Sam Brooks 
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture. For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to gay culture, but to real-life gay men. A makeover show featuring five gay men … Read more
Sam Brooks, lifelong gamer, lost himself on a virtual battlefield in the days after his mother’s death. Here, he reviews a book by a kindred spirit: Lost in A Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do For Us, by psychologist Pete Etchells. The person who got me into video games … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Mean Mums, the new sitcom from Three that manages to make putting a great show together look easy. When it premiered as part of Three’s Pilot Week last year, I called Mean Mums the winner of the bunch. Nearly a year later, my enthusiasm for that initial pilot hasn’t dimmed. It was the … Read more
Before Big Little Lies, there was Desperate Housewives. Sam Brooks lists all the truly terrible things these women did over eight seasons. Fourteen years ago, the lives of four women (plus Nicolette Sheridan) captivated the world. What secrets did these suburban ladies have? Why did their best friend kill herself and hang around, narrating her … Read more
Inheritance plays as part of The Basement Theatre’s Matariki season this week. Sam Brooks talks to one of its creators about what the show wants to say. Jess Holly Bates has quite a bit of experience making shows that start conversations. Her show Real White Fake Dirt critiqued Pākehā privilege in a way that was both … Read more
Laura Daniel has made a career out of committing to the bit. Sometimes it’s a joke. Sometimes it’s a zombie reality show. And sometimes it’s a ten-week celebrity dancing competition. In 2016, Laura Daniel was nominated for the Billy T Award for her show, Pressure Makes Diamonds. The show’s opening bit was also its best … Read more
A new production of Once, the musical based on the hit film, opens in Auckland tonight. Sam Brooks talks to the director Jesse Peach about putting the New Zealand premiere on its feet. Being a musical theatre fan in New Zealand can be a testing experience. If you’re a die-hard fan, you’re likely to have already … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, an exercise in mining nostalgia for diminishing returns. If you were a 90s kid and had a console, you were either a Mario Kart kid or a Crash Team Racing kid. These were the definitive party games of our era – more party and more competitive than the actual party games … Read more
After 15 seasons, pretty much every doctor on Grey’s Anatomy should be fired or in jail. Sam Brooks revisits all the wild fireable offences that have happened in television’s longest-running medical drama. Fourteen years ago, a little show called Grey’s Anatomy descended upon our screens and captured the hearts of millions. It made stars of its unknown … Read more
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Driver, a game whose innovations pioneered some of gaming’s biggest present-day trends. Sam Brooks takes a look at the groundbreaking game’s launch – and the series’ unfortunate decline. The year is 1999. The first Super Smash Bros. has come out, the fourth Tomb Raider game to use the same engine as the first … Read more
Our three month celebrity charity journey is over! Sam Brooks power-ranks the finale of Dancing with The Stars. Can I just say what an honestly strange event the last episode of this kind of reality show is? It’s one hour and 59 minutes of edging, with as much padding and promotion for the network’s upcoming big … Read more
A Fine Balance opened yesterday in Auckland, marking a historic collaboration between two pillars of Auckland theatre. Sam Brooks talked to two of the team – Prayas president Amit Ohdedar and director Ahi Karunharan – about the show. On paper, it seems like a no-brainer of a collaboration. Auckland Theatre Company, arguably the biggest theatre company … Read more
E3 is the biggest week of gaming news of the year – which means it’s easy to lose track of everything that’s been announced. Sam Brooks rounds up them all up in one convenient place for you. Not only is E3 the biggest gaming convention in the world, it’s the biggest hype-machine and you can … Read more
She has scores of credits to her name, awards galore, she’s an CNZM, and she stars in the cabaret Delicious Oblivion, opening tonight in Auckland. Jennifer Ward-Lealand talks to Sam Brooks about her most memorable roles. It’s not hyperbole to call Jennifer Ward-Lealand a living legend. Across her 40-year career, the actress has graced both … Read more
“It’s the semi-final of Dancing with the Stars! And so soon!” said nobody. Sam Brooks power-ranks the penultimate episodes of Dancing with the Stars. Everybody danced twice tonight! The theme for the first dance was ‘a tribute to a musical icon’ and with the 2019 definition of ‘iconic’ that could be extended to include the … Read more
