Sam Brooks 
Sam Brooks swims against the cultural tide in noping out on Game of Thrones. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. It includes no spoilers for the current season of Game of Thrones, you spoilerphobes. I stopped watching Game of Thrones around the time a witch who looked like Tori Amos birthed a shadow-beast … Read more
The new trailer for the much anticipated, oft-delayed Final Fantasy 7 remake is finally here! Optimist and superfan Sam Brooks breaks it down, moment by moment. Final Fantasy 7 is, indisputably, the most popular RPG of all time. It’s one of the biggest selling video games of all time, too. When the remake was announced, Obama was … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Educators, a beautifully morbid and mean-spirited New Zealand comedy about high school teachers. The daily life of a teacher is a well-trodden one on television. It’s not hard to see why: education and school provides a well-known structure, it’s a pretty universal experience, and the hardships of being a teacher are well-documented … Read more
Spinoff parents editor Emily Writes’ bestseller Rants in the Dark is coming to Auckland – as a play. Her Spinoff colleague Sam Brooks, a playwright himself, spoke to her about the process of seeing her book adapted for the stage. I’ve been writing plays for nearly a decade now. I’ve written stuff that could not be further … Read more
It’s the 2019 Met Ball Gala, and the theme is Camp! In an act of fully precedented hubris, Sam Brooks ranks the looks as they come down the red carpet. It’s the Met Ball Gala, also known as the event that Rihanna wins every year. She’s the Vodafone Warriors of the Met Ball Gala. (Do … Read more
It’s week four of celebrity deadlifting competition, Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks power-ranks the contestants. Both episodes opened with two different choreograph dancers to Timmy Trumpets’ ‘Freaks’ featuring Savage. Did they get it for cheap if they played it twice? That’s a very specific choice! I’ll tell you one thing for free! No paywall here, premium content right … Read more
Cheers for a millennial audience? A three-camera sitcom that you can laugh at without feeling guilty? Sounds great! Sam Brooks reviews Abby’s, which you can watch on Lightbox right here. “Abby’s is filmed in front of a live outdoor audience.” Perhaps unintentionally, the disclaimer that begins every episode of Abby reflects the two-pronged strength of the show. On one … Read more
She’s more than a New Zealand icon – she’s a New Zealand star. Sam Brooks talks to Danielle Cormack about her role as Lulu in Fresh Eggs Danielle Cormack is, straight up, one of our most successful actresses, by whatever yardstick you choose to use to measure it. Gloss, Shortland Street, Topless Women Talk About Their … Read more
Playwright and The Spinoff’s culture editor Sam Brooks interviews Val Emmich, author of Dear Evan Hansen, about the life-changing process of adapting a smash Broadway musical into a book. Musicals and young adult novels have a few things in common, earnestness and accessibility being two of them, but the most prominent thing they share is … Read more
Satellites is a series of public events and encounters showcasing the most exciting contemporary Asian artists in Auckland. Sam Brooks interviewed the founder of Satellites, Rosabel Tan, and one of the artists, Ahi Karunaharan, about this year’s programme. A K-Pop dance explosion at Botany Town Centre. An all-female tiger dance at Sandringham Reserve. A give-one-take-one … Read more
One year ago, God of War was unleashed on the world, selling millions of copies and winning countless awards. Sam Brooks finally catches up with the game. Incredibly mild spoilers for God of War follow. On paper, everything about 2018’s God of War was everything that bores me in art. It was about dads. It had a kid in it. … Read more
Only three weeks in and it feels like a thousand! Sam Brooks power-ranks the third week of celebrity sweep-the-floor-with-a-lady competition, Dancing with the Stars NZ. The theme of this week is guilty pleasure! Why is any music considered a guilty pleasure? Give me genuine, disturbing guilty pleasures please. I want to see someone do an interpretative … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Aldous Harding’s mysterious, enthralling third album, Designer. One of my favourite things of late has been to show unsuspecting people the music video for Aldous Harding’s ‘The Barrel’. As a song, it’s an excellent little thing, the perfect aural venn diagram of Tori Amos and Katie Melua – all the shameless opacity of … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Anthems, a six-part documentary on New Zealand’s iconic hits, which starts tonight on Prime. New Zealanders are possessive as hell over our culture. Pavlova, Russell Crowe, Lord of the Rings, colonial racism – if it’s ours, we really own it. Where it really sinks into the marrow though, is our music. For better or … Read more
