Alex Casey 
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Alex Casey checks in with the gang from The AM Show for their first show of the year. Awful. Hopeless. Horrible. These are just some of the words Duncan Garner used to describe his sleep last night, the eve before the return of The AM Show online, on radio, and on telly for 2018. Falling … Read more
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
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
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
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. First published 3 August 2017. I’ll never forget the first time Helen Clark interacted with The Spinoff on Twitter. I think it was … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
After it cleaned up a pile of awards last week, Alex Casey watches TVNZ1’s Jean to see what all the fuss is about. At the New Zealand Television Awards last week, one production, one story and one name ruled the night: Jean. It became something of a running joke as Jean, the TV film that … Read more
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
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
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
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
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