Pop Culture

Monitor: How Hannibal gnawed away at the bones of traditional television

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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

From meth to Meyerism: Aaron Paul talks Scientology and The Path

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Dominic Corry sat down with Aaron Paul to discuss Scientology, Breaking Bad, and leaving his character at work on Lightbox’s new cult drama The Path. Recently I was especially thrilled to spend some time in a Los Angeles hotel suite with Aaron Paul, an actor whose place in television history is already assured thanks to his iconic performance as … Read more

Shortland Street Power Rankings: Chris Warner can’t turn on his television

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Tara Ward brings you her Shortland Street Power Rankings for last week, including Lucy’s diary, Ali’s waxwork model and a TV nightmare at the Warner manor. 1) In an exclusive excerpt from Lucy’s diary, we discover she had the busiest week in the history of Shortland Street: Tuesday Broke up with Finn, but not before I … Read more

“I don’t even know their names” – Judging the uso of Game of Bros with Aunty Henga, Week Four

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Madeleine Chapman and her Aunty Henga assess the skills, builds, and tattoos in Game of Bros, Māori television’s reality quest for the ultimate Polynesian warrior. This week on Game of Bros, the challenges revolved around food and cooking. Naturally Aunty Henga and I ate KFC for dinner whilst planting our judging eyes on the final seven bros. In memory of … Read more

One woman’s life-long journey to the twin peaks of Twin Peaks

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David Lynch’s iconic television series Twin Peaks first aired 26 years ago on network television. Ruth Spencer relives her enduring relationship with the cult classic. A photo on Facebook of VHS tapes in a skip, an entire series sprawled against some hedge clippings. Did anyone want these Twin Peaks tapes before they went to the tip? Did … Read more

“What’s with the hot mess of a hairdo, Fraser?” – Thoughts from the premiere of Outlander S2

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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

Weird: The Paul Henry show is actually great

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A year ago today, New Zealand’s most idiosyncratic broadcaster returned to our televisions (and airwaves) with his self-titled show. Tim Murphy explains how he became a reluctant fan. I didn’t expect to like the Paul Henry show.   I didn’t much like the idea of Paul Henry. Not just because of the Dikshit puerility and Governor-General offence. … Read more

Throwback Thursday: In praise of Praise Be – 30 years of divine crane shots

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One of New Zealand television’s longest running series Praise Be hits three decades on our screens on April 10. José Barbosa relives a lifetime of Sunday morning worship as archived on NZ On Screen. There are many things I find reassuring: ironed clothes, community libraries, that falsetto “eeeh?” sound John Key makes when he’s trying … Read more

Bachelor NZ Group Think, Week Five: That was actually pretty racist

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After week five on The Bachelor NZ, some of the greatest minds in the country* assemble to talk about the big issues including Gabs’ nastiness, Naz’ nastiness, and Jordan’s nasty striped singlets. Madeleine Chapman on the casual racism Naz, Naz, Naz. She’s all over the internets with her hit list and her narking. Everyone wants to … Read more

The Bachelor NZ Power Rankings, Week Five – Welcome to the eye of the Storm

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Alex Casey assembles her contestant power rankings for week five, including ponytail nightmares, cow pyramid schemes and a tonne of spaghetti. It’s our last week in Hawaii and things are continuing to unravel. Jordan’s nearly worn out the bum of his floral boardies and is constantly dicing with death via these dramatic runs on the beach … Read more

Podcast: The Fantasy Suite – A Bachelor NZ podcast, week six: luaus, “Nazareth” and chambray

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There’s a new Bachelor, a new mansion, and the same old dorks talking about it. The Fantasy Suite is The Spinoff’s weekly podcast about The Bachelor NZ, hosted by Jane Yee with Alex Casey and Duncan Greive. Have a listen below, or download here on iTunes, or here on Stitcher. Much to Alex and Duncan’s … Read more

Auckland’s apocalypse as foreseen by young adult series The Cul De Sac

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Dark clouds gather into FX mattes and suddenly all the adults and electricity disappears. This is the setting for The Cul De Sac, TVNZ’s new young adult series. The first episode played on Sunday night and José Barbosa reckons it shows promise. Dark, grim promise. “It’s the apocalypse” says bespectacled neighbour played by former Shortland Street star KJ … Read more

“I wanted to watch this woman unravel” – Michelle Monaghan on drinking the Kool Aid of The Path

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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

Shortland Street Power Rankings: Has Ferndale reached peak stud?

