He doesn’t call himself an environmentalist, but a timber-processing factory owner is at the forefront of a renewable energy revolution. Alex Braae went to Te Puke to talk to him. The bright, warm sunshine of Te Puke already helps grow some of the best kiwifruit in the world. Now a local factory owner is harnessing … Read more
Belief we tend to associate with the fringes of US society have torn a swathe through Aotearoa’s traditionally easy-going if occasionally oddball community of hippies, yoga teachers, and spiritual festival-goers. From the outside, Joe Nunweek finds out if it will ever be the same. Ady* remembers the night she finally tried to intervene with Eve. … Read more
Bravo launched in New Zealand this week, bringing with it about 300 iterations of the Real Housewives franchise. Tara Ward, a real housewife herself, decided to see how their daily lives compare. With wine. A friend called me a ‘housewife’ the other day, a shocking attack that made me cry into the giant pile … Read more
Zoe Scheltema spends a whole day of her life living like Kim Kardashian, recreating everything from her limited dietary options to her stringent selfie regimen. If you haven’t heard of Kim Kardashian, you are surely living under the largest and most immovable rock on planet Earth. Kim Kardashian is a powerhouse of fashion, beauty and … Read more
Chaos reigned, if only briefly, over the Auckland CBD today. Don Rowe moves through a world of swirling ideology and takes an exhilirating walk down Queen Street with a few thousand other people. “You’re a very loud minority!” sneered a solitary businessman in an off-pink dress shirt. A few people turned their heads, someone called … Read more
We’ve been big fans of James Mustapic’s hilarious recap channel Shorty Street Scandal since The Spinoff began. This week, we are stoked to preview his debut Harry Warner-themed single and announce his first ever LIVE SHOW in Auckland, proudly brought to you by The Spinoff! Nearly one year ago I started working on a full … Read more
Alex Casey spends an afternoon time travelling with Freeview Plus, catching up on all of the extraordinary TV she’s missed out on from The Real to Who’s Doing the Dishes?. Time travel is real, in the here and now. You might not be able to travel 20 years into the future and see yourself flying … Read more
Alex Casey is very good at watching cooking shows and very bad at cooking in real life. She took up the My Food Bag challenge to become a Masterchef in her own home. Despite spending close to 40,000 hours watching My Kitchen Rules NZ last year, I somehow remain the worst cook in the entire world. … Read more
Alex Casey watches UnREAL – a drama set behind-the-scenes of a Bachelor-esque reality show – with The Bachelor NZ runner-up Dani Robinson, who dishes the dirt on how real reality TV really is. Set behind-the-scenes of a Bachelor-style dating show, the fictional world of UnREAL hints at the dark methods used to construct reality TV. Co-created by Marti Noxon and … Read more
A new season of Suits has arrived on Lightbox. Tim Lambourne explains how binge-watching the legal drama helped him win his underdog tenancy dispute. A few years ago I lived in a four bedroom flat on Summer Street in Ponsonby, Auckland. If you’re unfamiliar with the suburb, Summer Street is about three quarters of the way down Ponsonby … Read more
With Heartland in it’s final, feeble week of life, Calum Henderson sat down and watched one day’s worth of nostalgic programming. TVNZ Heartland is dying. At midnight on the 31st of May, the national nostalgia channel will shut down, taking with it our chances of ever again opportunistically stumbling upon a classic episode of Mucking … Read more
After the final of X Factor NZ, Joseph Harper creates an interactive game that promises to be more challenging, fun and have higher production values than the competition itself. It’s been a long season of losing judges, murderers and clear winners as X Factor NZ slowly disintegrated week to week. But finally – here’s something … Read more
In the final instalment of the series – here are the first four parts – James Milne knocks off the remaining episodes of Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cancelled borderline softcore porn series The Client List in its entirety. He reflects upon his televisual journey. On any normal day, stumbling upon The Client List, I might have watched up to thirty … Read more
It’s an interesting feature of this amazing future amusement park we currently inhabit that we talk about the “TV binge” where once we referred to the “TV marathon”. Slowly TV is becoming human foie gras as complete seasons of TV shows are now made to be inhaled in one sitting. It’s been great for people … Read more
In the fourth of a five-part series – here are the first three parts – James Milne signs up to watch Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cancelled borderline softcore porn series The Client List in its entirety. This week Riley gets singing, and James rediscovers JLH’s musical career. There were some genuinely compelling moments of drama in episodes six … Read more
In this segment, Alex Casey tries recreate some iconic small screen meals. In this edition, she tackles the eleventh Doctor’s favourite snack – fish fingers and custard. When looking for more freaky forays into small screen snackage, this Doctor Who delicacy was very high up my priority list. Easy to make, relatively cheap, and combining two … Read more
Sophie Smith shares health lessons learned from watching House, and how the show both helped and hindered her struggle with hypochondria. I have always been excessively anxious about my health. For as long as I can remember, any prolonged or acute headache has been followed by the declaration that I must have a brain tumour. Pain in my … Read more
In the third of a five-part series – here are parts one and two – James Milne signs up to watch Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cancelled borderline softcore porn series The Client List in its entirety. // I am a seeker of joy. I yearn to transcend society’s material concerns; to live a life strange and … Read more
In the second of a five-part series – here’s part one – James Milne signs up to watch Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cancelled borderline softcore porn series The Client List in its entirety. // Kyle has returned. It has confounded everything I have come to accept about this show, just as I was reaching something that … Read more
In the first of a five-part series, James Milne signs up to watch Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cancelled borderline softcore porn series The Client List in its entirety. // During her pregnancy, my girlfriend spent a lot of time in bed watching a show called Revenge. I never watched the show actively, but from my spot … Read more
Calum Henderson watched Good Morning every day for a week, and recorded every joyful moment of the bizarre lifestyle show. // If Judy Bailey was the mother of the nation, then Mary Lambie was like an aunty you went and stayed with in the school holidays. Every Good Morning was filled with pointless, time-consuming crafts … Read more
In a new segment, Alex Casey tries recreate some iconic small screen meals. In this edition, she tackles 30 Rock‘s heart-attack-inducing Cheesy Blasters. // If there is one thing that Liz Lemon loves more than slankets – it’s cheese. Which is why, in season four of the show, it’s no surprise that she delightedly plays … Read more
TVNZ have created a reality-warping online game to promote TV2’s new investigative drama How to Get Away With Murder. Alex Casey learns just how difficult the titular task really is. // It all started a few weeks ago when I got sent a mysterious looking package from Nancy Maher Attorney-at-Law that shook me to the very core. One … Read more
Covering everything from the fingernail red carpet to Ryan Seacrest’s hair, because we can. Live Blog The Oscars Red Carpet 2015
With the competition reaching boiling point this Saturday night, Alex Casey provides some ways you can make a meal out of MasterChef Australia season finale. // I have had an on-and-off relationship with MasterChef Australia throughout what feels like its three-year season. Taking extended holidays over summer to the family bach, I found it had a … Read more
Alex Casey sat down with her good mate, insanely knowledgable TV freak Sophie, to play the Law & Order SVU drinking game. This is their story (dun dun). // Full disclosure – I’m a little hungover. Last night I invited my friend Sophie over to play the Law & Order: SVU drinking game, in the interests … Read more
Like advertising’s cockroach, informercials have emerged stronger following the internet’s onslaught. José Barbosa suffered through a night of them to bring you this harrowing report. // It can be argued that, in terms of human dignity, waking up at 1:30 in the morning with the intent to watch infomercials is a plunge into the lowest … Read more