A police drama set in a West Yorkshire village may not sound like a must-watch, but Ethan Sills finds that Happy Valley is a surprisingly tense and graphic thriller that packs an emotional punch. A police drama? Yawn! Happy Valley is not your regular British cop drama. This is more psychological than procedural, a cat-and-mouse chase met … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer (and winner of the 2016 Ockham New Zealand national book award for best first book of poetry) Chris Tse. Chris Tse and His Imaginary Band We were brighter when the world didn’t know about us or our rock n’ roll dreams. Now we dress in black, but we’re not … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: the best-selling books at the Auckland and Wellington stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: May 27 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1. A Little Life ($25) by Hanya Yanagihara The novel you have to read, apparently; it’s been the number one best-seller … Read more
Using Tinder for its original intended purpose only brought Jamie Wall bad times, so he deleted it. But with the Warriors’ latest calamity weighing heavy on his mind, he decided to reinstall – this time to try and crowdsource a solution to the rugby league club’s woes. (All correspondents have given permission for their replies … Read more
To mark Hilary Barry’s last day at TV3, coworker and notorious BFF Sacha McNeil celebrates the legendary woman with the legendary secret snack drawer. “Knock, knock, knock… “ “Who is it?” “It’s just me, are you naked?” “Yes, but come in.” I open the door to Hilary’s changing room. “What’s up?” She asks, fresh from … Read more
Delaney Mes looks back at short but exhilarating history of netball’s ANZ Champs, the end of which was announced this week after nine sweet seasons. One of the most harrowing things I’ve ever witnessed occurred on a Monday night in July 2013. I was on my parent’s couch, watching the Northern Mystics lose to the Waikato/Bay of Plenty … Read more
Bill English just delivered his eighth budget, and the opposition as ever had pre-cooked epithets to denounce it. Here’s how his budgets have been defined – heroically or hopelessly – by his enemies (and ACT) in the parliamentary budget debate since 2009. 2009 Labour leader Phil Goff said it was the Dishonest Budget Greens co-leader … Read more
Alex Casey watched in horror as Mike Hosking tried to recreate the Chewbacca Mask video on Seven Sharp. As it is written in the bible, every viral internet craze can enjoy only a few moments of purity before being sullied by a pack of vultures led by an Animorphs-style Ellen Degeneres with James Corden bringing … Read more
Finlay Macdonald reviews The Killing of Osama bin Laden by Seymour Hersh About the worst thing anyone will say of Seymour Hersh’s journalism is that he’s only “one of America’s greatest investigative reporters”. But that’s the New York Times for you, always hedging. Others don’t hold back so much: “The most feared investigative reporter in … Read more
‘Business is Boring’ is a new weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound will speak with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and text. This week: Sam Gribben of Serato and Melodics. Imagine taking a company from before … Read more
It’s gotten so developers can’t seem to help put chuck in the occasional mini-game to give red-eyed gamers a respite from the main action. A cabal of Spinoff writers have come together to provide a ranking of their favourite wee games nested within bigger games. 1) Gwent from The Witcher 3 Gwent! It’s blackjack meets … Read more
Fanboy supreme José Barbosa hitches his hoss and spends a little time in Preacher country, the latest comic book adaptation to hit our screens. Lately it seems 20th century pop culture has been sucked into the 21st century filter and spat out with a nose ring and a smartphone. The reconstituted mass includes Zack Snyder’s … Read more
The Surrey Hotel and The Spinoff join forces to establish a new writer in residence award. Enter now! Auckland’s Surrey Hotel – named the Best Hotel in Auckland in the New Zealand Herald – is pleased to support a new writers residency award in association with The Spinoff. The winner of the Surrey Hotel Steve … Read more
Before the Housewives, before the Bachelorettes, there were the Flatmates. Calum Henderson revisits one of New Zealand’s first gritty, no-frills attempts at reality television. Like everything else on this dying earth, reality television is subject to a slow and irreversible erosion. Over the years, the genre’s rough edges have been gradually worn down, leaving a … Read more
The Spinoff asked a bunch of clever people to give us one sentence they’d like to see magically written into the finance minister’s Budget speech. These are the words they’d put in his mouth … “Inequality in New Zealand has increased dramatically in recent years, and we need to urgently address it, particularly in the … Read more
