Alex Casey 
Alex Casey power ranks the final week of Married at First Sight NZ, including eyebrow lady advice and the much-anticipated vow renewal ceremonies. Allow me to tentatively approach the rotunda of romance one more time, for I need to solemnly deliver my final vows to Married at First Sight NZ in this, its last week … Read more
Alex Casey reviews Khalid’s show at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Sunday night. Just like a very primitive prototype for an iPod shuffle, I have the capacity for a little over two albums a year. In 2017, my brain is completely full with Lorde’s Melodrama, and Khalid’s American Teen. By some kind of cosmic collision of … Read more
Confirmed overnight by the creator of the show, Jordan Mauger is set to represent New Zealand on the international Bachelor stage. Jordan Mauger, conductor of the tremendous trainwreck that was The Bachelor NZ S2, is headed to represent New Zealand in The Bachelor Winter Games, a new spinoff of the dating competition set to air … Read more
Alex Casey power ranks the sixth week of Married at First Sight NZ, including an explosive dinner party, wank confessions and an exciting makeover. The reunion was supposed to be a chance for growth, the experts told us while barely stifling their own laughter, a time for the couples to come back together to share … Read more
Messages leaked to The Spinoff reveal Married at First Sight NZ‘s Andrew Jury sent a series of abusive and racist DMs to another user of the service in 2015. Andrew Jury, a participant on Married at First Sight NZ, sent abusive messages to a woman on Tinder, calling her a “whore” after she refused his request … Read more
Alex Casey power ranks the fifth week of Married at First Sight NZ, including wrestling, a new type of pavlova and a severe toilet scare. It only took five weeks for me to realise that the inner workings of Andy’s rancid flat is basically the perfect symbol for the Married at First Sight NZ couples. … Read more
Ahead of the season four premiere of The Brokenwood Mysteries, Alex Casey speaks to two of the show’s stars about their favourite murders. Everyone wants their friends to throw them a nice surprise birthday picnic, but nobody wants the party to be crashed by a mangled skydiver who never quite got his parachute open. Really … Read more
Alex Casey power ranks the fourth week of Married at First Sight NZ, including new living quarters, a tonne of counselling and one very overdue breakup. This week, the cocktail party continued well past that tipping point in an evening where any reasonable person would have already left to get a McChicken and sob to … Read more
Alex Casey previews Wait For Me Hollywood, the final TVNZ1 Sunday Special following movie star James Rolleston in the aftermath of his near-fatal car accident. When James Rolleston was a little boy, he used to peer at the TV from his front lounge in Ōpotiki and say “I want to be in there.” Several years … Read more
Alex Casey power ranks the third week of Married at First Sight NZ, full of cocktails, baths and deep regret. I think I was more excited for this cocktail party than any Bachelor cocktail party, real-life cocktail party, or shrimp cocktail. After being kept in The Shining-style isolation in their respective lodges, estates and glamping … Read more
To celebrate the third season of Mr Robot coming exclusively to Lightbox today at 7pm, here are some of the ways you can protect yourself against the vigilante hacking groups coming for your double chin selfies. Today, after little more than a live E-Coin launch and a cryptic loaded tweet from the director to the … Read more
Alex Casey power ranks the second week of Married at First Sight NZ, where the glow has worn off and the rot has set in. Rip up your veil, feed the bride’s bouquet to the nearest giraffe and cast the cursed wedding rings deep into the nearest creek: true love is dead. Week one led … Read more
Alex Casey rounds up all the characters on Lightbox who are glamorous writers and examines just how accurate their portrayals of the profession are. Like many, I was led to believe that being a writer would mostly consist of calmly sitting down at my desk next to an ornate antique lamp, cranking open my laptop and tapping … Read more
Alex Casey power ranks the first week of Married at First Sight NZ, including reindeer jumpers, house pigs and too many kisses. As I expressed in my sappy review of the premiere yesterday, I have fallen hard and fast for Married at First Sight NZ already. I have walked down the altar, said “I do” … Read more
Alex Casey watches the first episode of Married at First Sight NZ, and falls hook, line and sinker for a 58 year old man named Mr Fluffy. Of all the things to anticipate in her upcoming marriage to a complete stranger, Claire (51) is only looking forward to one thing: sex. It’s the raunchy hen’s … Read more
