fast & Furious 6 (TV3, 8.35 Monday) and X-Men (Prime, 8.35 Thursday) …

Monday’s 60 Minutes (Prime, 8.30) witnesses the brutal drugs war campaign of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, explores the argument over encryption with tech-savvy terrorist groups such as ISIS using smart phones and messaging apps to communicate, and meets Australian make-up artist Napoleon Perdis …