Just a few years ago, few people had heard of the self-help group/cult of personality known as NXIVM. Now the dark story has gone global, thanks to an eight-part docuseries that debuts on Neon today. This review contains mild spoilers for The Vow. What is it that people love so much that they’d join a … Read more
Shrill, now streaming on Neon, is more than just a comedy – it’s a landmark in millennial feminist storytelling. Shrill is a sitcom with social grit and feminist nuance that goes where other fat-focused shows have failed to go before – straight into your heart. High on laughs and equally high on feels, the shows … Read more
Jean Sergent reviews an exceptional new novel about mental illness, labels, and lovability. It is strange, to love and be loved, when you are unsure of your reality. An emotional uncanny valley opens up in front of you and you push on, staying alive, putting one foot in front of the other, hoping that the … Read more
In Jordan Peele’s new show, the acclaimed director of Us and Get Out once again uses horror as a vehicle to critique our broken society. If you’re watching the best, deepest and most thoughtful television today, chances are you’re watching a good piece of horror TV. The latest entrant into the recent boom is Lovecraft … Read more
You probably shouldn’t expect any happy endings from buzzed-about new Neon show Gangs of London, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. The Hero’s Journey, a 17-stage literary structure popularised by the 20th century work of literature professor Joseph Campbell but present through centuries of storytelling, lays out for creators and consumers a well-trodden … Read more
The new TVNZ On Demand political comedy relies on great performances to paper over a wafer-thin story, writes Jean Sergent. The set-up is simple: Darren Bellows (Tom Sainsbury), a Colin Craig-esque political loser, is being blackmailed by his dominatrix (Kathleen Burns). The stakes are high for Darren as the leader of the minor league Conservative … Read more
The most famous solved cold case of the 21st century finds its way to the small screen in I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, but it’s as much an ode to the closer as it is a depiction of the criminal, writes Jean Sergent. In the fervour of the true-crime trend, people who don’t get … Read more
On the heels of the arrival of The Outsider on NEON, Jean Sergent explores how screen adaptations of Stephen King’s work are able to take on a life of their own. Stephen King, the 72 year old horror author from Portland, has a better work ethic than you or I and that’s just science. The … Read more
Jean Sergent writes about her comedy crush John Mulaney, and what makes his brand of wholesome yet sharp comedy so special. Who is John Mulaney and why do people love him so dang much? John Mulaney is a white, middle class, American stand up comedian. He’s a former Saturday Night Live writer, voice actor (Into … Read more
Prodigal Son is a new crime procedural coming hot and fresh to TVNZ 1 on Mondays at 8.30pm. Jean Sergent has a few reasons why you should be watching it. If you like serial killer shows, Michael Sheen, dark drama, Michael Sheen, twisted family dynamics, or Michael Sheen – strap yourself to your bed, have we … Read more
Covering Climate Now: As the temperature of the planet increases, so to does the number of documentaries about climate change. Jean Sergent watched all of them to bring you this harrowing listicle. Do you want to know which climate change documentaries will make you depressed and which will make you hopeful? Do you want to … Read more
Jean Sergent is left bemused and beaten-down by CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, a book that sucked up two decades of the author’s life. As the resident murderino on The Spinoff’s guest roster, I’m the natural choice to review this new book on the Manson murders. Timed for … Read more
Jean Sergent reviews Prime TV’s Manson: The Lost Tapes, a documentary that looks inside the Manson Family and sheds light on the darkest ‘family’ in recent American history. It’s going to be a glut season for Manson Family content, with the 50th anniversary of the Tate Labianca murders in early August. Tom O’Neil’s new book … Read more
Jeanette Winterson has based previous fiction on witch trials, her experience of growing up lesbian in a Pentecostal community, and her own affair with her agent. Jean Sergent reviews her latest novel, a reworking of Mary Shelley’s classic – and of Shelley herself. I was so excited to read this book. Jeanette Winterson? Tick. Mary … Read more
Most labels for bigger people aren’t plus-size enough and the larger price tags that go them are “bullshit”, a new Wellington business owner says. A Wellington fashion entrepreneur says the “fat tax” charged on larger sizes is one of the drivers propelling her to build her own plus-size clothing line. House of Boom is Joanna … Read more
A lion escapes from the zoo and kills a Rotorua poodle. Weird story, but how did it actually happen? Jean Sergent watches Who Killed Lucy The Poodle?, a TVNZ documentary that attempts to get to the bottom of the legendary affair. For some reason, this story makes perfect sense to me. The premise of Who … Read more
Adnan Syed’s story didn’t end after the blockbuster Serial podcast. Jean Sergent reviews Amy Berg’s The Case Against Adnan Syed, now streaming on TVNZ OnDemand. If you’re not one of the millions of listeners who made Serial a podcasting sensation, let me introduce you to the facts. Sometime on the afternoon of January 13th 1999, teenager Hae … Read more
True crime aficionado Jean Sergent reviews The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. In the annals of Ripperology, there are classics and there are clangers. The latest slew of “Jack the Ripper finally uncovered!” headlines recycle the same faulty DNA studies, but there has never been a definitive answer to the mystery of identity of the Whitechapel … Read more
A real-life mother-daughter twisted true crime story makes it way to Lightbox tomorrow in The Act. Jean Sergent reviews the television event of the season. As a connoisseur of true crime, there is no telly event I’ve been more excited for this year quite like The Act. Chronicling the horrific crimes of Dee Dee Blanchard and … Read more
Anne Perry: Interiors, currently streaming on TVNZ on Demand, looks into the famous New Zealander’s life after moving to Scotland. But how much can we learn when Perry herself seems incapable of true self-reflection? Anne Perry is a mystery writer based in Scotland. She’s written a lot of books, of which I have read exactly … Read more
The somewhat inexplicable 14th (!) season of Criminal Minds starts tonight on TVNZ. To celebrate, super-fan Jean Sergent reveals the cult classic series hidden within the long-running procedural. Three years ago I was in London doing a pretty great acting fellowship, but somehow I still found time to watch Criminal Minds on my laptop, which I perched … Read more
Inexplicable blockbuster sitcom Mrs. Brown’s Boys returns to TVNZ tonight. Jean Sergent writes about the show’s transphobia and how we as a culture need to do better. A show that hinges on a man in a dress making broadly sexual jokes shouldn’t be a multi-award winner with sell-out live shows, but it is. The Radio … Read more
Jam and Jerusalem. Bells and Smells. Tea and Cakes. Murder and Intrigue. Four of the classic double acts. And they all come together in the delightful investigation series Father Brown, five glorious seasons of which are available for your leisurely winter viewing on Lightbox. As any Catholic lapsed or otherwise will tell you, the greatest … Read more
Feminist icon, daytime TV judge, baloney-screamer: Judge Judith Scheindlin is the true queen of reality TV. The book of Judith is about a woman who ingratiates herself into the favour of a stupid and powerful man, and then cuts his head off to save her people and her country. Is it cut throat and bloodthirsty? … Read more
Sherlock fan Jean Sergeant reflects on the place of Holmes and Watson in her own life, through grieving and pad thai nights. I remember when the Christmas special of Sherlock, ‘The Abominable Bride’, came out at the beginning of 2016. I nagged my best dead friend Michael to watch it. I’m not sure if he … Read more