With a bit of spare time on your hands this summer, you might want to revisit some old family-friendly classics. José Barbosa suggests the legendary Kiwi canine caper A Dog’s Show on NZ On Screen, arguing a strong case for why it is the best television show New Zealand has ever seen. It’s become part of … Read more
Think this year’s Shortland Street cliffhanger was dramatic? The 1995 festive special was even more heartrending. Tara Ward remembers the Christmas episode that shocked a nation. Christmas Day television is notoriously bad. You can guarantee a Royal Variety Performance and a Vicar of Dibley special, and Jamie Oliver is bound to chuck a litre of olive … Read more
How do we remember Rob Muldoon? Hardly at all, if the paucity of coverage around the 40th anniversary of his first election victory as leader of the National Party is a guide. And yet he’s surely the least forgettable Prime Minister New Zealand has seen. Everyone knows about the Great Counterpuncher On November 29, 1975, … Read more
‘Good Night to Good Morning’ is a three part series farewelling the iconic TVNZ variety show. In part one, Steve Braunias recalls a recent appearance on a show that once gave him cakes and grapes, and always gave New Zealand reliably good viewing. This is the way Good Morning ends: not with a green room, but a vast, deserted … Read more
The Block NZ is all over bar the auction room shouting. There’s time for one last round of Pita Pit, and one last Power Rankings, before Houses 1 through 4 go under the hammer on Sunday night. 1. Brooke & Mitch – House 4 What would The Block NZ have been without Brooke and Mitch? … Read more
In 1999 Spinoff Editor Duncan Greive featured in a music documentary called Sweet As. 16 years later it was innocently suggested by Throwback Thursday’s new sponsors NZ On Screen for post, with the newsy hook being that we headed into festival season. Against his better judgement, he agreed to re-examine what is without doubt most publicly embarrassing thing he’s … Read more
TV3’s Funny Girls, New Zealand’s funniest sketch show in years, comes to the end of its current run this week. In celebration of its triumphant first season, we asked the team to tell us the stories behind their favourite sketches. Rose Matafeo: ‘Makeup Tutorial’ This was one of the first sketches I wrote for the … Read more
The medium is now the message, even more than it has ever been. Gay writer and documentary maker David Herkt examines the tragedies and triumphs of homosexual life as reflected in the TV media culture of mid-20th century New Zealand. There was Peter Sinclair, Lew Pryme – and then there was Hudson & Halls… At … Read more
Somebody pops the question next week on The Block NZ – but is it Jeremy proposing to the love of his life Cat, Sarah’s boyfriend to Sarah, or Mitch to this bit of GIB board he’s weirdly infatuated with? No idea, sorry, but here are the Power Rankings all the same. 1. (Last Week: 3) … Read more
Everyone sort of loses their minds as terrifying new creative performance challenge ‘Block Stars’ consumes Backyard Week on The Block NZ: Villa Wars. 1. (Last Week: 2) Cat & Jeremy – House 3 While technically Brooke and Mitch are probably still ‘winning’ The Block NZ, it’s good buggers Cat and Jeremy who hold all the … Read more
Over 20 years since it aired on TV One on a quiet Sunday night, Aaron Yap remembers Peter Jackson’s hoax-documentary Forgotten Silver. Peter Jackson might have sold New Zealand to the world as a viable enchanting Middle Earth filled with Hobbits and Gollums, but his greatest trick remains convincing us – for a brief moment – … Read more
Has a seemingly sweet and kind gesture from primary school students cursed every contestant on The Block to hell? And more importantly, has it had any effect whatsoever on the Power Rankings? 1. (Last Week: 1) Brooke & Mitch – House 4 Despite investing heavily in The Block NZ’s first glass-encased outdoor television, Brooke and Mitch’s … Read more
In a week marred by a despicable act by Brooke and Mitch and rescued by the thrilling plank challenge, Calum Henderson wonders if anyone can possibly topple the three-peat room reveal winners. 1. (Last Week: 1) Brooke & Mitch – House 4 With a crushing inevitability, Master Bedroom & Ensuite Bathroom Week provided a third … Read more
In a week dominated by Sally Ridge-inspired arts & craft challenges, Calum Henderson assesses the hopes and dreams of the increasingly sick, tired and furious Block NZ contestants. 1. (Last Week: 1) Brooke & Mitch – House 4 The Brooke and Mitch juggernaut rolled on through Living Room Week. The pair’s Heartland conservatism and attention to … Read more
Tara Ward brings you this week’s Shortland Street Power Rankings, highlighted by Ferndale’s own Rawshark, Dayna finding love in a hardware store and a diagnostic demon in ED. 1. Damo is Dick of the Week™ Damo was batshit crazy this week and Shortland Street was all the better for it. Jealous of Chris’ superior wealth, … Read more
