Music Monday: American Horror Story – Gleefully Scary

This Music Monday, Alex Casey finds beauty in the horror of American Horror Story: Freak Show’s bizarre musical numbers. //  If there is one thing that Glee, Nip/Tuck and Popular have taught us, it’s that producer/writer/director Ryan Murphy loves a good pop soundtrack. If he can integrate that soundtrack into the diegetic world of his TV … Read more

Music Monday: Everyone’s Waiting… For The Perfect Finale Song

David Farrier tearfully recalls the Six Feet Under finale, and makes the case for Sia’s ‘Breathe Me’ as the most perfectly deployed piece of music to ever close out a show. At some point while TV3’s Nightline was still on air (still the best job I’ve ever had), our producer Angus Gillies got ahold of all five seasons of … Read more

Summer Reading: All My Exes Live in Boxsets

Elle Hunt discusses the undeniable significance of binge-watching television in today’s dating culture, while pondering her own romantic entanglements with both humans and TV shows. // I have seen the first half of the first season of Lost*. I doubt I’ll ever watch the rest. Not because of any considered opposition to poorly thought-out or increasingly pointless … Read more

Cool Cartoons #2: The Cartoon Band Conundrum

In the second instalment of our animation-centric column Cool Cartoons, Mark Martin looks at the key cartoon bands of recent times and introduces his own, The Emilys. Cartoon bands seem to be a love/hate thing. Some love their theatrical leanings, off beat humor and chameleon-like ability to switch between musical genres. Other people reckon it’s all … Read more

2014 in Review: Music Monday – Top Ten TV Music Moments

Elle Hunt takes a walk through the top ten rubber-legged lipstick-smeared music moments to grace our TV screens this year. // Acknowledging that there are few things more boring or redundant than remarks about how fast this year has gone, how fast has this year gone?! To think that this time 12 months ago, we’d just … Read more

Street Week: Throwback Thursday – The Cameos

Much like Ponsonby Road on a sunny day, Shortland Street is heaving with celebrities. Alex Casey looks back at some of the more memorable cameos. // Guardian of Our Small Claims Galaxy Kevin Milne Talk about the merging of two iconic New Zealand television worlds! In 1996, Nick Harrison appeared on Fair Go with legendary host … Read more

Street Week: Music Monday – Shortland Street Theme (Club Mix)

Aaron Hawkins remembers when acid house came to Ferndale via the Shortland Street Theme Club Mix. // “This is rock’n’roll Nurse Burton. Not that hippy dippy folk stuff or whatever it is you’re into.” At the tender age of nine, I had no idea what ‘acid’ was, let alone ‘psychedelia’ or ‘club mixes’. It seems likely … Read more

Throwback Thursday: Young Americans, the Show That Coke Built

This Throwback Thursday, Alex Casey revisits a Dawson’s Creek spin-off that handily doubles as the longest Coca-Cola advertisement ever made. //  As the year slowly starts to wrap up and people lock in their summer holidays, spare a thought for the ill-advised Dawson’s Creek spinoff created for the show’s summer break in 2000. Young Americans features the … Read more

Music Monday: Excessive Analysis of X Factor NZ’s New Promo

Last week TV3 premiered the first X-Factor 2015 promo to feature its full lineup of judges. The concept is basically ‘the end of the judges’ commute to work, and then them walking a bit’. Here is the clip. Here are a few takeaways from this piece of promotional footage. 1. Willy Moon is a big Willy Moon Fan and … Read more

Sci Fi Week – Throwback Thursday: The Surreal World of Aeon Flux

This Throwback Thursday, Aaron Yap appreciates the long-tongued leather-clad genius of sci fi series Aeon Flux.// A funny thing happened when I began revisiting Peter Chung’s cult animated sci-fi series Aeon Flux for this column. Seeing it for the first time since the mid-‘90s when it was on MTV’s Liquid Television – a memorably messed-up anthology … Read more

Sci Fi Week – Music Monday: Having Faith in Star Trek’s “Faith No More”

This is Sci-Fi week at The Spinoff – we’re running a bunch of content devoted to the most ambitious genre of them all. First up: Andrew Todd defends the much-hated theme song to Star Trek: Enterprise. // Star Trek: Enterprise, the sixth and thus far last TV show to bear the franchise’s name, was initially met with some … Read more

