Alex Casey 
Two key Spinoff writers share a dirty little secret: they’ve never seen The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad or any of the other defining ‘important’ TV shows of our time. Catch Up Club is here to save them, and possibly you too. // Alex: Hello Joseph, you have not seen a lot of fancy TV … Read more
There are few sub-species of humanity more ridiculous than the successful TV magician. Here Alex Casey chronicles the most successful practitioners of what is somehow not a dying art. // I have always had a bit of a soft spot for television magic shows. Maybe it’s the hairstyles, maybe it’s the showmanship, maybe it’s wasting forty … Read more
It was Sudden Death, the Cuties vs the Foodies. Jessie and Maura were wearing identical pink tops, and Steve was without a hat – this was clearly serious business. They were making a three-course meal for the celebrity panel, Jessie was ready to vomit and Steve and Maura were flexing their hands, ready to crank … Read more
The remaining three teams went head to head to see who will join Steve and Maura in Sudden Death. Chilling back in the velvet confines, Steve had seized the relaxed opportunity to wear a fedora unlike any other (grey with blue trim). Neena and Belinda were safe again after the shock bikie scone celebration of yester-ep, … Read more
Over the weekend I found myself at an the official fan gathering for New Zealand fans of the sprawling-time-travel-historical-romance series Outlander. Aside from the overwhelming sense of passion and community within this fan group of 30 or so women, itself part of a forthcoming feature, there were some incredible discussions. Over plates of eggs benedict and french toast, … Read more
Today, the NZ Herald published a gem of an interview with Shortland Street actor Ben Mitchell, wherein he restated his bizarre, unpleasant views about contemporary gender roles. I say restated because this is not the first time he has strongly voiced his proudly misogynist opinions. Shortland St occupies a unique place in this country’s self-image, due to both its age … Read more
Yesterday, MediaWorks announced that Paul Henry will be hosting New Zealand’s first cross-platform live breakfast show in 2015. If having him on your TV, your radio and your computer is not going to be enough, there will also be an elite range of limited-edition products released to make sure you really get the most Paul Henry out of every … Read more
Please enjoy this week’s episode of Shorty Street Scandal, revisiting the past week of Ferndale funny business. It has obviously been a hard week for Harry, the dude is having a mayonnaise crisis, a playlist crisis and was told to go away by nasty Rachel. He’s obviously picking up some of this stress from Chris, who slept … Read more
The challenge was to make a vague platter for an undisclosed large group of hungry people. Who would the mystery guests be? Heather wanted a big group of hairy men, Dai wanted All Blacks (Dan Carter, specifically). We would find out later. The teams got to work manically tearing stuff from the storeroom. Jessie and … Read more
It’s Friday again. I can’t believe this keeps happening. Lucky there’s all this television to distract us from the fleeting passage of time that is life huh? Sorry, what a downer. What a terrible way to start a post. Talking of mortality and fear, might I suggest this weekend’s binge-watch to be the original season of American … Read more
Rounding up the week in TV news so you can make cool small talk with peers, postmen and partygoers over the weekend.// The Show About Renewal Gets It’s Own Renewal This week the good people at Lightbox brought the much-anticipated Amazon original series Transparent to our fair shores, and we can’t sing it’s praises high enough. … Read more
For this throwback, we skip school to look at a failed Ferris Bueller’s Day Off television reboot starring a young Jennifer Aniston and a scary Scott Disick clone. // This week in TV has been all about old favourites getting a reboot in this golden/platinum/silicon age of television. The world put the collective coffee on at the news of Twin … Read more
New Lightbox acquisition Transparent, an Amazon Original from a key Six Feet Under writer, is already being touted as one of the year’s finest.// “Are you saying you’re gonna start dressing up like a lady all the time?” “No, my whole life I’ve been dressing up… like a man.” Transparent is the brand new comedy-drama from Jill Soloway, producer … Read more
Last night began with a mystery box challenge, with the contestants whipping open giant boxes to reveal metal machines that looked like something straight out of Jigsaw’s torture chamber. Turns out they were mincers, also turns out most of the contestants had never seen a mincer in the flesh and couldn’t bloody believe it. Stop … Read more
