ScreenScribe

New this week are Blu-rays of two TV series that have just finished and a third that’s about to start. The movie version of Steve Coogan’s cross-country cuisine odyssey, The Trip, comes out just days ahead of the Rialto Channel screening the original, six-part series unedited in three hour-long double-episodes. (Sky 25, 8.30pm Monday). If […]

Friends (TV2, 6.30, R) Joey becomes convinced that Monica’s having an affair; Rachel gives her phone number to a guy at a bar; Ross and Mike find they have nothing to talk about. ✫✫✫ Shortland Street (TV2, 7.00) Maxwell puts temptation at arm’s length; Sarah reaches out; Gabrielle’s operation fails to have the desired effect. ✫✫✫ Underbelly: […]

New Zealand’s definitive free-to-air guide to what’s airing nightly in 1080i   Saturday Get Fresh With Al Brown (TV One, 7.00) Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (TV2, 7.30, R) Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year (TV3, 7.30) Sunday Hellcats (TV2, 5.30) Rugby World Cup (TV One, 7.00/TV3, 8.30, 5.1) Mike & Molly (TV2, 7.30) The Middle (TV2, 8.00) Monday Friends (TV2, 6.30, […]

Science-fiction and fact abound on Blu-ray this week, with season one of V launching into shops the same day as Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking and season two of The Universe. TV2 aired V in HD but both documentary series have had only SD exposure on Sky, along with two more of Wednesday’s TV-on-Blu-ray releases, […]

After weeks of tolerating absurdly low ratings for Tuesday night repeats of The Mentalist, TV2 at last is dumping the HD drama for movies — with Fringe becoming collateral damage. The spooky HD sensation will screen for the last time next week, at the later time of 10.15pm, with a network spokesman only able to say, “It’ll […]

Last night’s HD dramatisation of the Baby Kahu case, Stolen, dwarfed the competition. The two-hour telemovie drew 11.4% of TV3’s target audience, 18-49 year-olds, compared with V’s 6.1%, Castle’s 7.3% and Real Life’s 5.9%. It was even more popular with 25-54 year-olds (12.4%) and household shoppers with kids (17.4%); even with 18-39 year-olds, it rated […]

TV3’s HD crime hit, Underbelly: The Golden Mile, last night went out with a bang. The final episode drew 15.5% of the network’s key demo, 18-49 year-olds, 14.3% of 18-39 and 16.4% of 25-54, crushing TV2’s V, which could only rate 5.4%-5.6% in these demos. The result helped TV3 to win one of its few […]

The complete first seasons of the musical comedy, Glee (which airs 8.30 tonight on TV3), and the groundbreaking gangster drama, The Sopranos, are among the TV-on-Blu-ray releases scheduled for between next month and the end of the year. Dates have still to be confirmed but expect both to go on sale in October, along with […]

V didn’t stand for victory last night when TV2 relaunched the sci-fi re-make, V, with the first of four HD double-episodes. It opened with 8.7% of the channel’s target market, 18-39 year-olds, down from the 13.5% Cougar Town delivered, dipped as low as 7% and averaged 7.4% over the two hours — light years away […]

In an astonishing programming move that seems even more bizarre in the wake of the record-high ratings for last night’s Outrageous Fortune, TV2 is to screen HD re-runs of The Mentalist opposite the Westie juggernaut. TV3 confirmed in a press release this afternoon that the season-six premiere of Outrageous Fortune notched up the highest overall […]