Bringing together the TV moments of the week, including the launch of an essential reality channel, Masterchef’s big mistake and Ferndale’s mid-week marriage. The Launch of a Sky’s Big Fat Reality Channel TLC launched this Tuesday on Sky channel 16, bringing with it a slew of truly unbelievable “lifestyle” programming. We’re talking big leagues now. … Read more
Alex and Duncan discuss the 100-joke-per-minute world of 30 Rock, and tell you why the the behind the scenes comedy is a must for any TV fan. Click here to watch 30 Rock on Lightbox today, thanks Meat Cat! This content, like everything we do at The Spinoff, is brought you thanks to the excellent … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments of the week, including Graham Lowe’s debut as a political pundit, Rachel Hunter’s scouring the world for beauty products and the announcement of The Bachelorette Australia. Graham Lowe vs Jacinda Ardern Every damn day Paul “Mensa” Henry invites what they describe as “intellectually intriguing” New Zealanders onto his show to … Read more
Alex and Duncan chat about the Lightbox exclusive Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff that couldn’t be further from its brutal televisual brother. Sound like a bit of you? Click here to watch Better Call Saul exclusively on Lightbox today This content, like everything we do at The Spinoff, is brought you thanks to … Read more
Two weeks since the last CDWMNZ scraps were scraped off our televisual plate, Alex Casey (big fan) and Joseph Moore (official Come Dine With Me NZ joke punch-up guy) mercilessly rank all 40 contestants from the first well-seasoned season. Story has officially made it to our screens, causing us to forget about Come Dine With Me NZ faster than a … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments of the week, including a raging studio radio documentary, the return of Broad City, Hayley Holt tackling Back Benches and a farewell to Pixie. Rise of the Radio Punks Prime’s excellent series of local documentaries wrapped this week with a breezy, boozy stroll through forty odd years of student radio. … Read more
Alex and Duncan dwell in the darkness of Louie, and tell you why you should get amongst this brutally honest – and sometimes surreal – comedy series. Sound like a bit of you? Click here to start watching Louie on Lightbox today
The ‘Best Discovery’ section of Lightbox’s People’s Choice Awards is the Lightbox-iest category of them all. That’s what streaming services are really, really good at: giving you a vast lagoon of unfamiliar shows, and inviting you to dive right in. We here at the Spinoff are extra high level TV nerds, and had already seen most of the nominees … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including Story‘s meaty first week, Brown Eye‘s finale and the hors-d’oeuvres of Gloriavale. Story Starts Strong The real replacement for Campbell Live arrived this week, finally giving us a chance to see whether all the pre-maligning was justified. Story came out of the gate with a rare … Read more
TV3’s brand new 7pm current affairs show Story debuted last night. Duncan Greive and Alex Casey break down the crucial elements of the show with very big shoes to fill. Story is a show with extremely high stakes. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that as the show goes, so goes Mark Weldon. That’s not necessarily fair … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including Jon Stewart’s final address, doubling the dogs on TV One and paradise lost in Bachelor in Paradise. Contributions by Alex Casey and Calum Henderson. 1) A Wedding and a Parakeet in Bachelor in Paradise Reality TV naysayers, prepare to be steamed by the news that the … Read more
Three television tales: two are real, one is made up. Correctly guess which person is spinning a yarn and you could win free tickets to The Pantograph Punch event ‘Based on a True Story’. Our good mates over at The Pantograph Punch are hosting a storytelling event on Friday night in Auckland called ‘Based on … Read more
Voting in the Lightbox People’s Choice Awards has started this week. Alex Casey and Duncan Greive argue the case for their favourite TV villains, heroes, sex symbols and so much more. Lightbox have kicked off their first People’s Choice Awards this week, inviting you to vote for your favourite villains, heroes and sex symbols to … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including peak Shortland Street crazy, dancing tractor routines and strong women making waves. 1) Peak Panic for Pania on Shortland Street The start of the week on Shortland Street had a heavy prescription of drama, and was hardly going to put anyone to sleep. Unless you’re Caleb, … Read more
Thank our heavenly Dads, we’ve made it to the grand finale of Dancing With the Stars NZ for 2015. Congratulations Simon Barnett, it’s time for us to crack into The Spinoff’s wig department, and finally hear Jane’s chilling story of Ronan Keating and the bad catering. Join Flapper-era Siobhan Marshall (Jane Yee), satin shirt-era Red … Read more
