Jeremy Wells went on a date with Judith Collins last night

Alex Casey recaps the first political speed date on Seven Sharp, wherein Jeremy Wells wooed Judith Collins in the TVNZ foyer.  Last night’s episode of Seven Sharp came with one very big tease: an “intimate liaison” (please lean in hard to French accent there) between Jezza Wells and Judith “Crusher” Collins. With the fifth candidate … Read more

A list of times The Casketeers nearly buried me alive

With the coffin lid closing on the first season of The Casketeers, Alex Casey looks back at some of the greatest comedy moments from the TVNZ reality show. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve seen a makeup tutorial for a corpse. Francis Tipene is hunched over a casket, Thin Lizzy brush in hand and tongue … Read more

Turns out Simon Barnett’s new show is absolute mayhem (WATCH)

Simon Barnett’s new show began over the weekend, and within minutes something extraordinary happened. Alex Casey recaps the mayhem.  As New Zealand continues to collectively keen, wail and howl at Simon Barnett’s shock resignation from MoreFM 300-odd days from now, we’ve been thrown a glorious, dad bod-shaped bone in Three’s XVenture Family Challenge. The competition puts … Read more

How one dad’s emails made for a bloody charming TV show

Alex Casey watches Subject: Dad, a show that proves there’s still nothing funnier and sweeter than emails from parents.  Everyone thinks their parents are the funniest people in the world, but it’s simply impossible for all of us to be right. If you’ve ever snorted at a weird, over-sharing text message, or gently hidden a … Read more

Georgina Beyer still has a fire in her belly

Alex Casey talks to Georgina Beyer, the world’s first transgender mayor and MP, about her extraordinary life.  This interview contains references to sexual assault and suicide, please take care.  Sex work and politics are pretty much the same trade, according to Georgina Beyer at least. During her time as an MP, she would strut through … Read more

Baby Mama’s Club is starting a representation revolution

Alex Casey talks to Hanelle Harris, creator of Baby Mama’s Club, about changing the face of New Zealand television.  New Zealand has never seen women like the ones in Baby Mama’s Club before, and it’s about bloody time. The TVNZ web series, created by Hanelle Harris, follows four Māori and Pasifika women in Auckland whose lives … Read more

Seven Sharp vs The Project – where do your 7pm allegiances lie?

Television saddo Alex Casey watched both Seven Sharp AND The Project on Monday night to bring you this harrowing report.  Following the return of Seven Sharp this week, surely tens of people across the country are now tearing their hair out trying to choose their ideal 7pm current affairs team. Do you settle into the comfortable … Read more

The perfect cocktail of medical shows to shoot straight into your veins

To prepare for The Good Doctor arriving to Lightbox next week, Alex Casey breaks down five more of the best medical shows you can binge.  Just as sure as Chris Warner will reveal an illegitimate child at the dawn of every day, medical shows will forever stroll the corridors of primetime television soaked in blood … Read more

In a post-Weinstein world, shows like Liar feel queasier than ever

Alex Casey watches Sunday night drama Liar, a British thriller that calls one woman’s account of sexual assault into serious question.  Without sounding too morbid, TVNZ couldn’t have planned the timing of sexual assault drama Liar any better. In a post-Weinstein world where stories of sexual assault and harassment have been dragged under the bright … Read more

A concise list of times The Office US nearly destroyed me

To celebrate The Office US arriving to Lightbox, Alex Casey lists some of her favourite moments from the show. Contains many, many spoilers.  I have spent a deeply worrying part of my life watching The Office in some iteration or another. As a teen, I became obsessed with the British original, eventually penning an incredibly … Read more

What’s TVNZ serving up for breakfast in 2018?

Alex Casey watches the debut of a new look Breakfast on TVNZ1, and assesses the buffet of early morning news options.  Breakfast was off to a pretty weird start before it even began. In a promo video posted to their Facebook page last week, Jack Tame, Daniel Faitaua and Matty McLean can be seen goofing around … Read more

The Casketeers is an instant Kiwi classic

Alex Casey reviews The Casketeers, an ingenious documentary set within the four walls of an Onehunga funeral home.  It’s only two weeks into 2018 and we might already have stumbled upon a frontrunner for local comedy show of the year. An outrageous and over-eager claim, perhaps, but who cares? If TVNZ1’s hilarious documentary gem The Casketeers … Read more

What’s new (or coming back) to New Zealand telly in 2018?

