Why Not HD: Human Target?

If you were hanging out to see TV2’s long-delayed debut of the graphic novel action sensation, Human Target, in HD, you might as well hang out a little longer for the Blu-ray.

The network will double-bill the newcomer with season three of Chuck from August 25, in the 8.30pm-10.30pm zone.

Frustratingly, neither will air in HD, even though the first two seasons of Chuck are out on Blu-ray and season one of Human Target will be released on region-free Blu-ray next month in the US.

Presumably, it’s because TV2 has used up its quota of weekly HD hours with Fringe, The Vampire Diaries and bizarre twice-weekly airings of The Mentalist.

Until TVNZ completes its digital infrastructural overhaul, both TV One and TV2 are limited in the amount of HD content they can screen.

More puzzling is why TV2 didn’t employ Human Target as an adrenalin-junkie’s alternative to TV3’s Outrageous Fortune on Tuesdays, instead of the low-rating re-runs of The Mentalist.

It also would have made a more compatible lead-in to Fringe than The Mentalist. Who would have thought a fringe comedy/drama like Nurse Jackie would out-rate Fringe, which is what it’s doing due to Outrageous Fortune continuing to own Tuesday nights.

However, Human Target does sound like a fun stablemate for Chuck, albeit not as an irreverent take on the spy genre.

It’s said to echo the “retro-chic” of TV3’s HD spy caper, Burn Notice, only is more broadly appealing because it was made for network rather than cable TV.

It stars Fringe’s Mark Valley and has been dubbed everything from “a non-thinking man’s 24“ to “the closest thing on TV to swigging a keg of Red Bull”.

The same week, TV One will launch the seventh and final HD season of Cold Case (9.25pm Sunday).