In town to promote the new Xbox game Quantum Break, Canadian actor Shawn Ashmore also lifted the lid on his early acting career on Animorphs. José Barbosa gets the scoop on how to portray a teenage alien invasion fighter with the power to change into animals. For a larger group of people who existed as teenagers in … Read more
Ever wondered how to sound like you’ve been hit by a log? The star of new XBox time travel game Quantum Break is here to help. Shawn Ashmore gives José Barbosa an exclusive acting masterclass. This video gaming coverage is brought to you with the help of Bigpipe, the ISP that’s very timey wimey.
One of New Zealand television’s longest running series Praise Be hits three decades on our screens on April 10. José Barbosa relives a lifetime of Sunday morning worship as archived on NZ On Screen. There are many things I find reassuring: ironed clothes, community libraries, that falsetto “eeeh?” sound John Key makes when he’s trying … Read more
Dark clouds gather into FX mattes and suddenly all the adults and electricity disappears. This is the setting for The Cul De Sac, TVNZ’s new young adult series. The first episode played on Sunday night and José Barbosa reckons it shows promise. Dark, grim promise. “It’s the apocalypse” says bespectacled neighbour played by former Shortland Street star KJ … Read more
This week José Barbosa is joined by Don Rowe and together they test the limits of human emotional endurance by playing the bomb defusing simulator, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. This gaming coverage is brought to you by Bigpipe, the one ISP you’d really want close by to help cut the red wire
Forced to follow Anika Moa’s commands to the letter, José Barbosa must complete one level in a video game. Like all our gaming content, this video comes to you with the loving assistance of Bigpipe, an ISP that ain’t no dirty rat.
Forced to adhere to Wallace Chapman’s commands, José Barbosa must complete one level in a video game. The catch: Wallace hasn’t played a video game for 30 years. This post, like all our gaming coverage, was brought to you by those good sorts at Bigpipe. They’re an ISP that definitely knows where the dishes are … Read more
The Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment is just about ready to drop their latest AAA game, Quantum Break. José Barbosa gets a first hand demo from the Finnish developer’s head of PR, Thomas Puha. There is a lot of butt shooting. (Music by Purple Planet) This gaming coverage is brought to you with the help … Read more
Welcome to TV Mum, a weekly podcast starring Brendon Green and his Mum, Dianne. Every week Brendon will try and get Dianne to remember the details of a TV show she’s recently watched. The resulting discussion is a journey through Dianne’s shaky memory and never ends up where you’d expect. For the final episode of … Read more
Everyone’s looking for the next “must-go” holiday location. At The Spinoff we think we’ve found a place that will become a fixture on people’s travel bucket lists. Take a trip to 10,000 BC and prepare to have your pre-conceived notions bludgeoned to death. Traditionally visitor numbers to the Mesolithic Period have been low to non-existent. A recent … Read more
In his first mobile game review José Barbosa works over Color Switch from Fortafy Games. It’s a mad, bouncing ball dash into the abyss available on both Android and iOS for no dollars. The Spinoff’s gaming coverage is brought to your grabby little hands by Bigpipe, a very non-sweary ISP.
Welcome to TV Mum, a weekly podcast starring Brendon Green and his Mum, Dianne. Every week Brendon will try and get Dianne to remember the details of a TV show she’s recently watched. The resulting discussion is a journey through Dianne’s shaky memory and never ends up where you’d expect. According to Dianne there’s plenty … Read more
Striking bus drivers have shut down most of Auckland’s bus network. Using the latest bus simulator technology, José Barbosa investigates what it means to sit behind the wheel and drive Auckland to work. This post, like all of our gaming content, has been brought to you by Bigpipe.
