Uther Dean 
With Sprigs, Brannavan Gnanalingam delivers a great New Zealand novel, writes Uther Dean. Since 2011 Brannavan Gnanalingam has pumped out Major Work after Major Work. Every two years brought another book: Getting Under Sail; You Should Have Come Here When You Were Not Here; Credit in the Straight World; A Briefcase, Two Pies and a … Read more
Huge claims from Uther Dean about The Wicked + The Divine, the books he’s spent the last five years with. The Wicked + The Divine is the best story released this decade in any medium. I want to be clear here. People often confuse favourite for best when talking critically. I am not saying that … Read more
Uther Dean responds to the essay we published last week, in which Sandra Simpson expressed her frustration at people who misunderstood and disrespected haiku. When I was writing haiku there were two kinds of people who liked to tell me I wasn’t writing haiku. The first were early millennial or late Gen X white men … Read more
Ahead of the release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Uther Dean writes on how there will never really be another phenomenon like the original Breaking Bad. Have you tried rewatching Breaking Bad recently? It’s not the same, is it? Something has changed. When it was wrapping its original run, half a dozen years ago, it … Read more
Terrace House is so real that it can’t be anything but fake. Uther Dean writes about what makes the Japanese Netflix dating reality show so addictive. Do you know what a parasocial relationship is? Because I promise that you’re in heaps of them. Parasocial relationships are the ones that occur between you and the people … Read more
A series of haiku by Twitter bard Uther Dean. Haiku Sue tore up her will, Drank the serum. Fuck the kids. She’d live forever. * My latest mantra: ‘None of this is important. You have enough love.’ * My man-size pillow Has a single hand to hold And a … Read more
Doctor Who is back, baby, with Jodie Whittaker in the title role as the highly anticipated first ever female Doctor. Uther Dean talked to her about the beloved show’s history, and the weight of expectations. In November, Doctor Who turns 55. Before that, the 11th season of the modern revival – and the 37th in … Read more
The Stephen King super-series hits Lightbox in its entirety tonight, and thankfully, it’s come with A Plan and An Answer to all its mysteries. Uther Dean reviews. In the small town of Castle Rock, shit is going down. The head warden of the local prison kills himself. The new warden discovers a haunted, silent man … Read more
The seventh expansion of World of Warcraft, Battle for Azeroth hit the metaphoric shelves last week. Uther Dean talks to some of the game’s most diehard Kiwi fans. It seems odd that World of Warcraft is 14 years old. That number of years both seems like far too much and not nearly enough. It always seems to have … Read more
Better Call Saul is dropping weekly on Lightbox right now – and it’s slowly catching up with the start of Breaking Bad. While we wait, here are four fanservicey ways the new show could tip its hat to the old one. Better Call Saul, the often-prequel sometimes-sequel series to Breaking Bad, is back with its fourth … Read more
Rare’s popular-ish platformer Banjo-Kazooie turns 20 this year. Uther Dean reflects on what the series meant for him back then – and what it means now. Banjo-Kazooie is 20 years old. Time is cruel. These things are connected. Time is cruel because it can’t be 20 years since I first played the wild frolic through a … Read more
The Darwin Project, the first game from Montreal studio Scavengers, brings a player-generated narrative experience to the saturated battle royale genre, and it has an open beta out this weekend. Uther Dean talks to the people behind it. With Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds coming seemingly out of nowhere to dominate 2017, the age of the battle royale … Read more
Uther Dean reminisces about how kids’ games were used to trick him into enjoying his education – and how those games still hold up today. Do you remember the days of the old school yard? We used to laugh a lot. Well, people used to laugh a lot. I don’t know about you but I … Read more
Video games get a bad rep, mostly from people who don’t even play them. Uther Dean suggests some games to bridge the gap between video games and the people who just CANNOT with them. Everyone plays video games these days. From Candy Crush on up, people are wittling away their one special life torturing pixels. … Read more
It’s a mystery that deserves an answer. Alice, the protagonist of all six Resident Evil films, has not once made an appearance in the video games. This could not be by accident. To get to the bottom of this enduring riddle, Uther Dean interviewed* some of the key players in both the films and the video … Read more
In the soft, glazed eyes of the Magikarp we see a challenge to love that which is unlovable, or so argues Uther Dean. Magikarp are no one’s favourite Pokémon. Essentially powerless, the limp, flappy fish is famous for its Splash attack that famously, no matter how hard your Magikarp hurls themself into the air, always … Read more
Uther Dean is a finalist in tonight’s Raw Comedy Quest Grand Final at Q Theatre – and he’s terrified. He explains why that is, and why there’s a big problem with stand-up comedy that nobody talks about. There is one big problem at the very heart of stand-up comedy. That problem is everyone. Everyone is … Read more
It’s a mystery that deserves an answer. Alice, the protagonist of all six Resident Evil films, has not once made an appearance in the video games. This could not be by accident. To get to the bottom of this enduring riddle, Uther Dean interviewed some of the key players in both the films and the video … Read more