Alex Casey breaks down some of the key changes, newbies and returning old faves to local television in 2018. Take one more look at your crappy holiday viewing habits, because the last of the delicious summer TV wine has nearly run dry. Soon we are back to regimented programming, which means no more corny Lord … Read more

Like Curb Your Enthusiasm? Pour yourself a tall drink of Loudermilk

Alex Casey watches Loudermilk, a bitterly funny dramedy about staying off the sauce. What’s the story? “Life is about fucking things up and then unfucking the things that you fucked up. That’s what makes you less of a fuck-up” Created by Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber) and Bobby Mort (The Colbert … Read more

Summer reissue: Is The Handmaid’s Tale… a documentary?

Alex Casey delves into the endless relevance of The Handmaid’s Tale, available exclusively on Lightbox.  This story was originally published on June 8, 2017 I first encountered The Handmaid’s Tale during high school English. They were simpler times, when you could buy three full size (!) Moro bars for $2 at the tuck shop, and the world didn’t … Read more

Life behind the white beard: Shopping mall Santas reveal all

If you thought your Christmas mall visits were bad, how about donning a fake beard and a velvet suit? Alex Casey talks to two professional mall Santas about becoming The Big Man.  When I was about three years old, Santa Claus himself visited my daycare Christmas Party. He was as jolly as expected, with a … Read more

Meet the man making sweet TV music with Seth Rogen

Alex Casey talks to Halli Cauthery, the composer who created the synth soundtrack to Seth Rogen’s Future Man. If you look at pop culture (and the real world) at the moment, there are a lot of people trying to flee their grim reality for something a little more adventurous. Take the new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s … Read more

Breaking news: Mike Hosking has feelings

Alex Casey watches the last episode of Seven Sharp with Mike Hosking and Toni Street at the helm, and witnesses something truly extraordinary.  It began with Toni Street vomiting and fainting, and it finished with Mike Hosking crying while holding a Sol3 Mio Christmas CD. The Street/Hosko Seven Sharp era has come to an abrupt … Read more

The new show from Offspring creators puts the West family to shame

Alex Casey watches Sisters, the new Aussie dramedy from the people who created Offspring and Puberty Blues. The bad news is that we have definitely reached peak capacity for movies and TV comedies about the chaos that ensues after a lifetime of secret sperm donation. After that Vince Vaughn nightmare Delivery Man, I thought it … Read more

What is your favourite local TV show of the year?

It’s time to make some serious calls about New Zealand television in 2017, starting and ending with this short survey.  As the end of the year looms around the corner like a nervous MAFSNZ contestant at the altar, it’s time we look back at the television that was made in New Zealand for our eyeballs this … Read more

Sad parade confirms two more Kiwi Bachelorettes in The Bachelor Winter Games

Two more ex-Bachelor NZ contestants are headed to represent New Zealand on the international stage, and Alex Casey is bloody excited.  Following the news that Gollum impressionist and second AD Jordan Mauger will be representing New Zealand in The Bachelor Winter Games, The Spinoff has learned that the Kiwi contingent will be bolstered by Lily … Read more

The 2017 TV Awards: winners, losers and all the shade in between

The TV awards return after five years away and reveal an industry boiling with rage and extremely fun to watch. Last night, New Zealand television royalty – and The Real Pod – assembled in Skycity Theatre for the triumphant return of the New Zealand Television Awards after a five year hiatus. There was glitz, there … Read more

A chat with the star of the best bad movie ever made

In 2015 Alex Casey interviewed Greg Sestero, star of The Room and author of The Disaster Artist, about his book about a movie that’s now a movie of its own.  I remember sitting next to a middle-aged couple who had innocently wandered into a late-night screening of The Room at The Academy cinema one fateful … Read more

New Zealand’s own version of Broad City is back

Alex Casey talks to PSUSY creator Jaya Beach-Robertson about pushing the webseries boundaries and dealing with thrush. PSUSY is a lot things, but it is not here to be cute. The psychedelic, hilarious webseries created by Jaya Beach Robertson and directed by Annie Duckworth delves deep into the gnarly realities of sex, dating and gender … Read more

Turns out the sequel to Married at First Sight is grim as hell

Alex Casey watches The Seven Year Switch on TVNZ2, a familiar-sounding social experiment that matches up married people with complete strangers.  There are perhaps no sweeter three words to the gnarled ear of a television writer than the phrase “controversial social experiment.” The latest series to return to this increasingly-full arena is the second season … Read more

‘Mum’s the word’: The online influencers secretly paid to go on 1News

TVNZ has pulled a story about Kmart from its site after The Spinoff obtained emails showing two online ‘influencers’ received undisclosed payments to appear. The revelations raise fresh questions about the murky and unregulated world of the influencer economy. Alex Casey investigates. Two prominent online “influencers” appeared in a 1News story about Kmart without having … Read more