Your daily rolling recap of Come Dine With Me NZ, serving up piping hot takes on New Zealand’s greatest social experiment. Welcome to Come Dine With Me Daily, The Spinoff’s hub for all things Come Dine With Me NZ.We’ll be updating this post throughout the week as the show plays out, providing you with a denser dining experience … Read more
Alex and Duncan get inside the heads of Peep Show’s Mark and Jez, and tell you why should fall for their dysfunctional, inappropriate charms. Click here to become Lord of the Bus and watch Peep Show on Lightbox today ––––––––– Also: this content, like everything we do at The Spinoff, is brought you thanks to the truly wonderful … Read more
It’s the tense semi-finals this week, and the old crew are back together to freestyle their recap with no props, no scripts and no clue. With each dancer having two chances at the disco ball trophy of dreams this week, there’s more action to rip through than Dom Harvey’s terrible stripper pants. Does Jane think … Read more
Your daily rolling recap of Come Dine With Me NZ, serving up piping hot takes on New Zealand’s greatest social experiment. Welcome to Come Dine With Me Daily, The Spinoff’s hub for all things Come Dine With Me NZ. We’ll be updating this post throughout the week as the show plays out, providing you with a … Read more
1) John Campbell Live in Samoa Say what you want about John Fellett, but he’s as adept at the counter-punch and exploiting an opportunity as anyone in television. So when TV3 dramatically dumped John Campbell a few weeks back, you can bet one of the first calls the broadcaster took was from a Sky exec, … Read more
This week, Alex Casey and Duncan Greive mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue to find the best shows of the ’90s and argue why they are just as relevant as the fancy new shows. Having television ondemand makes it easier to keep on top of the hot new shows, but also harder to watch everything, all … Read more
Get your crimpers, your fluffy skirts and your Shane Cameron-style halter tops – it’s ’80s week on the D-Floor. Duncan returns from Spain to teach Jane and Alex the ways of the Spanish pasadoble, and the latest Magic Mike XXL movie. There’s gossip aplenty from kiss scandals to chocolate sauce, and some very slick segues … Read more
Bringing together the best television moments of the week, including Come Dine With Me‘s beautiful bromance, Campbell’s low-key cameo and Newsworthy‘s sauna dramas. 1. Campbell Goes Wild on The Crowd Goes Wild A marvellous event happened in a very low key way on Wednesday night – John Campbell returned to our screens at 7pm. Just on … Read more
With Duncan still luxuriating with our theme music USB on the sandy shores of Spain, Jane Yee and Alex Casey recruit Brendon Green to join them on D-floor. Being the official Dancing With the Stars NZ warm-up guy, Brendon brings with him some backstage scoops, diplomatic answers and very weird pronunciations of ‘muesli’ to the table. Recapping … Read more
With Duncan in Spain and Rikki struck by winter malaise, Jane Yee and Alex Casey venture onto D-floor alone, unequipped and a little frightened. Luckily, Siobhan’s magic powder blessed them with the ability to record a cohesive podcast, in which they recap week four on Dancing With the Stars New Zealand. For the winter wonderland … Read more
Alex Casey and Duncan Greive look back across the week in television and pick their favourite moments. 1. Come Dine With Me NZ is Perfect Right Out of The Oven There is no better illustration of MediaWorks’ maniacal new direction than its absent-mindedly plopping Come Dine With Me in the slot formerly reserved for Campbell … Read more
Jane Yee invites The Spinoff’s Alex Casey and Duncan Greive to the D-Floor to discuss this week’s Dancing With the Stars action. It was an action-packed week, with the elimination of PM-in-waiting Colin Mathura-Jeffree, Teuila’s XXX-rated routine and Jay Jay’s vicious tumble. Also features a shock piece of actual bonafide analysis from Jane, which leaves … Read more
Jane Yee, Alex Casey and Duncan Greive bring you all the moves from Dancing With the Stars’ second week, bringing you our live reaction to the shocking first elimination. We bid a stone-faced farewell to Maz, earnestly discuss whether Simon Barnett’s knee dislocation is real and moon over CMJ’s lustrous hair. iPhone users click here … Read more
Announcing the triumphant winners of our Lightbox mobile devices competition, who bravely took TV into the great outdoors and made the world their lounge. Our May Lightbox competition asked you noble television fans to take TV outside of the house on your compatible mobile devices, and find the perfect setting your favourite Lightbox show. The … Read more