With Married at First NZ beginning on Three tonight, Alex Casey recounts being in the room for the holy union of two complete strangers. The weirdest thing about being a guest a Married at First Sight wedding, aside from the obvious, is that there’s no music during the ceremony to tell you what to do. … Read more
TVNZ just announced their new season line-up for 2018. Here’s what TV editor Alex Casey is looking forward to the most. Tonight, TVNZ launched their big new season programme on Auckland’s waterfront, including the likes of Big Bang prequel Young Sheldon, UK nudist horror show Naked Attraction and – gird your loins – an untitled Grey’s … Read more
Have you ever prepared a meal so gluttonous, so shameful, so grotesque that you’ve had to take a cold hard look at yourself in the mirror and ask ‘what would Pete and Manu think?’ Alex Casey was able to ask them IRL. Just as you shouldn’t look at a solar eclipse without special glasses, I’d … Read more
With the sixth and final season arriving exclusively to Lightbox today, we bask in the top celebrity cameos to ever feature on The Mindy Project. For a woman who wears her shambolic heart on her bound-to-be-extremely-colourful sleeve, there’s really not a lot of intel out there about what we can expect from the sixth season … Read more
With the latest season of My Kitchen Rules NZ enlisting international heavyweight judges Pete and Manu, Alex Casey finds another celebrity lurking in the contestant line-up. Let’s be honest: it’s been a really huge couple of days for New Zealand celebrity lookalikes everywhere. Mr Bean had a killer time at the rugby. Ryan Gosling did … Read more
Alex Casey watches Collection Intervention and comes away with some key learnings for fellow hoarders collectable enthusiasts. When I die, my body will be buried with hundreds of plastic E.T. figurines. Not because I love them and want them to stay with me forever, just because I’m certain I won’t be able to fucking get … Read more
The radical reimagining of the suffragette movement, That Bloody Woman, is back for Auckland Live’s International Cabaret Season. Alex Casey spoke to Esther Stephens about her role as Kate Sheppard – and how, this year, Sheppard’s fight is more relevant than ever. The night before the nation votes in this year’s general election, the spirit … Read more
Alex Casey spends a night at the New Zealand Social Media Awards, and meets both the influencers at the top of the food chain, and those trying desperately to climb the ladder. Joel Thomas took the photos. A sales rep for Mitsubishi Electric specialising in heat pumps and refrigeration, Tama was proudly sporting a t-shirt … Read more
Helen Clark’s ill-fated bid for the top job at the UN is documented with extraordinary proximity and passion in My Year with Helen. Alex Casey sits down with the former NZ prime minister and director Gaylene Preston, in an empty foyer at the movies, to discuss the shit that happens. Of all the firm handshakes … Read more
Following a couple of weeks of controversial headlines, Alex Casey assembles a brief history of sexist drivel on The AM Show. Of all the soothing alarm sounds you could use to welcome a new beautiful day on Earth, Mark Richardson barking “a woman can do Dad jokes, which I’m impressed about” has got to be … Read more
Alex Casey watches the return of TVNZ’s So This Happened, the online series giving a voice to women’s experiences of harassment. There is an inevitable, incredible thing that happens when you put a bunch of women in a room together with enough space to talk freely. No, we don’t shriek like banshees at the moon, … Read more
Most world leaders are content with typing their own name into Twitter, or coining new weird words. Not Helen Clark, who solves pub arguments and affirms her past deeds, writes Alex Casey. I’ll never forget the first time Helen Clark interacted with The Spinoff on Twitter. I think it was a fave, or maybe a … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Sarah Aldridge, costume designer on Westside, about dressing the early-80s West family. Look, I love a spot of opshopping as much as the next person. Give me a giant, musty Sallies out in the wops any day, just as long as it contains at least three dog-eared copies of The World … Read more
This year, comedian Angella Dravid took out the Billy T award in the New Zealand International Comedy Festival for her extraordinary show Down the Rabbit Hole, exploring her spell in a UK prison. She talks to Alex Casey about finding humour in the dark, and being the ‘car crash’ of Jono and Ben. When Angella … Read more