Liam Maguren celebrates the heroic journey of local animation studio Mukpuddy to primetime TV, ahead of the premiere of their new cartoon The Barefoot Bandits (Sunday, 6.30pm on TV2). If you ever wanted to see Buzz Lightyear as a chilled-out bro, you find him in the form of Tumeke Space, a galaxy-hopping television hero worshipped … Read more
Samuel Flynn Scott watches the Black Caps, and his newfound high hopes, implode in a nostalgia-soaked first innings at the Basin Reserve. The lead up to this test series against Australia has been intense. For one thing, it’s Australia. Secondly, we have expectations now. This is new for the Black Caps fan, to go into … Read more
Joseph Moore travels to the north of England for a first-hand glimpse of the team that has tortured his family for two generations and counting. I’m sitting alone on an empty, overpriced train plummeting deep into the heart of North West England. It’s mainly overpriced because I paid extra to get a ticket which included … Read more
The venerable Mana magazine has undergone a rude second act lately, under the sharp eye of its newish editor Leonie Hayden. Duncan Greive had lunch with her, and asked how she did it. Leonie Hayden was appointed editor of Mana magazine in June of 2014, 21 years and 117 issues after its founding by broadcaster and entrepreneur … Read more
The “proudly stupid” clip show Fail Army, hosted by Guy Montgomery and Joseph Moore, returns tonight on TV3 at 10pm. Guy Montgomery teases what punters can expect from the much-anticipated second season. The first thing to know is that Fail Army arrives in New Zealand as a finished product. The show arrives mixed and graded, … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox category for shows you might want to watch. This week, we queue up some of the most romantic episodes of television for you to enjoy this Valentine’s Day (no matter what your relationship status is). Warning: contains very sappy spoilers. Outlander – … Read more
It’s one of the biggest threats the world faces, but can video gaming make fighting climate change exciting? Inspired by Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Liam Maguren plays A New Beginning on Steam. A decade ago, climate change prevention didn’t get ears perking at EA, Activision or any of the other AAA gaming companies … Read more
The Ex-Girlfriends Are Back From the Wilderness The ex-girlfriends are back… emerging once again from the tree shadows… into the primordial burlesque of autumn with their low-cut… reminiscences… and soft, double ironies… trembling once again into their opulent… seasonal migration patterns a corsage of wilting apologies tethered to the bust… The ex-girlfriends are back…with their … Read more
Tickled documentary maker David Farrier pieces together his dreamlike memories of a week at one of the world’s most intense (and high-altitude) film festivals. They say that as you climb Everest, your body is dying. Humans are simply not meant to exist at that height. The severe lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures are actively … Read more
A horrible goal celebration in Manchester, a horrible knee injury in London, and horrible weather in Stoke – all-in-all another great weekend of Premier League action. Yet another milestone in the unbelievable story of Leicester City – for the first time all season they are favourites to win the Premiership at the TAB. The Foxes … Read more
Steve Braunias watches the historic moment that Zayn Malik triumphed over his old 1D posse for the number one spot in The Edge TV’s essential Fat 40 countdown. What to make of Zayn’s comeback at the expense of One Direction? The pop charts on our last two remaining music channels all told the same amazing story. … Read more
This year New Zealand television seems to be returning to yonder year of traditional family-oriented game shows such as Family Feud and Mastermind. So what other game shows could we see back on our screens? With the help of NZ On Screen, we revisit some of our old favourites. Hayden Donnell on Tux Wonder Dogs … Read more
Olwyn Stewart pens a farewell to friend, poet and playwright David Lyndon Brown, who passed away late last year. My friendship with David Lyndon Brown began sometime in the very early nineties, at Poetry Live in the Shakespeare Tavern. One night he asked me to read a poem of his to the audience, whether out of … Read more
Five shining examples that reveal the glories of a super-succinct media statement. In a world of bottomless coffee, endless online scrolling, and prose that goes on much longer than it needs to, winding circuitously around corners and over bridges, as if crying out desperately for an editor or a blowtorch, much like this sentence, thank … Read more
How to sap all the joy from PlayStation’s brilliant Star Wars: Battlefront? By ticking off a checklist of useless achievements and mundane chores. Daniel Rutledge joins the ranks of gaming’s extreme trophy hunters. It’s hard to imagine a world more hyped for Star Wars’ return than ours was at the end of 2015. With fans … Read more
Gone is 3News and in it’s place is the gleaming fresh Newshub. Mediaworks has released a 360 degree video tour of the new studio hosted by Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts. We took it, had a poke around and can now expose the inconvenient truths behind the new studio. (Original video can be found here.)
