The Real Pod team assemble in the boardroom of dreams to talk reality TV and real life in New Zealand, and this week it’s all about one show and one show only. After scrabbling around like a litter of house pigs this week, Jane, Duncan and Alex finally find some time to dissect the glorious … Read more
Alex Casey rounds up all the characters on Lightbox who are glamorous writers and examines just how accurate their portrayals of the profession are. Like many, I was led to believe that being a writer would mostly consist of calmly sitting down at my desk next to an ornate antique lamp, cranking open my laptop and tapping … Read more
Tara Ward counts down the top ten moments from ‘Of Lost Things’, the fourth episode of Outlander season three. Contains major spoilers, obviously. Spare a thought for Jamie Fraser, the man who cannot escape his own animal magnetism. This season, no matter where he travels or how bad his hair is, Jamie’s golden charms have proved irresistible … Read more
Is Vikings fake news or did they really have those exuberant ponytails? Before the new season comes to Lightbox in December, Tara Ward tides herself over with some learning in Real Vikings. After a marathon session of the TV series Vikings, I’m left with as many questions as Rollo has hair combs. Who were the … Read more
Superfan Tara Ward counts down the top ten moments from episode two of Outlander season three. Contains spoilers, obviously. If you thought last week’s episode of Outlander was heartbreaking, then you need to prepare yourselves. I have bad, bad news. Something terrible has happened to Jamie Fraser, and it looks like this: Jamie has 99 problems and … Read more
Our friendly TV sponsors at Lightbox have a whole bunch of shows nominated for the Emmy Awards this year, so we got our resident award shows obsessive Sam Brooks to pick which ones might take home the gold. I love me an awards show. A bunch of people in pretty dresses saying long speeches and … Read more
With the sixth and final season arriving exclusively to Lightbox today, we bask in the top celebrity cameos to ever feature on The Mindy Project. For a woman who wears her shambolic heart on her bound-to-be-extremely-colourful sleeve, there’s really not a lot of intel out there about what we can expect from the sixth season … Read more
Superfan Tara Ward counts down the top ten moments from the triumphant return of Outlander season three. Contains spoilers, obviously. Outlander is back! #Droughtlander is over, the never-ending tartan thirst is gone and we can once again drown in a hot ginger monsoon of time-travelling drama and adventure. I want ginger kisses! I want mashed potatoes! … Read more
The Spinoff’s resident nail enthusiast Sam Brooks dives into nail salon reality show Boss Nails and finds someone to model his messy life after. I love two things: Getting my nails done. There’s something relaxing about handing your hands over to someone for an hour or so and getting them to look pretty and shiny. Especially if … Read more
Alex Casey watches Collection Intervention and comes away with some key learnings for fellow hoarders collectable enthusiasts. When I die, my body will be buried with hundreds of plastic E.T. figurines. Not because I love them and want them to stay with me forever, just because I’m certain I won’t be able to fucking get … Read more
With the third season of Scottish time-travel romance Outlander swooping back to Lightbox next Monday, The Spinoff assembled a handy recap video to get you up to speed. One week to go until Outlander does the highland fling back onto Lightbox. Watch the two previous seasons exclusively below:
On the first day of Spring, we present to you all the content sprouting forth in September for you to enjoy on Lightbox. Happy Valley (S2 available now) The second season of the British chiller returns with Police Sergeant Catherine Cawood back on her murder beat. With a string of homicides hitting West Yorkshire, and … Read more
As Suits clocks up its 100th episode, Tara Ward rounds up more shows on Lightbox that have soared past triple digits. Only very special things make it to 100, like the Queen Mother, Kiwi shoe polish and legal drama Suits, which celebrates its 100th episode today on Lightbox. Suits has wrangled its way through seven … Read more
Sam Brooks watches the new Eva Longoria vehicle Decline and Fall and finds a show more British than a pint of lager and a packet of crisps. Decline and Fall is maybe the most British show I’ve ever watched. How British is it? First of all, it’s based on a 1928 satirical novel by Evelyn … Read more
Still feeling the chill? Tara Ward assembles some of the best fashions on Lightbox to warm the cockles of your cold heart. It’s International Fashion Day, everyone! If you’re sitting on your couch in your favourite pyjamas with the elastic waistband and the ripped crotch, eating stale pretzels and wondering how you can give such … Read more