MARINA’s new album drops in its entirety on April 26 – but where has she been, and where are the Diamonds? Sam Brooks chronicles the journey of popstar MARINA from Diamonds to caps lock. Real talk: MARINA is one of the best popstars we’ve got. She’s performed for a few years under the name ‘Marina … Read more
Sam Brooks power-ranks week two of New Zealand’s premiere celebrity charity shimmying show, Dancing with the Stars. Hello, humans! Happy Easter Monday, the day after the day Jesus came back and his friends were not super excited to see him. How was your Easter? Were you one of those people who, deciding they needed to drink everything on Sunday, … Read more
Sam Brooks digs into his childhood to present his magnum opus: a ranking of all 151 OG Pokémon. You can see the scrollbar at the right side of your screen. Let’s just get into this, shall we? Opinions are, as always, my own and subjectivity is not objectivity. 151. Jynx Look, the worst one is … Read more
New Zealand’s celebrity perambulator competition continues tonight! Sam Brooks power-ranks the second night of the first week of Dancing with the Stars NZ. The ranking for the first seven contestants can be found right here. Yeah, he didn’t take his shirt off this episode. See you next week, you thirsty Mike McRoberts chasers you! Anyway, If … Read more
What’s the best way to look at the biggest show on television at the moment? Through a 20 year old video game, of course, writes Sam Brooks. This post contains spoilers for Suikoden II, which you absolutely don’t care about. This post contains no spoilers for Game of Thrones, which you absolutely do care about. The … Read more
New Zealand’s celebrity movement competition returns tonight! Sam Brooks power-ranks the first week of Dancing with the Stars NZ. Strap in, you guys. I’m ready to learn what the All Blacks were doing in 1995, I’m ready to learn the names of influencers and sportshumans, and most importantly, I’m ready to wildly disagree with judges … Read more
A sitcom starring Pamela Anderson as a bookstore employee in 2005? We’re already laughing. Sam Brooks writes about the dusty two-season wonder that was Stacked. Imagine, for a moment, that you’re an American television network in 2005. Friends has just ended its ten year run, and that format of sitcom (friends do problematic things with guest stars) … Read more
Christchurch-born Theia’s second EP Not Your Princess drops today. Sam Brooks chats with the singer about her new music and her video for International Women’s Day. Theia’s first self-titled EP was released two years ago, and it was a stunning artistic statement. The production was lush, her voice had a distinctive husk to it, and the … Read more
‘Old Town Road’ has gained fame not just for its country-hook goodness, but also for the controversy raging around it. Sam Brooks explores what the song’s success says about country music’s purity problem. “Yeah, I’m gonna take my horse to the old town road I’m gonna ride ’til I can’t no more I’m gonna take … Read more
Killing Eve, last year’s critical sleeper hit turned actual hit, returns to our screens today. Sam Brooks is ready to dive back in. The most telling moment in Killing Eve’s second season premiere doesn’t focus on either deadly assassin Villanelle or the less deadly Eve, but mysterious intelligence officer Carolyn. Eve comes across Carolyn on a … Read more
How time flies – Final Fantasy 6 was released 25 years ago this month. Sam Brooks remembers its brilliant antagonist, an evil clown who actually succeeded in destroying the world. The internet was once a simpler place. Rather than people digging into their trenches on video game difficulty or whatever issue is threatening to burn … Read more
It’s that time of year again when we push celebrities onstage and make them dance for charity and also our amusement. Armed only with a limited knowledge of sportspeople and breakfast radio, Sam Brooks power-ranks the celebs lining up to compete in Dancing with the Stars. It is with the heaviest, arterially-clogged heart that I … Read more
She’s written some of the biggest hits across the world the past few years, and now she’s stepping into the limelight. Here’s what you need to know about pop music’s next superstar. Jessie J co-wrote ‘Party in the USA’ before she found fame under her own name. Julia Michaels co-wrote ‘Hands to Myself’, ‘Bad Liar’ … Read more
After a recent replay of the original trilogy, Sam Brooks writes on the unfairly maligned legacy of the Mass Effect trilogy. Spoilers for a trilogy that finished over half a decade again (be honest: if you wanted to play these games by now, you would’ve). If you’re even a casual gamer, the thing you probably remember most … Read more
The New World Beer and Cider Awards are serious business in the industry – so why not send along a beer rookie to see what it’s all about? “Burnt butter.” “A sort of minerality.” “Quite a firm, long, furry kind of bitterness.” “Grapefruity.” These are some of the ways head judge Michael Donaldson describes the … Read more