The latest episode of our bi-weekly pop music chat for umusic, shot and edited by The Spinoff’s own José Barbosa. It involves two pop rookies – The Spinoff’s Alex Casey and bFM’s Joseph Harper – listening to state-of-the-art pop music and having a chat about it. Simple. This week they discuss Alessia Cara, DJ Snake, Rihanna, … Read more
Want to binge-watch an entire series without signing away the next four months of your life? We’ve assembled a selection of the best shows on Lightbox that you can knock out in one sitting. Firefly Like Guardians of the Galaxy but without the talking tree and Bradley Raccoon Cooper, Firefly takes place 500 years in … Read more
Hayden Donnell looks back on one of New Zealand’s most iconic interviews. In December 1997, two teenage girls gave Paul Holmes the sternest test of his storied interviewing career. The Ingham twins, both 18, had gone to extraordinary lengths for love. Sarah had fallen for a sailor. Her sister Joanna decided to help her pursue … Read more
The Australian comedian, performing in Auckland and Wellington next week, does toilet humour with a difference. She talks with Catherine McGregor about making comedy out of mental illness. “God bless toilets. They’re a games room, they’re a prayer room, they’re a confessional, they’re a lounge room. They’re whatever you want them to be. I’m a … 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, Claire and Jamie head for Paris, where their ‘to do’ list consisted of: 1) infiltrating the French royal court 2) drinking all the profits from their new business 3) living a life of … Read more
With The Mindy Project returning from hiatus to Lightbox soon, Alex Casey assembles some of her hopes and dreams for the rest of the season. Contains spoilers. Season four of The Mindy Project went on hiatus in December, leaving us all in a cold sweat over whether or not Mindy was about to tearfully say … Read more
For Monitor this week, Aaron Yap chews on Hannibal, Bryan Fuller’s televisual masterpiece of the macabre. At some point, Hannibal morphed into television’s most beautiful and downright terrifying creature. Creator Bryan Fuller wasn’t content to serve us another serial-killer-of-the-week procedural. Nor was he satisfied with providing merely a functional corrective to garbage like Red Dragon and Hannibal … Read more
The Chiefs still top the rankings after a close call against the Blues, but the Hurricanes are breathing down their necks following a niggly win over the Jaguares in Wellington. Scotty Stevenson sorts it all out in the KFC Super Rugby Power Rankings. 1. Chiefs Rd 7: 29-23 v Blues Last week: 1 (N/C) Yes, … Read more
Our resident Outlander fanatic Tara Ward shares her thoughts from the much-anticipated premiere of time-travel romance series. Contains spoilers. And smoulders. All good things come to those who wait: a Briscoes sale, a Monday-ised stat holiday, and the season two premiere of Outlander. It’s been ten long months since Claire and Jamie Fraser sailed for France, … Read more
Dom Corry talks to Michelle Monaghan, star of new drama The Path, about soul-searching, green juicing and delving into the world of devout religion. The new Lightbox drama The Path dares to venture into the world of religion, a dangerous route which most of popular culture avoids. For all the edginess in the New Golden … Read more
The latest episode of our bi-weekly pop music chat for umusic, shot and edited by The Spinoff’s own José Barbosa. It involves two pop rookies – The Spinoff’s Alex Casey and bFM’s Joseph Harper – listening to state-of-the-art pop music and having a chat about it. Simple. This week they discuss loose office burritos, Mike … Read more
With daylight saving coming through an end, fall even further back than one hour with Tara Ward’s Outlander-inspired survival guide to the 18th century. It’s the end of daylight saving this weekend, and you know what that means – one more hour of sleep! Be still, my beating heart. A word of warning: take care … Read more
Joseph Harper celebrates Taika Waititi’s ingenious early comedy gems on NZ On Screen. There’s lots of cool pre-Waititi era Taika – when he was better known as Taika Cohen – on the internet. There are a couple of really lo-fi vids of him and Jemaine Clement as The Humourbeasts hosting some kind of talent quest in … Read more
It goes down easy like syrup soaked pancakes; Joseph Harper puts you through boot camp on the “unconventional warfare” in Canadian WW2 drama, X Company. What’s the story? The world is at war – World War II to be exact. Canada has a role to play: assembling a small team of (mostly) Canadians who can … Read more
