Season two of Outlander is coming to Lightbox at 5pm on April 10, and fans can hardly breathe. The Spinoff’s resident Outlander fanatic Tara Ward has been hard at work assembling clues. Please note: contains spoilers. Do you hear that noise? It’s the sound of dehydrated Outlander fans, deliriously lapping up the slow trickle of … Read more
Steve Braunias has an amazing idea that just might revolutionise sales of New Zealand books. William Gibson – “author of Neuromancer, etc”, as he languidly describes himself on his Twitter account – added to his collection of over 60,000 tweets yesterday when he wrote Funny! But hang on. Wait. That’s actually genius. The … Read more
It’s never too early to start talking about who might make the All Blacks. Barely a week into the season, these are James McOnie’s top 11 candidates to pull on the black jersey for the first time this year. The rugby season started in a big way at the weekend. It was a massive TV … Read more
Duncan Greive watches the ’70s style politics show The Nation, and finds a lot to love. TV3’s The Nation isn’t that old. It was founded in 2010, but despite the flash modern set and the lively twitter conversation which accompanies it, the show might be the most old-fashioned to air on New Zealand television. It returned to … Read more
Our Olympic throwing future looks bright, says ex-athlete Madeleine Chapman, thanks to an incredible generation of young discus, hammer throwers and shot putters going very long over the past few years. Last week I went to the Auckland Track Challenge in Henderson, the first time I had attended an athletics meet without competing. It was … Read more
Welcome to TV Mum, a weekly podcast starring Brendon Green and his Mum, Dianne. Every week Brendon will try and get Dianne to remember the details of a TV show she’s recently watched. The resulting discussion is a journey through Dianne’s shaky memory and never ends up where you’d expect. This week the Greens talk … Read more
The Breakers are set to kick off their finals series against the Perth Wildcats at 11.30pm. The Crowd Goes Wild’s Andrew Mulligan explains why the match-up is the best rivalry in Australasian sport. The All Blacks’ and Wallabies’ rivalry has nothing on the one between the New Zealand Breakers and the Perth Wildcats. Whereas New Zealand … Read more
The human appeals for drug funding are heartbreaking. But we need somehow to put emotion to the side, and allow the experts to weigh up the evidence. In recent days, the campaign to have the government fund Keytruda has stepped up again. A petition was yesterday delivered to parliament, with 11,000 signatures, from 11,000 very concerned … Read more
Alex Casey recaps the second episode of Better Call Saul season two on Lightbox, featuring a piano, nacho cravings and an unspeakable act with an apple pie. We’re back for another week as Jimmy’s moral pendulum continues to swing frustratingly between Good Guy Greg and Scumbag Steve. Old mate Chuck is back too, playing his piano with … Read more
Alex Casey watches with bated breath as Art Green attempts to set a Guinness World Record for loudest apple crunch. “It’s an ethereal apple,” whispered Paul Paynter, fourth generation heir to the Yummy Fruit Company dynasty. We both stared in silence at the pristine bowl of apples, resting on a plinth behind thick studio glass. … Read more
Starting with the Nintendo Entertainment System, Save State presents five gaming relics that every collector needs in their shrine/garage, from the very essential basics to the very rare and frustratingly pointless. 5. Two Controllers It’s dangerous to go alone; take these. A second controller is essential for the Nintendo Entertainment System for two main reasons: 1) … Read more
This is On the Rag, a podcast hosted by Alex Casey which looks at, laughs at and questions the state of women in pop culture, news and the world. To dissect February’s issues in the muggy heat of The Spinoff boardroom, she is joined by comedian and author Michele A’Court and marketing guru and longtime good mate Zoe … Read more
Guy Somerset takes on the new novel by Julian Barnes. Martin, Ian, Julian – those Brits, how they like to dabble in Eastern Europe. For the most part, it’s been reviewing the latest Bohumil Hrabal or Ivan Klima in one of the weekend newspapers or an approving nod to Milan Kundera or Josef Skvorecky in … Read more
Everyone’s looking for the next “must-go” holiday location. At The Spinoff we think we’ve found a place that will become a fixture on people’s travel bucket lists. Take a trip to 10,000 BC and prepare to have your pre-conceived notions bludgeoned to death. Traditionally visitor numbers to the Mesolithic Period have been low to non-existent. A recent … Read more
Eight reasons why a Trump presidency may not be as bad as you imagine. Don’t get me wrong: it could, and likely will, still all go horribly, horribly wrong. But a Trump Presidency is probably not going to be quite as bad as you probably think. And so, here’s a short list of reasons why … Read more
