International Women’s Day: Celebrate With Television!

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Alex Casey lists a few of the most inspirational women in television land. // Yes International Women’s Day was yesterday, and no I don’t care that this post is way too late for our timezone. I was too busy celebrating womanhood with social netball and peanut butter chocolate to assemble … Read more

Shorty Street Scandal: The Great Flood of Ferndale

Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? TK and Kylie hits the clubs, a bathtub hits the floor and Leanne hits the road: Although Pania had tried to get him into internet dating, TK found love in a hopeless place this week – with … Read more

The Week in News: Women Judges and Judging Women

The Bachelorettes Revealed In the biggest and only TV news you need to know this week, TV3 have released the full lineup of women vying to win the heart of New Zealand’s first ever Bachelor. If you would like a comprehensive assessment of their entire personalities and life experience based on a photo and a short … Read more

My Life in TV: X Factor NZ’s Dominic Bowden

My Life in TV is a weekly feature interview with a member of the television industry. This week, Alex talked to X Factor NZ host Dominic Bowden. // There is no denying Dominic Bowden has earned the title of New Zealand’s National Host. After early beginnings on kids TV show Squirt, he moved to hosting … Read more

Throwback Thursday: Back to the Softcore Seventies in Swingtown

This Throwback Thursday, Alex Casey discovers a deeply bizarre 1970s period show packed with family drama and, er, neighbourly relations. // I don’t know a lot about softcore pornography, but I know that the trailer for Swingtown looks like one: This 2008 series is set in 1976, and was made with the hopes of recreating … Read more

Meet the Bachelorettes: Fish n’ Chips, Friendship and the Bloody Beach

With The Bachelor NZ coming to TV3 on March 17, Alex Casey analyses all the biographies of the newly-announced Bachelorettes, and flags some early favourites to look out for. // The Bachelor NZ is mere weeks away, and finally we are getting a little more intel on the women looking to find love in a hopeless place … Read more

Better Call Saul Recap: Alpine Shepherd Boy

Alex Casey recaps the fifth episode of Lightbox’s much anticipated Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. All I can say is, thank goodness there’s finally been some light shed on Chuck’s bizarre condition (candlelight of course, not anything fluorescent). After stealing the neighbour’s paper last week, the police busted in on Chuck with as much gusto as they have … Read more

Inside the Lightbox: Time to Get Serial

Inside the Lightbox is a new sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for cool shows you might like to watch. This week, Alex Casey assembles a terrifying lineup of stone cold killer television. // Hannibal With the second season arriving to Lightbox this week, there’s no better time to sink your teeth … Read more

Music Monday: Where The Office and X Factor Collide

This Music Monday, Alex Casey draws parallels between a fake singing competition featured within The Office and all the thrills, spills and celebrities of X Factor NZ. // The past few weeks have been filled with a literal and metaphorical airing of X Factor NZ‘s dirty laundry. We have had Slim Shady killers being edited out faster … Read more

Shorty Street Scandal: Cats, Kisses and Colons

Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? We meet Professor Boris, three Ferndale folk flee, and Chris talks about colons for some reason: It was Colon Week at the Street, with Professor Helgard (known to his friends as Boris) visiting the hospital to hear … Read more

The Week in News: Killers, Fillers and Cowell

That Girl is a Monster After her luxury Sound of Music showcase at the Oscars on Monday, it was confirmed yesterday that Lady Gaga has signed on for the latest season of American Horror Story: Hotel, the fifth series in the Ryan Murphy anthology. Little else is known about the project, with Gaga that first … Read more

The Dirty Bedsheets of Kills-Moon: A Spinoff Investigation

Earlier this week an unusual auction briefly appeared on TradeMe: a set of used sheets, towels and a feedback form from Natalia Kills and Willy Moon. Alex Casey tracked down the man responsible. / Notwithstanding the furore enveloping ex-con Slim Shaedy, there was far more more disturbing news out of The X Factor NZ universe … Read more

My Life in TV: Geordie Shore’s Charlotte Crosby

My Life in TV is a weekly feature interview with a member of the television industry. This week, Alex talked to Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby. // For those of you who might not have been exposed to to the Shore franchises (Jersey or Geordie) before, the premise is simple: take a bunch of 20–somethings … Read more

Throwback Thursday: Adam Levine Gets Marooned on AHS: Asylum

For this Throwback Thursday, Alex Casey looks back at Adam Levine’s brief but brutal stint in American Horror Story: Asylum. // It’s been a huge week for the American Horror Story anthology. Two days ago, there was some sad news that Ben Woolf, aka loveable Meep from American Horror Story: Freak Show had tragically died in … Read more