More than just a glimpse of what dating was like in bumbling, awkward, pre-internet New Zealand, this 1989 episode of Blind Date on NZ On Screen unwittingly introduced the nation to the woman who would go on to become our greatest ever TV saleswoman. Before she had dropped a single bowling ball onto a bamboo fiber … Read more
Joanna McLeod assembles a list of meals to match each macabre masterpiece from Hannibal season one. Simply hover the mouse over each dish to see the original inspiration from the show… if you dare. This post contains imagery that may be disturbing or NSFW. You might think a stomach-churningly gory show like Hannibal would be the … Read more
Alan Dale is a national treasure, acting legend and generally lovely man, who has for far too long flown under the radar. Katie Parker celebrates this humble kiwi great of the small screen. It was out of unconditional love that I joined my boyfriend to see the Entourage movie last year. As I should have … Read more
Aaron Yap celebrates the superb Cold War spy drama The Americans. The Americans is currently the best spy show on TV. Scratch that. It’s the best show on TV, period. I’m saying this as a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Homeland, a show that its most avid followers have to admit is awfully patchy, even at its … Read more
Big wins for the Highlanders and Chiefs, heartbreaking losses for the Blues and Sunwolves, and the Brumbies juggernaut just keeps on rolling. Scotty Stevenson assesses all the movers and shakers after round 3 of Super Rugby. 1. The Brumbies Rd 2: 31-14 v Force Last week: 1 (N/C) David Pocock played for ten minutes of … Read more
Moata Tamaira argues that Vikings is really just Outrageous Fortune but with longships instead of V8s. If I’m honest, my knowledge of medieval European history, particularly that of Scandinavia is sketchy at best. It’s pretty much limited to a deep appreciation of True Blood’s Eric Northman with a smattering of “that time I had read … Read more
Madeleine Chapman chats to Sara Larner, a New York artist who specialises in oil paintings inspired by extravagantly gory scenes from Hannibal. I have never watched Hannibal. My fear of anything scary is strong enough that I will read the summary section of a horror movie’s Wikipedia page so as to know what people are referencing without having … 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
We got the think tank together to list our favourite television geeks from LAN party monsters to virtual reality pioneers. Today marks the anniversary of the death of Apple Founder Steve Jobs, a man who has done as much for modern computer technology as he has for the black turtleneck. In his honour, we got The … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored post where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for shows you might like to watch. This week, we pick our favourite cult television classics. Don Rowe on The Mighty Boosh Lightbox describes The Mighty Boosh as “a surreal comedy set in a zoo”, which is correct in the same … Read more
Our pick of the best new shows to hit Lightbox this September, including a slew of incredible nature documentaries and the final season of Lost Girl express from the US. Doctor Who Season Eight (out now) Doctor Who has been morphing, time travelling and regenerating since 1963, and shows no sign of slowing down. The … Read more
It’s summer holiday season in America, so Harvey Specter and Mike Ross are down in Florida working on their tans. They deserve a break – Specter’s hair will need a full de-grease, and Ross’ bicycle is due a service. The show is now five seasons old, and has progressed steadily from a gawky junior associate … Read more
The ‘Best Discovery’ section of Lightbox’s People’s Choice Awards is the Lightbox-iest category of them all. That’s what streaming services are really, really good at: giving you a vast lagoon of unfamiliar shows, and inviting you to dive right in. We here at the Spinoff are extra high level TV nerds, and had already seen most of the nominees … Read more
Our pick of the best new shows to hit Lightbox this August – plus a full list of everything arriving on the service this month. The Killing, Season Four – Live now I will freely and in good conscience admit to having seen every single second of the US version of The Killing and precisely none … Read more
Voting for the Lightbox People’s Choice Awards is now open, so who should you vote for? Alex Casey argues the case for Community’s Troy Barnes. Our good friends and sponsors at Lightbox are currently running their first People’s Choice Awards, where you can vote for the sexiest, funniest, most heroic and most evil television characters. … Read more