The Minister of Transport chided Generation Zero yesterday for urging a place for rail on a new harbour crossing. Here, two Gen-Zeroers hit back, saying his remarks lay bare an absence of strategic thinking. The story of Auckland is too often one of missed opportunities. And there is little cause to hope that the current … Read more
A brand new influx of second-hand television shows has led Aaron Yap to question whether we are suffering a reboot epidemic. Last week Fox dropped a bunch of trailers for their upcoming 2016-2017 TV slate. Many of these were reboots and remakes of pre-existing film/TV properties: 24: Legacy, Prison Break, The Exorcist, Lethal Weapon and … Read more
Education is a topic critical to us as a nation. It deserves so much better than the pandering polemic Bryan Bruce delivered last night on TV3. Last night TV3 screened a “special report”, “written, directed and produced” by Bryan Bruce, the veteran of dozens of documentaries over the years, many of which he has fronted with a … Read more
Kiran Dass shares tea, biscuits and literary talk with Hanya Yanagihara. Shortlisted for the Man Booker prize for her incendiary novel A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara appeared at the Auckland Writers Festival last week. While she was here, I sat down with her at the Langham Hotel, and we were served lemon and ginger iced tea and … Read more
Think media celebs are spoilt rotten? They are, confesses Jesse Mulligan – right up until the day they say goodbye. Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders will watch Hilary Barry deliver her final bulletin on TV3 this Friday night, but the real tragedy is that only dozens will get to attend the party afterwards when … Read more
Spoiler: Almost certainly it doesn’t. The most remarkable thing about John Key and his government’s support is how rock-solid it remains in the middle of term three. The poll result on housing, mind you, is striking. True to the digital-first mantra, Newshub has published its latest Reid poll online, eschewing the usual path of unveiling … Read more
Opinion: National gets away with mixed messages over tax cuts because Labour has failed to grasp the nettle and frame tax as both a fairness and patriotism issue, argues Simon Louisson The left’s failure to frame the tax debate since the last election has put it firmly on track to spend three more years in … Read more
It’s currently Tourette’s awareness month in New Zealand. Madeleine Holden talks to two writers, Lorena and Beth, on living with the misunderstood syndrome. Tourette’s awareness month is from May 15 to June 15, which is as good a time as any to chip away at the common misconceptions surrounding Tourette Syndrome (or TS). Tourette’s is … Read more
An essay by Paula Morris on the bad vibes and bitching which immediately greeted her launch last week of the Academy of New Zealand Literature. Last week a lot of people squashed into the Gus Fisher Gallery on Shortland Street in Auckland to hear about the launch of the Academy of New Zealand Literature. Many … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her Shortland Street Power Rankings for last week, including a web of hairy lies, Victoria’s restless hands, and the return of the mighty Damo. 1) The claw of catastrophe returns Yaaaas, Shorters is BACK. Last week I lamented the lack of action, but this week there’s been more drama than a … Read more
The Crusaders legend’s 150th game celebrations have been cut short by a controversial power ranking decision by Scotty Stevenson. 1. Highlanders Rd 13: BYE Last week: 1 (N/C) I thought long and hard about this ranking for the Highlanders and then came to this conclusion: they spent their fortnight before the bye beating up on … Read more
The Spinoff got given $20,000 by Creative New Zealand. Whee! Creative New Zealand announced the recipients of its latest arts grant funding last Thursday. All up, 84 grants totaling $1,811,509 were shelled out. The full list is online; here’s an edited version, because it’s the Monday Extract. The happy pigs with their snout in the … Read more
Our resident Outlander fanatic Tara Ward shares her thoughts from the much-anticipated return of time-travel romance series. Contains spoilers. And smoulders. This week’s Outlander offering had more tragedy than a Bee-Gees tribute karaoke party. It was a raw, emotional watch: Claire gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Fergus revealed he was abused by Black Jack Randall, and … Read more
Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website. Sonia Gray: Where are the Asian faces on our TV screens? “I watched more TV, searching for any sign of that great endangered species, The New Zealand Asian male. But no. From a pool of 150, my survey had just two Asian dudes, both … Read more