HDTV Heads-Up: Anarchic Week Looms for TV3

TV3 will rev up its HD output in the week starting October 16 with four movies and two series premieres, including a high-octane drama about Southern California bikies.

The network’s had Sons of Anarchy idling in the vault for a while, and at one stage it looked as if the violent but thoughtful drama might be relegated to late-night or to an SD slot on C4.

But its 9.30pm Wednesday berth, from October 20, after the HD launch of the latest Survivor, is a deserved vote of confidence in the made-for-cable TV series that’s been dubbed “Easy Rider meets The Sopranos”.

Ceated by Kurt Sutter, who wrote for The Shield, it’s about a motorcycle clan headed by Katey Segal (Futurama, Married … With Children) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy), who’s rumoured to have a role in The Hobbit, and is into its third season in the US.

Reviews were mostly favourable: “Few series have exploded onto the scene with such a rich array of potential stories and inherently interesting characters” (San Francisco Chronicle); “a superior package, intelligently constructed and handsomely executed” (Los Angeles Times); “a complex and well-built drama that leaves the viewer wondering if there’s enough humanity here to make the hard-boiled stories worth following” (New York Daily News).

Heading the HD movies for that week are The Happening and 28 Weeks Later while even the late-night movies Deception and Phat Girlz will be in HD.