Sam Brooks goes to a ‘lads’ lunch’ expecting the worst – and somehow gets the advertised ‘good vibes’. When I heard of Lads Who Lunch, my first response was, “Oh, like the Sondheim song?” This was my first hint that maybe I was not the intended audience for Lads Who Lunch. The events, started by … Read more
Sam Brooks talks to internationally acclaimed opera singer Sandy Piques Eddy about the ins and outs of maintaining her voice, and how having a baby changed her career – in a way you wouldn’t expect. Singing opera is like getting to the Olympics. Only the best of the best can do it professionally, once you … Read more
It’s week eight of Dancing with the Stars, and (some of) our favourite celebs from past seasons return! Sam Brooks power-ranks the contestants. Credit where credit is due: This is a much better gambit than pairing people up with each other for devastatingly unbalanced triple dances. Who doesn’t want to see human lightbulb Barbara Kendall … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Total War: Three Kingdoms and finally finds the definitive Romance of the Three Kingdoms game. My road to Total War: Three Kingdoms was an unusual one. While for most it’s the latest in the critically-acclaimed, much-beloved Total War series, for me it’s the latest in a long line of Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. But what … Read more
There are few book launches more hotly anticipated than a new Nicky Hager work. This time Hager is not the author, but it is introduced by him, with the same publisher, and the same closely guarded leadup to publication. The book, we can now reveal, is by Margie Thomson, and its title is spare and … Read more
They’re not tiny dancers, they’re Elton John sized! Thank the lord! Sam Brooks power-ranks week seven of Dancing with the Stars. I could have lived my whole life without seeing Dai Henwood play at being Elton John! But here we are in May 2019, readers. The world burns and drowns around us. Sincere question: Do … Read more
Ten years on from its first episode, Sam Brooks revisits all the wild, dumb, and plain terrible things that happened on Glee. Ten years ago, a little show from the brain of Ryan Murphy premiered. Up until this point, he’d had a minor failure with black teen comedy-drama Popular and a minor success with scuzzy hospital … Read more
At over five hundred million streams, Ava Max is proving to be one of the biggest popstars of 2019. Not only that, writes Sam Brooks, she might actually be the most perfect. Ava Max is like a Frankenstein of a popstar, which I mean in the best way possible (also yes, I know Frankenstein was … Read more
All four seasons of Laura Linney’s cancer comedy The Big C drops on Lightbox today. Sam Brooks writes about the series’ surprisingly uplifting journey through a woman’s nightmare. There’s a moment late in the first season of The Big C that hits you right in the gut. After finding out his mother Cathy (Laura Linney) has terminal cancer, her … Read more
To celebrate the release of her third album, Dedicated, here’s our guide to becoming a Carly Rae Jepsen fan. A Carly Rae Jepstan, if you will. You, an idiot: “Is that the girl who did ‘Call Me Maybe’?” Me, an intellectual and someone with a lot of time on their hands: OH LET ME TELL YOU. … Read more
It’s week six of Dancing with the Stars, and the cream has risen from beneath the crop! Sam Brooks power-ranks the contestants. Week six! We’re at the stage of the competition where I can listen to a judge’s feedback and guess, with 100% accuracy, what their score is based on their comments. What a specific talent! … Read more
Sam Brooks has a transcendent experience at the part of the Auckland Writers Festival grown-ups never hear about: the school sessions. A few years ago I could’ve been mistaken for a teenager, especially given that I dress like a toddler recently given autonomy over their fashion. As I walked around the Aotea Centre, a space … Read more
We’re halfway through the celebrity stepping competition that is Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks power-ranks week five! It was cool to see the judges acknowledge the harshness of their criticisms against the women in this competition, and, quite correctly, give the public a call to action to vote for the women! Does it matter? This is … Read more
Much like its subject, The Audience is blandly pleasant and frustratingly naive. Sam Brooks reviews Auckland Theatre Company’s latest production. Every week, Queen Elizabeth II has an hour-long meeting with her prime minister to discuss the matters of the day. This has happened since her coronation in 1953, and will happen until she abdicates, she dies, or … Read more