Tara Ward watches Wasted, a buzzy British comedy starring spirit guide Sean Bean as every famous Sean Bean character ever. Imagine discovering your subconscious mind can manifest itself into the form it trusts the most. It’s an alarming thought, mostly because mine would reveal itself as an electrifying mix of Suzy Cato and Astar from … Read more
Aaron Yap plumbs the depths of The Expanse, a sci-fi space opera that’s drawn comparisons to some of television’s greatest. It’s weird to think that the Syfy channel once spawned Battlestar Galactica, one of, if not the finest science fiction series of the modern television era. Today, the very mention of Syfy is cause for … Read more
Sam Brooks watches Search Party, the indie-inspired comedy that contains as many mysteries as it does 90s stars. If you were to make a webseries in the 90s, somehow having the same crazy technology as of today, you would probably make Search Party. You’d also immediately burned for being a witch, because that’s what they … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Sarah Aldridge, costume designer on Westside, about dressing the early-80s West family. Look, I love a spot of opshopping as much as the next person. Give me a giant, musty Sallies out in the wops any day, just as long as it contains at least three dog-eared copies of The World … Read more
Sherlock fan Jean Sergeant reflects on the place of Holmes and Watson in her own life, through grieving and pad thai nights. I remember when the Christmas special of Sherlock, ‘The Abominable Bride’, came out at the beginning of 2016. I nagged my best dead friend Michael to watch it. I’m not sure if he … Read more
Tara Ward watches the time travel literary hybrid Lost in Austen and drums up some more classic TV tales that could do with a bit of tinkering. It’s not every day one of the much-loved characters from English literature turns up in your bathroom. All I have in my bathroom are five scratchy towels and some dead … Read more
With Harlots arriving exclusively to Lightbox today, Tara Ward delves into the teaser trailer for the women-led period drama. Harlots has me more excited about a television programme than the time I found out they were bringing back Anne of Green Gables. While my Anne anticipation ended badly with a red-haired orphan running across a WW1 … Read more
Felix Desmarais rewatches The L Word, one of the first mainstream TV shows to put queer voices on the small screen. The year is 2005. In the dark – past midnight – in the lounge, I am lit by the glow of The L Word on TV and I am feeling things. They are very teenage things. … Read more
With Preacher returning exclusively to Lightbox today, Travis Johnson breaks down his predictions for the second season. It was a long time coming but Preacher – the fabled, foul-mouthed comic book series by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon – finally made it to the small screen last year, courtesy of showrunners Seth Rogen, Evan … Read more
With season three of Better Call Saul just finished, Jimmy and Kim have their own terrible futures to confront. Simon Wilson revisits his favourite programme (well, one of them). Contains some very cryptic spoilers. It’s like Star Wars in the strip malls and suburbs of Albuquerque, right? And Star Wars is like Paradise Lost in … Read more
Episode 10 of The Handmaid’s Tale hits Lightbox today. Sophie Smith lists her hopes and dreams for the series finale. ????SPOILER ALERT???? This list contains a lot of spoilers from the first nine episodes. Last week I wrote down some feelings I had about the pilot of The Handmaid’s Tale. I have since marathoned the … Read more
Sophie Smith, a superfan of Atwood’s dystopian novel, reviews the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale. I first read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in one evening when I was working the night shift at a mine (the processing plant was down and out – and on that particular shift it actually wasn’t my fault). … Read more
Alex Casey delves into the endless relevance of The Handmaid’s Tale, arriving exclusively on Lightbox today. I first encountered The Handmaid’s Tale during high school English. They were simpler times, when you could buy three full size (!) Moro bars for $2 at the tuck shop, and the world didn’t feel like it was absolutely, 100% … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we pick shows from their extensive back catalogue that you might like to watch. This week, we get your long weekend sorted with the best shows to binge watch. Queen’s Birthday weekend is so close we can almost smell the corgi shampoo in the air, and the … Read more