HDPA gets fired up over firearm rules It started with a hidden camera sting exposing a dodgy real estate practice, a fearsome Heather Du Plessis-Allan doorknock and Duncan Garner cutting off a home detention bracelet. TV3’s Story returned to its early roots on Wednesday with its boldest bit of proactive stunt journalism yet, when Heather … Read more
The villas are being fitted with expensive and unnecessary fireplaces and Dinner Wars hangs precariously in the balance – Calum Henderson ranks the Block NZ teams going into the break in living room week. 1. (Last Week: 2) – Brooke & Mitch – House 4 A low cloud of inevitability rolled over the Sandringham / … Read more
The eighth iteration of Christchurch’s public art biennial SCAPE opened earlier this month, clustered around the CBD. Subtitled New Intimacies, it aims to bring people back into the centre of the rebuilding city with works from local and international artists. Is there a better way to analyse a complex collection of artworks than the Spinoff’s … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her power rankings for week two of MKRNZ, including Laurence’s new character ‘Stace’ and the worst restaurant theme television has ever seen. We’re in week two and I’m just so glad that we are all becoming friends. The contestants are letting their guards down, warming up to each other and repeatedly touching … Read more
As we await the results of the vitally important Bathroom Week on The Block NZ: Villa Wars, Calum Henderson looks at how the teams are tracking. 1. Cat & Jeremy – House 3 The happy-go-lucky couple on the corner are leading a charmed life on The Block NZ, scooping Kid’s Bedroom Week from under Jamie and … Read more
Claire Adamson is undoubtedly New Zealand’s premiere expert on the 90s What Now series This is Serial Stuff. This week she hit the jackpot after being sent over an hour of kiwi childhood nostalgia on Youtube. The Reddit envelope of doom blinked angrily from the corner of the page. “Read me!” it screamed, a tiny, triangle-filled precursor of terrible, hate-filled, … Read more
To celebrate the arbitrary three-day respite TV3 have offered us from The Block NZ: Villa Wars, Calum Henderson looks back at the last week-and-a-bit of daybed dramas, dangerous drilling, dick moves and a hundred pre-line inspections. 1) Cat & Jeremy – House 3 The New Plymouth jokers took out first week honours with their guest bedroom … Read more
Now that the dust has settled on the weekend’s Tinderbox Children’s Writers and Illustrators conference in Wellington, time to ask: who are the most powerful people in children’s literature? Tricky thing, power. Are the most powerful people in the New Zealand children’s book world those that are recognised internationally as experts? Do they need to … Read more
We enjoyed Dom Harvey’s live prostate exam on Story so much we’ve brainstormed ten more ideas for future TV3 live broadcast stunts. 1) Rachel Glucina’s Key Keyhole Surgery Inserting a keyhole camera through the Keys’ keyhole live on Scout TV, Glucina gains exclusive footage of Max Key letting people into Harvard on Skype and John … Read more
With just three rounds left in the regular season, and with no guarantees on final placings, the time has come for the latest installment in our weekly ITM Cup Power Rankings. From corporatised sea life to coaching rodents, it was another week that gave plenty and – in true Provincial fashion – expected nothing in … Read more
Who are the most powerful figures in New Zealand literature? The most respected, the most admired, the most sucked-up-to? A panel of experts sat down and bitched and argued until they agreed on a ranking to end all rankings. Their methodology was precise. Much of it was based on the level of fear they would … Read more
The halfway point in the ITM Cup came and went over the weekend with Canterbury playing with all the precision of the Hyundai assembly line, the Turbos getting a first win, and Tasman making it 5-0 to start the year with a second half feast against the Lions. With the Makos taking on their bogey … Read more
Aaron Yap looks at Show Me a Hero, the six part miniseries from the creators of The Wire that examines the 1987 housing crisis in New York – and eerily mirrors our own current property strife. Housing. Land. Property. These might be among the least dramatically engaging subjects I can think of. The last time I went … Read more
It may not have the pizzazz of the Super Rugby season or the hype of the Rugby World Cup, but make no mistake: the ITM Cup is the best ten weeks of rugby this year, and every year. Where else do grown men run around in the kind of deer outfit that would make a … Read more