Who is Making TV3’s New Soap? A Spinoff Investigation

Remember last year when MediaWorks announced they were accepting pitches for their own local five-night-a-week soap? Remember the massive buzz around it? Remember the phenomenal pitches that came flooding in, bursting with as many ingenious plot lines as high profile TV3 celebrities? Hitting up the powers that be to see where the project is at, all we … Read more

Better Call Saul Recap: S’all Good, Man

Alex Casey recaps the fourth episode of Lightbox’s much anticipated Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. // Everyone is getting bloody tricked in this episode – the Kettlemans, Nacho, Jimmy, Chuck, innocent bystanders and even us plebs in the audience. The swindling is in full force, and nobody is safe as Saul Goodman slowly rises from beneath a pile … Read more

Alex Casey Plays TVNZ’s Weird and Intense New Lawyer Game: Week One

TVNZ have created a reality-warping online game to promote TV2’s new investigative drama How to Get Away With Murder. Alex Casey learns just how difficult the titular task really is. // It all started a few weeks ago when I got sent a mysterious looking package from Nancy Maher Attorney-at-Law that shook me to the very core. One … Read more

Inside the Lightbox: Back to School Woes

Inside the Lightbox is a new sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for cool shows you might like to watch. If you are going back to university this week, or simply pining for the days of essays-past, Alex Casey assigns some school-based television for you to study. // The Inbetweeners The premise is simple: rich boy … Read more

Shorty Street Scandal: Chris Settles Down, Again

Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? Chris and Rachel reconnect, Clementine flirts with Santa and Murray has a small heart attack: Chris and Rachel, our very own Ross and Rachel, got back together this week. Harry was very upset to find a lipstick at … Read more

The Week in News: Vikings, Victories and Vast Viewerships

JABAT Goes JABAST Our favourite blazer-wearing larrikins are expanding their comedy empire even further. MediaWorks announced that Jono and Ben at Ten is now moving to the 7.30pm timeslot, and will be an hour long. The stripped-back title has become a simple Jono and Ben. Chic. With a brand new time, the team are hoping to expand … Read more

Fun and Games With the MasterChef Finale

With the competition reaching boiling point this Saturday night, Alex Casey provides some ways you can make a meal out of MasterChef Australia season finale. // I have had an on-and-off relationship with MasterChef Australia throughout what feels like its three-year season. Taking extended holidays over summer to the family bach, I found it had a … Read more

Is Art Green Really NZ’s First Ever Bachelor? A Spinoff Investigation

This morning came an extremely casual announcement that a handsome chap named Art Green might be New Zealand’s first ever Bachelor. Alex Casey analyses his online presence to find out if the size ten shoe fits. // // When Picasso said “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,” it’s probably because he … Read more

The Idiot’s Guide to Applying to Masterchef

TV3 have just announced their casting call for MasterChef NZ, so Alex Casey talked to her brother about his shockingly successful drunken application many moons ago. // In a press release today, TV3 announced that casting is now open for MasterChef NZ 2015. They are looking for the “unsung heroes of the kitchen – Kiwis who … Read more

Better Call Saul Recap: Nacho Usual Suspect

Alex Casey recaps the third episode of Lightbox’s much anticipated Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul. // The episode opens with the sort of flashback we have come to know and love in Breaking Bad. A good wig has got to be the single most effective time travel device in all of television. Charles goes to visit a much younger, … Read more

The Bachelor NZ: First Look at the Bachelorettes

Yesterday I nearly dropped dead during an X Factor NZ ad break. The first real promo for The Bachelor NZ is here. No more abstracted black and white abs, no more sail boats, no more National Bank horses galloping down sandy dunes. We have finally have real women, real candles, and real big watches: Things We Know About … Read more

Inside the Lightbox: Ladies Leading the Laughs

Inside the Lightbox is a new sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for cool shows you might like to watch. This week, Alex Casey lines up an stunning selection of comedies led by some of the funniest women on the planet. // 30 Rock Tina Fey writes and acts in this behind-the-curtain sitcom, a closely based … Read more

The X Factor NZ S02E01: A Collection of Spurious Thoughts and Images

Alex Casey thought she should probably write something about The X Factor NZ, so with Twitter’s help, she did. / Last night, like 305,000 other people up and down the country, I sat down and enjoyed The X Factor NZ premiere. And it was… fine. I always forget that the first audition stages just sort … Read more

Music Monday: Peep Show’s Outrageously Contagious Music Video

This Music Monday, Alex Casey rediscovers the music video for ‘This is Outrageous’, the ridiculous debut single from Jez of the British comedy Peep Show. // The first ever episode of Peep Show still stands as an example of pure heart-attack-inducing hilarity. Part of it’s tremendous success, for me anyway, is the way it perfectly introduces our … Read more