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox category for shows you might want to watch. This week we present the new offerings in February, including the exclusive return of Better Call Saul and Suits. Suits (S5 arrives express every Thursday) Returning from last year’s hiatus, season five of legal … Read more
Zoe Scheltema presents the new diverse Barbie range to a diverse range of consumers including her mother, a famous comedian and some anonymous blokes on Tinder. She’s tall, she’s thin, she’s blonde, she’s a fashionista and she’s an astronaut. Barbie is the toy that every little girl wants. It’s long been argued that Barbie, however radiant, … Read more
To mark the beginning of the parliamentary year, the Spinoff presents a fun and mildly educational game, inspired by Top Trumps, in which MPs are pitted against one another on the basis of their career stats – years in parliament, majority and Twitter followers – and some arbitrarily assigned ratings, power and style. All complaints … Read more
Aaron Yap watches Louis C.K.’s new online series Horace and Pete, and asks if the off-putting, experimental style is what lies beyond the “peak TV” age. Did Louis C.K. hear us grumbling? Just a few weeks ago when FX chief John Landgraf spoke at the Television Critics Association press tour in California, he addressed the future of … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her Shortland Street Power Rankings for last week, including a disgusting sex couch, Harper’s detective work and Virginia’s full evolution into a Disney villain. 1) Shortland Street’s mystery hand job Just when you think you’ve got the shooting case sorted, a random arm enters the frame to stir things up. Who does … Read more
First Lady tells the story of Liz Roberts, the first New Zealander to undergo full sex-change surgery. Alison writes, ‘This chapter is a big contrast to the glamorous, gossipy parts of Liz’s story that took place in 1960s London, and the Australia theatre scene of the ’80s and ’90s. Liz had been in prison before, albeit a … Read more
On Friday the 2016 Billy T nominees all played a showcase at Auckland’s Q Theatre. In the crowd, somewhere near the back, Duncan Greive watched and judged. The Billy T award is probably the coolest award in New Zealand. There’s just one given out each year – if you miss out, suck it up. It … Read more
It’s been a good couple of years for Māori filmmakers. There’s been a solid stream of strong, popular films (Mt Zion, Boy, Maori Boy Genius) and several have torn it up overseas (Deadlands, What We Do In the Shadows). A new documentary, Hautoa Ma, interviews key filmmakers about the rise of Māori film. José Barbosa … Read more
Rugby seemed way too boring for Kate Robertson. She found, in the NFL, a sport with appropriate level of pop cultural chaos. Here she explains how to enjoy Monday’s Superbowl like a real fan. The NFL, or “rugby for wussies”, as it’s more commonly known here in New Zealand, is reaching a fever pitch. Super … Read more
Sam Brooks watches Grease Live, and applauds the live TV musical genre for finally producing something that isn’t entirely terrible. Somewhere in an NBC Conference Room circa 2013: Executive 1: We’re losing ratings because we cancelled 30 Rock! How do we fix this? Executive 2: A Tina Fey show about a girl who got kidnapped … Read more
The Black Caps are historically great, so why does it feel wrong to believe in them? Sonia Gray writes on the hurt haunting the team’s winning run. New Zealand cricket is on an unbelievable, once-in-a-generation, too-good-to-be-true, pinch-me-if-I’m-dreaming kind of high. Yet still, as Black Cap supporters, we struggle to truly believe, deep in our war-weary … Read more
Locked in the media bunker (actually The Spinoff’s shed) José Barbosa watched days of tapes to bring you this examination of the way TV news covered the recent anti-TPP protests in Auckland.
It was another ordinary Friday until a pink sex toy whistled through the air, hit Steven Joyce’s jowls, and changed our lives forever. This is our frame-by-frame analysis of the 2016 Waitangi Dildo Incident. Steven Joyce speaks to assembled media. His hands clasped at his waist, leaving him completely vulnerable to a dildo attack. The dildo … Read more