10 bites from TVNZ's new line-up

The new tv series Aquarius.

TVNZ announced their new season line-up last night, and while there were nearly 40 new shows on the list, here are the 10 most intriguing fresh offerings ...

1. When We Go To War

Six-part historical saga marking the centennial of the Gallipoli landing. It tells the World War I stories of six young men and women, following one character per episode and cutting between life in New Zealand, and on the front in Gallipoli and Egypt. The cast includes Ido Drent (Shortland Street, Offspring), Esther Stephens (Go Girls, House Husbands), and Shavaughn Ruakere (Shortland Street).

2. Our First Home

Sounding like TVNZ's answer to The Block, this new-format local home renovation show follows three family teams as they buy and move into a potentially profitable do-up, and then gives them 10 weeks to renovate and see who has added the most value at auction.

3. 800 Words

Erik Thomson (from Packed to the Rafters) stars in this new transtasman series as George, a man who has been left to raise his teenagers on his own after the sudden death of his wife. He makes a rash decision to move them from Sydney to a small picturesque town in New Zealand in order to make a fresh start. But his kids, and the locals, have other ideas. It's being made by South Pacific Pictures and will also screen on Australia's Seven Network.

4. Descent from Disaster

A documentary series looking back at our history of disasters which comes fronted by various television faces - including Toni Street, Mark Sainsbury, Peter Elliott - who have family or other connections to to the historic events.

5. Bogans

Following a succession of various bogan import shows from Australia, this 10-episode documentary presents the work of Bogan-ologist David Snell, the Hamiltonian who has a Waikato University PhD in boganism. Prepare to cringe - or to be pleasantly surprised by - the culture, attitudes and lifestyles of the Kiwi bogan.

6. Aquarius

Californication is over, but David Duchovny is still in Los Angeles in this new 1960s drama. He plays homicide detective Sam Hodiak, who is drawn into investigations which dovetail with the real-life activities of cult-leader and murderer Charles Manson.

7. How to Get Away With Murder

Academy Award-nominee Viola Davis stars in this new drama from Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, Grey's Anatomy), playing a brilliant criminal law professor who finds herself entangled in a murder plot involving a student.

8. Forever

Welsh star Ioan Gruffudd (King Arthur, Fantastic Four) plays a medical examiner with a secret - he may examine the dead for a living but Dr Henry Morgan is immortal. When he starts working with a new detective, she starts poking some holes in his 200-year-old secret.

9. Marvel's Agent Carter

As well as bringing back a third series of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., TV2 are adding another spin-off to their stable, with this new series following Captain America's sidekick Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell. Set in the aftermath of World War II, the show follows the adventures of Agent Carter as she juggles her administrative day job with secret missions for Tony Stark's genius dad Howard (played by Dominic Cooper).

10. Thunderbirds Are Go

Britain's ITV has been working with Wellington's Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop to bring back Gerry Anderson's 1960s puppet sci-fi action series using computer animation and live-action models. Twenty-six episodes will air next year, marking 50 years since it first screened. Actors voicing the characters include Rosamund Pike as Lady Penelope and David Graham who reprising his role as her faithful chauffeur Parker.

Also: Among other shows returning for new seasons are Broadchurch, Resurrection, The Walking Dead, and My Kitchen Rules NZ.

• Click here to see the full TVNZ show list.

- TimeOut