HD Heads-Up: September 3 – 9

➢➢ Celebrity Treasure Island will screen 7.30 Monday-Wednesday on TVNZ 2 from September 5, along with Australian Survivor: Blood v Water 9.00 on Mondays and 9.30 on Tuesdays. The former promises “the biggest twist in Treasure Island history” while the latter, in a series first, will have siblings, couples, in-laws, parents and children competing side by side. Survivor’s Tuesday berth will see SEAL Team shift to 9.40 Thursday, which TVNZ 2 also is refreshing with the 8.00 return of Motorway Patrol and the 8.30 premiere of Danielle Cormack’s Life on the Outside, an Australian reality vehicle for the Kiwi actress in which four households offer their spare room to an ex-inmate for 100 days …

➢➢ Three will give Mondays a facelift with the season premieres of The Rookie at 8.30 and SVU at 9.30. Also returning for new seasons will be Burden of Truth (TVNZ 1, 11.55 Saturday), Renters (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Monday) and Eat Well for Less UK (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Tuesday) while ending their runs will be Superman & Lois, Wipeout, Ultimate Rides, MasterChef Australia, Keeping Australians Safe, Unbreakable, Taskmaster NZ and Guessable …

➢➢ Specials to watch for in the first week of September will include:

• After Hours Tari Take-Over with Stan Walker (Whakaata Māori 7.30 Wednesday), a platform for the singer’s launch of his latest album, All In
• Comedy Month: Urzila Carlson (Three, 7.30 Thursday), in which the  Kiwi South African ponders what makes you African and why does being South African not register as African in most places?
• King in the Ring (Duke, 7.30 Friday): Live coverage of NZ vs AU, in which eight top super heavyweight fighters go head-to-head

➢➢ A slew of series also will premiere late-night or overnight the same week. They include S2 of Girls5eva (TVNZ 2, 10.30 Wednesday); Midnight Texas (Duke, 11.35 Saturday), a 2017-18 adaptation of Charlaine (True Blood) Harris’ book series set in a small-town haven for vampires, witches, psychics and hit men; and the four-part Discovery series, Expedition: Back to the Future (Three, 10.35 Friday), in which Christopher Lloyd goes in search of the iconic DeLorean Time Machine from the Back to the Future trilogy …

➢➢ Alma’s Not Normal (TVNZ 2, 3.35am Sunday) is an acclaimed BBC2 comedy about a woman who starts life over after a break-up and spending time in care because of her dysfunctional family. “TV comedy at its rudest and most fabulous,” raved The Guardian about the semi-autobiographical BAFTA-winner while The Telegraph said, “The series crams copious ‘issues’ into its half a dozen half-hours (substance abuse, sexual consent, disability, grief, inequality, mental health, homelessness) without ever losing its light touch” …

➢➢ Also worth setting the DVR for, if you haven’t already streamed them on TVNZ+, could be Guilty Party (TVNZ 2, 12.30am Thursday) and Rutherford Falls (TVNZ 2, 1am Thursday). The former stars Kate Beckinsale as a disgraced journalist seeking redemption and earned middling reviews; the latter is a comedy about a row over the removal of a historical statue in a small New York town that scored highly with critics and was praised for its Native American representation, both on-screen and behind the scenes, with five Native staff writers …

➢➢ Two movie-length documentaries will screen for the first time on free-to-air TV — Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off (Prime, 7.30 Saturday) and The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (Prime, 9.35 Wednesday) — as will the Mark Wahlberg thriller Infinite (Three, 8.00 Sunday) and Oscar-winning Korean drama Minari (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• The Mummy Returns (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Lassie Come Home (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (Three, 8.25 Saturday)
• On the Road (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• Sgaawaay K’uuna (Whakaata Māori, 8.40 Saturday)
• Angels & Demons (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Saturday)
• Blade – Trinity (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• Darkest Hour (Three, 10.30 Saturday)
• All The Money in the World (TVNZ 2, 12.05am Sunday)
• American Hustle (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• Die Hard 2 (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Sunday)
• High & Mighty (TVNZ 2, 2.05am Monday)
• A Band Called Death (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Vanilla Sky (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Mt Zion (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Three, 7.30 Friday).