A podcast where comedians Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery watch the same shit movie every week for a year has won them fans all over the world and three million downloads. Now Batt is creating his own stable of podcasts called Little Empire Podcast Network. He talks to José Barbosa about the stupidest idea for … Read more
2016 has lurched into a loping trot and with that comes all new Parliament TV. José Barbosa sits down, watches the first day of debate in the House and tries to find some foothold on sanity. As with all our TV coverage it comes with supplementary papers filed by our sponsors, Lightbox. Try a 30 … Read more
Welcome to TV Mum, a weekly podcast starring Brendon Green and his Mum, Dianne. Every week Brendon will try and get Dianne to remember the details of a TV show she’s recently watched. The resulting discussion is a journey through Dianne’s shaky memory and never ends up where you’d expect. This week on TV Mum … Read more
Last night TVNZ’s new local drama Filthy Rich started its run with a first episode that featured suicide, money, grubby incest, car crashes, money and disturbing burnt baby dolls. José Barbosa watched the whole thing and live tweeted his immediate responses via scribbled drawings. Here’s the complete collection fresh from his calloused hand. … Read more
It’s worth remembering that not everything is rose petals on the floor and rosé in a hotel room. Relationships need work and as the following on screen relationships show, sharing your life with someone can be more like living inside a concrete mixer made of resentment and loathing. Happy Valentine’s Day! Curb Your Enthusiasm – … Read more
Gone is 3News and in it’s place is the gleaming fresh Newshub. Mediaworks has released a 360 degree video tour of the new studio hosted by Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts. We took it, had a poke around and can now expose the inconvenient truths behind the new studio. (Original video can be found here.)
Welcome to TV Mum. Every week Brendon will try and get his mum Dianne to remember the details of a TV show she’s recently watched. The resulting discussion is a journey through Dianne’s shaky memory and never ends up where you’d expect. This week mother and son discuss the Showtime drama Masters of Sex. It’s … Read more
It’s been a good couple of years for Māori filmmakers. There’s been a solid stream of strong, popular films (Mt Zion, Boy, Maori Boy Genius) and several have torn it up overseas (Deadlands, What We Do In the Shadows). A new documentary, Hautoa Ma, interviews key filmmakers about the rise of Māori film. José Barbosa … Read more
Locked in the media bunker (actually The Spinoff’s shed) José Barbosa watched days of tapes to bring you this examination of the way TV news covered the recent anti-TPP protests in Auckland.
The smartphone game/cat simulator Neko Atsume (“kitty collector”) has become an obsession for many around the world. We’ve raved about its charm and relaxing backyard vibe. However for one man the constant bombardment of cats and the never-ending pressure to keep them fed was too much. Over the course of a few months the twitter … Read more
Nothing delivers authority or menace like a deep, rumbly voice. Join José Barbosa on a journey of discovery, from Black Sails to CSI: Miami, as he celebrates TV’s deepest, most sonorous voices. Click below to enjoy the brand new, extra gravelly season of Black Sails, coming express to Lightbox every Sunday This content, like all … Read more
This week a “technical glitch” affected the usual smooth running of TVNZ’s One News, delaying the broadcast by several minutes. It might be rare for TV news to go off the rails and head in unexpected directions, but it has happened before. José Barbosa unpacks some of New Zealand’s most notable TV disruptions with help … Read more
José Barbosa watches Checkpoint’s flash new live stream while Duncan Greive listens to John Campbell’s return to RNZ on the good old AM radio. Even though reviewing the first edition of a show is like reviewing a book after reading its first page, they’re going to tell you what they thought anyway. José Barbosa “The Rhythm and Vines crowd … Read more
This week Ricky Gervais set lips flapping after he hosted the Golden Globe Awards. José Barbosa sat down and watched the whole bonkers thing to see if Gervais was as controversial as reported. Click below to watch Golden Globe winning show Mr Robot on Lightbox
Back in April, brave couch warrior José Barbosa journeyed 10 hours across the televisual seas to consume the first season of Spinoff sponsor Lightbox’s epic Norse saga Vikings in one sitting, accompanied only by meat soup and mead. This is his story. It’s an interesting feature of this amazing future amusement park we currently inhabit … Read more
Hacking thriller Mr Robot was undoubtedly one of the most critically-acclaimed TV shows of 2015. Upon its release, José Barbosa tracked down the man who once ran the internet in New Zealand, and asked him to assess its realism. Listen below as a podcast, or read on for a text transcript of the package. So there’s this scene in a movie … Read more