HIGHLIGHTS
SATURDAY Tough As Nails Prime, 8pm
Phil Keoghan (left, The Amazing Race) returns with a new season of this series in which ordinary people compete in a range of gruelling real-world challenges set in actual job sites. If they can endure the physically and mentally taxing tasks, there could be a big payday at the end for the winner. Story p14.
Waru Maori TV, 8.30pm
This local drama comprises eight 10-minute vignettes, directed by eight female M ori directors. Each story unfolds around the tangi of a boy called Waru who has been killed by his caregiver. A review on Stuff described Waru as one of the best movies of 2017.
SUNDAY Long Shot TVNZ 2, 8pm
When presidential candidate Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) appoints childhood friend Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) as her speechwriter, a surprising romance ensues between the seemingly mismatched pair. While Rogen is known for his comedic turns, Theron once again proves – as she did in Arrested Development – that she can turn her hand to anything in this 2019 comedy.
La Brea Prime, 8.30pm
When a sinkhole opens up in the middle of Los Angeles, hundreds of people, vehicles and buildings disappear into the abyss. The sunken victims find themselves in a mysterious world filled with danger in this disaster drama series. Story p7.
Yellowstone Prime, 9.30pm
This popular soapy drama starring Kevin Costner (left) as a Montana rancher makes its free-to-air debut tonight. John Dutton (Costner) and his family own the largest ranch in the United States. But family loyalty is tested when tensions arise between the
Duttons, land developers and the residents of the local Native American reservation over the land borders of the Montana estate.
MONDAY Three M ori Boys Go Global Maori TV, 8pm
Lifelong friends Joe, Wayne and Lance have created a non-alcoholic beverage called Wai M nuka. This new local reality series follows the trio as they market their homegrown product to people around the world.
Station Eleven SoHo, 9.30pm
Given its premise, this series might sound like one to skip for being a little too close to home. But this moving drama about the aftermath of a global pandemic is worth watching. Starring Mackenzie Davis (above), Station Eleven deftly explores how the lives of those left behind interconnect and intersect over the decades following the
outbreak. Story p12.
TUESDAY Travel Guides TVNZ 2, 7.30pm
This week, the intrepid Aussie Travel Guides are aboard a luxury
river cruise that will take them down the Mekong River from Cambodia to Southern Vietnam. But will the accommodation match up to their high standards?
TVNZ Duke, 8.30pm
He famously explored the final frontier in Star Trek and now William Shatner is on a new mission of discovery. This docu series probes mysteries such as UFOs, cryptids, and serendipitous brain injuries – where people emerge from accidents with surprising new skills.
Louis Theroux: Forbidden America Prime, 9.45pm
Documentarian Louis Theroux returns with a new three-part series. In tonight’s episode, Theroux sniffs out the influencers behind America’s growing far right movement. Story p10.
THURSDAY Dog Squad Puppy School TVNZ 2, 7.30pm
Ever wonder what a Land Search And Rescue snow dog does in the off-season? All will be revealed tonight when trainee snow pup Echo goes on a summer holiday.
Choice TV, 8.30pm
In the final of this survival series, explorer Ed Stafford goes head to head in the Asksai Desert with China’s Xinlei Wu, an ex-soldier and former French Foreign Legion desert specialist.
FRIDAY Have You Been Paying Attention? TVNZ 2, 8.30pm
Host Hayley Sproull and team captains Vaughan Smith and Urzila Carlson return to skewer the week’s headlines in this local comedy panel series.