Throwback Thursday: The Gripping 1988 University Challenge Final

With the return of University Challenge NZ to Prime this Saturday morning, Alex Casey watches the incredible 1988 final between Canterbury and Waikato. // Host Peter Sinclair welcomes us to the 1988 final, reflecting on the year that has been. He honestly looks like the perfect combo of Christoph Waltz, a Ken doll and this infamous dog wearing … Read more

Music Monday: Josh Pfefferman and How Transparent Nails the Music Industry

This Music Monday Henry Oliver and Duncan Greive discuss an underrated element of the phenomenal Transparent: its unnervingly sharp portrayal of LA’s music industry. // Henry: Transparent was an interesting show for so many reasons, all of which could/should be discussed at length. There were issues in the show: gender (obvi) and the ‘new’ American family … Read more

Throwback Thursday: Star Powered Sci-Fi Lunacy in Dan Harmon’s’Heat Vision and Jack’

This Throwback Thursday, Joe Harper unearths a radiant piece of discarded treasure from Community creator, Dan Harmon. // Long before Dan Harmon blossomed into the self-styled narcissist-genius responsible for Community and next level navel gazing, podcast masterpiece Harmontown, he made Heat Vision and Jack. The show was created in 1999 by Harmon and frequent collaborator … Read more

Throwback Thursday: Gosling Gets Goosebumps

This Throwback Thursday Alex Casey finds a hotbed of young talent in the TV adaptation of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. Reader beware, you’re in for a scare/moderate surprise. // The hottest news in the cinematic world is obviously the adaptation of R.L. Stine’s terrifying children’s horror series Goosebumps into a feature film starring Jack Black. So, now is … Read more

Music Mondays: The Knick – Songs in the Key of Disease

Everything that’s said about The Knick is sounds like an overstatement. People love it or hate it. It’s the best thing on television or the whole premium-cable anti-hero thing gone one step too far. Me? I’m a believer. Sure, there’s some less-than-genius writing, but, in nearly all other facets, The Knick is the most masterfully … Read more

Throwback Thursday: Bryan Cranston meets Vince Gilligan on The X-Files

David Farrier reflects on how a pivotal X-Files casting decision eventually led to Bryan Cranston’s explosive role on Breaking Bad.// It was 1998 and I was 15 years old. It was season six of The X-Files, my favourite show in the whole wide world. It was a brilliant season – the mythology was in place, and … Read more

Throwback Thursday: A First Draft Of Genius – Blackadder’s Unaired Pilot

Andrew Todd watches the unaired pilot of Blackadder, one of English comedy’s foundation stones, and finds a very rough draft with shards of brilliance. // Blackadder is a cultural keystone as vital to English TV comedy as Fawlty Towers or The Office. Over its four series, Richard Curtis, Ben Elton and Rowan Atkinson delivered what is … Read more

Music Mondays: The Best of Mouse Rat (Formerly Scarecrow Boat)

Joseph Harper falls deep into the pit of fake Parks and Recreation band, Mouse Rat. // I always loved a good fake band. Whether it was Doug’s beloved Beets, Uncle Jesse’s unbelievably sensual contributions, Landry’s borderline unlistenable Chirstian Metal outfit, Crucifictorious, or even Drive Shaft, with their surprisingly believable take on waning Brit Pop. All … Read more

Throwback Thursdays: A Dog’s Show

Each Thursday a Spinoff correspondent will discuss a nugget from television’s rich and distinguished past. This week José Barbosa argues for the enduring tensions of A Dog’s Show. It’s become part of our vague national perception of New Zealand culture to catalogue A Dog’s Show as a crusty anachronism. The show played during a time when stubbies (sartorial … Read more

Music Mondays: Luke Ward Meets Rooney on The OC

Luke Ward started life on The OC credited only as a guest star, an All American tough guy jerk dating Marissa Cooper, the troubled rich girl neighbour of the central Cohen family. He had two core functions to perform on the show, both of which required garden variety jerkiness performed to an extremely high level. Firstly … Read more

Throwback Thursday: Even TV Couldn’t Save Ferris

For this throwback, we skip school to look at a failed Ferris Bueller’s Day Off television reboot starring a young Jennifer Aniston and a scary Scott Disick clone. // This week in TV has been all about old favourites getting a reboot in this golden/platinum/silicon age of television. The world put the collective coffee on at the news of Twin … Read more

Musical Monday: Buffy The Vampire Singer

Slaying vampires and tunes is all in a days work for Buffy. // Although it may not feel like it, there was a time before Glee and High School Musical. This was back when audiences were still unaccustomed to a sentence turning into a five minute melody, or a character casually whipping out a guitar as the gymnasium … Read more