Tim Murphy heads to a café in a South Auckland garden centre to witness a most peculiar mayoral campaign launch. It is fitting that John Palino’s campaign launch is on February 29. He, too, is a peculiarity who pops-up awkwardly once every few years. It’s also Oscars day, drowning out all but the most melodramatic … Read more
Scotty Stevenson gives his take on the shockingly competent Blues and the Mighty and Terrible Brumbies in our first ever KFC Super Rugby power rankings. 1. The Brumbies Rd 1: 52-10 v Hurricanes The Brumbies are more organised than an obsessive compulsive’s wardrobe. From the grind of the 150-game veteran skipper and resident orc, Stephen Moore, to the metronomic goal … Read more
Last week people submitting on the proposed Unitary Plan to Auckland Councillors were routinely jeered and shouted at by “the miserables of Kohimarama“. A marathon 7 hour meeting ended with the council backing down and the eventual crippling of Mayor Len Brown’s sanity. Hayden Donnell gingerly offers his two cents. Further reading: Read Alex Johnston’s account … Read more
The author of the masterpiece Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End was in the best tradition of what it means to be a New Zealander Dr Ranginui Walker, the public intellectual who helped radically reshape New Zealand politics, has died aged 83. Humble without ever becoming deferential, egalitarian without ignoring difference, and inspiring without … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her Shortland Street Power Rankings for last week, including Kylie’s boob-based dilemma, Leanne’s fishy visions and a classic Chris Warner prank. 1) Leanne is a sight for sore eyes Leanne, I bloody love you. Every week you deliver the goods like a middle-aged, semi-psychic equivalent of ParcelPost. “You’re off your rocker!” Murray … Read more
When Duncan Greive reviewed Filthy Rich a couple of weeks back he was overwhelmed with messages from a depressed New Zealand TV industry. Here he summarises what they had to say. Part of an ongoing series assessing our publicly funded television. Read part two, comparing TVNZ with the BBC, here. A couple of weeks back I … Read more
In which philosopher Raymond Bradley ponders whether any part of us survives in any meaningful way when we’re dead. What happens to us when we die? Is survival of our bodily deaths a real possibility? Ask yourself, first, how you conceive of survival. What would it be like for you yourself to survive your bodily death? … Read more
It’s Super Rugby opening weekend and a few fresh faces are taking to the field. James McOnie does his best to describe just who the hell they are. Super Rugby opening weekend is almost upon us and no-one is really ready but too bad, it’s happening. Post-Rugby World Cup is always a big changing of … Read more
It’s 2016 and Super Rugby is back! Ra Pomare tracks down coach for a yarn about the hard yakka the boys have been putting in to get ready so they can really take it up the guts! “You guys gonna look to play traditional Kiwi rugby? Tries? Tackles? Turnovers?”
Friday night’s alright for… laughing? Duncan Greive seeks comfort in TV3’s reliable and formidable week-ending comedy schedule. For a long time, One’s Sunday night line-up was the most reliable and on-brand night in New Zealand television. You had your news, your magazine-style current affairs and your prestige drama. Everything you needed to feel like an … Read more
All you have to do is move them from the Southern Hemisphere to the North. Jamie Wall looks at rugby’s growing talent gap. Word came out this week about the French national union’s unsuccessful attempt to fast-track New Zealand-raised winger David Smith into their squad for the remainder of the Six Nations tournament. Unfortunately, it … Read more
We conclude our week-long coverage of the Angus Gillies trilogy Ngati Dread in unhappy circumstances. Here endeth the Spinoff Review of Books’ week-long coverage of the Ngati Dread books about the Rasta uprising in Ruatoria in the late 1980s, and it endeth badly, kind of bitterly. Thus the headline, taken from an angry email. Don’t you … Read more
Dominic Corry spoke to Toby Stephens about the new season of Michael Bay’s Black Sails. Warning: Contains major spoilers from seasons 1 and 2. Michael Bay’s epic pirate series Black Sails doesn’t get as much attention as some period action dramas, but it’s been building an increasingly devoted audience with its filmic scale and intense, often … Read more
In his first mobile game review José Barbosa works over Color Switch from Fortafy Games. It’s a mad, bouncing ball dash into the abyss available on both Android and iOS for no dollars. The Spinoff’s gaming coverage is brought to your grabby little hands by Bigpipe, a very non-sweary ISP.