The advent of summer is more reliably heralded by a slew of free-to-air TV series calling it quits for the year than it is by the arrival of sunny weather. And sure enough, among those shows wrapping up this week are Blue Bloods, Both Worlds, Downton Abbey, NZ's Got Talent, Piha Rescue, Scandal, Shortland Street and Survive Aotearoa.
The surest sign it's the start of television's silly season, though, is that Four's Hot Set is the most promising new series on the schedule. (True, on Tuesday, One does launch Tricked, featuring some young bloke's "irreverent brand of undercover magic", but frankly I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than be fooled into watching yet another on-screen sorcerer. I mean, smoke and mirrors are one thing but add editing and other telly techniques to the mix and the whole exercise is rendered ridiculously redundant).
Hot Set is the short-lived sister series to Face Off, the US reality game show in which special effects makeup artists demonstrate their craft and compete against each other in creating fantastical and/or horrific creatures and characters.
Hot Set's, ahem, set-up is exactly the same as Face Off's, except instead of makeup artists it involves production designers, who are essentially the people responsible for the look of a movie or TV show.
