New Treatment for Doctor Foster

TVNZ 1 will premiere season two of Doctor Foster on October 9 at 8.30 — and at the same time offer all five episodes for streaming online as a box set at tvnz.co.nz.

Such programming shows how the importance of linear scheduling has declined even on free-to-air TV, despite it remaining the platform with the biggest reach.

TVNZ used Doctor Foster for another novel programming strategy last year, when the first series was stripped weeknights on TVNZ 1.

Almost as surprising is TVNZ 1’s decision to shake up its Monday crime time line-up, pulling Criminal Minds from its traditional slot only four episodes into its 12th season.

But all year the network has struggled to gain traction for other US crime dramas, like APB, Lucifer and Blindspot.

Spin-off Beyond Borders will continue at 9.30 while the softer 8.30 Thursday slot will become home to Law & Order spin-off, The Menendez Brothers, from October 12.

The miniseries dramatisation of the trial in which two brothers were accused of killing their parents has just bowed in the US to mixed reviews.

“It’s more mechanical and less thoughtful, lacking a larger curiosity,” the New York Times said.

“Its first two plodding episodes play like the opening acts of a way-too-extended episode of the original Law & Order.”

The Hollywood Reporter was much harsher — “either the Menendez story was ill-suited for an eight-hour miniseries or the Law & Order approach was ill-suited to telling the story” — while Entertainment Weekly said “clunky storytelling techniques … wear away the potential shine”.

But the Los Angeles Times reckons Menendez “has the potential to dominate in an otherwise crowded field of true-crime dramas”.