We talked to “Beauty and the Beast” aka Tracey and Neil from My Kitchen Rules New Zealand about cyberbullies called Doreen, experiencing the perfect chip and just giving everything a bloody shot. // I met Tracey and Neil on a sunny Ponsonby afternoon. Neil arrived bang on time, a vision in bright blue from his Kathmandu polar fleece to the … Read more
This episode was a People’s Choice Challenge, where the contestants would run a market stall and a group of hungry punters would give fake money to the best team. These weren’t just any punters though, they were Genesis Energy punters. If Genesis has taught us anything, it’s that in the beginning God created the heavens and … Read more
Please enjoy this week’s episode of Shorty Street Scandal, revisiting the past week of Ferndale funny business. This week seemed very genital-heavy. Grace had a rather distressing birth in Fiji and Nicole’s unborn baby had his weiner put under the microscope. Dallas and Bella decided to stop sleeping together until their wedding night, which lasted about … Read more
The new look New Zealand-made Thunderbirds have been revealed at long last. Well, the back of them have anyway. It’s early days, but we can confidently say that a variety of male hairstyles and hair colours are go! The animated revival of the 1960s sci-fi show is set for a small screen release in September next year, the perfect … Read more
It was the Sudden Death round, and many celebrity chefs had shown to taste the blood (meals) of The Social Media Buddies vs The Newlyweds. And what a line-up it was. First to arrive was Robert Oliver, a homeboy who loves the Pacific flavours just as much as he likes giving TedX talks. He was followed … Read more
Can you even believe your life! It’s nearly the weekend again! And, like clockwork, there’s a whole bunch of telly out there waiting to be watched. It’s windy out there, so keep your wits about you and stay inside. For a binge-watch, why not check out Caprica on Lightbox. A prequel spin-off to Battlestar Galactica … Read more
Last night in the States, Lorde graced the good people of South Park with her infamous ethereal and mysterious presence in the episode “Gluten Free Ebola”. Except it wasn’t really Lorde. Giving a rare sneak preview of the hot new track “I am Lorde Ya Ya Ya (Call Me Lorde)”, it became pretty clear she was less Lorde and … Read more
The triumphant Red Team from last night’s ep were able to kick back in a sensual velour booth as the others sweated it out in Kitchen HQ. Losers Sam and Dan were in a separate velour prison. The first challenge was “Match Made in Heaven”, aka choosing two complimentary elements and bunging a dish together in … Read more
Massive spook-fest American Horror Story: Freak Show begins next week. Today they unleashed the carnival-of-creeps opening credits to get everyone sufficiently amped/terrified for the season ahead. Here are the five top-billing Freak Show friends, in no particular order: 1) Tentacle John He’s just a regular guy chilling out on a crate except he has two tentacle things … Read more
Yesterday the Madden brothers of Good Charlotte fame took over the Breakfast weather report for some reason. It began with Weatherman Sam dressed in slightly cool punkish clothes (including many large rings) taking a selfie with the rocker twins, before stepping aside and giving them a Maori Place Name Challenge. The masterminds behind Lifestyles of … Read more
With the instant restaurants over, the contestants were split into three teams and set their first challenge. They were sent to the Ronald McDonald House at Starship Hospital to cook a three-course meal for the families living there. A beautiful charitable challenge to start the competition, and a great way to reunite with all of our old favourites. … Read more
The last episode of Breaking Bad aired 365 days ago. For some, this was a vivid event that sunk it’s televisual talons deep into their pop culture history book. For others, it was just a plain hellish day to be on Twitter, a stark reminder of their own cataclysmic failure to ‘keep up with the play’. “I have never seen … Read more
Last night David Cunliffe appeared on Campbell Live to give his first interview since Labour lost the election and he stood down as leader. John Campbell leaned forward, “you’re hard up against it aren’t you?” Their beady eyes aligned. Cunliffe looked more exhausted than any comparable cat picture on the internet, explaining that he had been … Read more
The Grey’s Anatomy team learn how to save a life through the majesty of music. // I don’t if anyone knows this, but the Grey’s Anatomy world is still going strong. The last episode of Season 10 airs next week on TV2, creator Shonda Rimes is rocking a new TV show every five minutes, and (spoilers) Isaiah Washington … Read more
The final instant restaurant is with our Wainuiomata darlings, Dai and Dal. The Laoation best friends are a culinary force to be reckoned with or, as Josh put it, “they are the secret assassins.” He also thought that they were Thai so, grain of salt. Their instant restaurant called Mint featured many jars of mint. … Read more