ScreenScribe

New in Town: Sky Movies, 8.30pm Saturday. Renee Zellweger, JK Simmons and Harry Connick Jr star in a romantic-comedy about a hotshot city-slicker consultant from Miami who finds herself stranded in small-town Minnesota mid-winter. Quipped The Hollywood Reporter: “Strictly old hat — and a poorly assembled hat at that.” (2009) Four Holidays: Sky Movies, 8.30pm [...]

TV2′s abrupt rescheduling of Tuesday nights, replacing re-runs of The Mentalist with movies, failed to dent the momentum of Outrageous Fortune. TV3′s HD comedy/drama last night drew two-to-three times the viewership of Red Eye in all the key demographics, the gap being widest with TV2′s target audience, 18-39 year-olds (18.9% vs 5.8%). The trend continued [...]

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 [...]

The History Boys: TV3, 10.20pm Saturday. If you liked the stage play, you’ll probably give this quirky comedy high marks. But those new to its questionable scenario won’t be won over by the exaggerated performances, grotesque and clichéd characterisations, or dull direction. The perennially unappealing Richard Griffiths plays a maverick history teacher with a predilection [...]

TV3′s steamy sex-addict drama, Californication, last night scored its hottest ratings yet, with the HD premiere of season three. It pulled 12.1% of 18-49 year-olds, compared to HD rival Fringe’s 7.7% on TV2, and 12.9% of 18-39 year-olds (vs Fringe’s 7%). With 25-54 year-olds, the gap was similar but much narrower with household shoppers with [...]

The final season of Heroes at last will go to air here a month after the Blu-ray went on sale in the US. It’s being double-billed with another long-overdue premiere, Joss (Firefly) Whedon’s Dollhouse, from August 30, at 8.30pm Mondays on C4. Like Heroes, Dollhouse is another HD series that won’t screen here in 1080i [...]

Sunshine: TV3, 10.25pm Saturday. Only sci-fi diehards will enjoy this trip to the malarkey side of the sun (it has to be re-ignited with a nuclear payload). Duller than a cloudy day, it stars Cliff Curtis, Damages’ Rose Byrne, Inception’s Cillian Murphy and Kick-Ass’ Mark Strong. Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle directs another screenplay by his [...]

Nurse Jackie ended its HD run last night with fewer viewers than usual tuning into the season finale. It was out-rated in all the key demographics by TV2′s HD rival, Fringe, and TV One’s Real Crime doco about chimps that kill, and kept barely half of the viewership that HD lead-in Outrageous Fortune delivered. TV2′s [...]

As foreshadowed by ScreenScribe.tv, Sky TV has confirmed HBO’s successor to The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, will screen here in HD. The 12-part Prohibition drama, set in 1920s Atlantic City, is from Sopranos scribe Terence Winter, stars Steve Buscemi and includes among its directors Martin Scorsese (who’s also the executive producer). It will air in double-episodes [...]

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 [...]