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Tara Ward brings you her Shortland Street Power Rankings for last week, including Chris Warner 2.0, a gaggle of sleazeballs and an uber disaster. 1) Finn Connelly is a crinkle-cut chip off the ol’ Warner block Chris’ super sperm was once so powerful that it impregnated RoboNurse Carrie Burton’s womb with not one but three … Read more

‘Wait, are they in Auckland?’ – Judging the uso of Game of Bros with Aunty Henga, Week Three

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Madeleine Chapman and her Aunty Henga assess the skills, builds, and tattoos in Game of Bros, Māori television’s reality quest for the ultimate Polynesian warrior. Aunty Henga arrived back home just in time to witness Game of Bros completely give up on trying to maintain the illusion of being on an island. After spotting a Mitre 10 in the background, … Read more

The Claire Randall guide to surviving in 18th century Outlander times

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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

“Who’s mowing the lawn?” – Judging the uso of Game of Bros with Aunty Henga, Week Two

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Madeleine Chapman, her Aunty Henga and her Mum Pani assess the skills, builds, and tattoos in Game of Bros, Māori television’s reality quest for the ultimate Polynesian warrior. Last week, Aunty Henga left Pani and Pani in Auckland and flew to Wellington to visit Pani, my mum. Which means you get not one, but two island experts weighing … Read more

Celebrating the many faces of Taika Waititi

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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

A field guide to the buttoned-up, Canuck espionage of X Company

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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

The Bachelor NZ Power Rankings, Week Four – How far can you spit giraffe poo?

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Alex Casey assembles her contestant power rankings for week four, including Naz the poet laureate, bad tattoos and too many soft toys. Aloha minions, welcome to another week on the greatest show in the world, now bearing the once-in-a-lifetime offer in which you get to pay top dollar to sit somewhere near Jordan Mauger and The … Read more

Podcast: The Fantasy Suite – A Bachelor NZ podcast, week five: The dark side of the Bach

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There’s a new Bachelor, a new mansion, and the same old dorks talking about it. The Fantasy Suite is The Spinoff’s weekly podcast about The Bachelor NZ, hosted by Jane Yee with Alex Casey and Duncan Greive. Have a listen below, or download here on iTunes, or here on Stitcher. The Bachelor NZ things are … Read more

The Bachelor NZ Group Think, Week Four: How did they afford a luxury trip to Hawaii?

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After week four on The Bachelor NZ, some of the greatest minds in the country* assemble to talk about the big issues including tribal lego bricks, big budgets and stuffed toy voodoo. Anny Ma on the big ol’ budget Firstly: Hawaii? Really? Can we refund the costs of taking the 14 gals, the one real … Read more

Pure Chrystal #4: Reality TV legend Chrystal Chenery remembers Crotchgate

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In this topic-driven series, Alex Casey gets reality star Chrystal Chenery’s take on the world over coffee and scones. Her opinions about both her time in the spotlight and life in general were so fierce – and so candid – that we decided to publish them over the course of a week. Today she remembers Dancing With the Stars … Read more

Shortland Street Power Rankings: Bow down, Queen Rachel is back

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Tara Ward brings you her Easter-themed Shortland Street Power Rankings for last week, including Ali’s new uber business, Rachel’s return and Mo’s terrible toast. Find all the eggs and win absolutely nothing.  It was Easter in Ferndale and the cute little Easter bunny sprinkled his seasonal joy all over town. The eggs have been power ranked; find … Read more

Is the Bachelor NZ falling victim to our reality TV’s second season syndrome?

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The first season of The Bachelor NZ was arguably the greatest of any localised reality import. Unfortunately the second is thus far a disaster. Duncan Greive asks if we have any right to expect otherwise. A long time ago, before HD and broadband and snackable content, there was a little sitcom that went by the … Read more

Chasing Garry Shandling by VCR, YouTube, Twitter and fax: Jesse Mulligan on his comedy hero

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For three decades, Jesse Mulligan has followed his favourite comedian to the point of obsession via every available medium, facsimile included. On Garry Shandling, who has died at 66 Before YouTube, it was so much harder to follow the careers of the comedians you loved. I’d fallen hard for the comedy of Garry Shandling when … Read more

Pure Chrystal #3: Chenery on the flag debate and THAT Survivor announcement

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In a week-long series, Alex Casey gets reality star Chrystal Chenery’s take on the world over coffee and scones. Her opinions about both her time in the spotlight and life in general were so fierce – and so candid – that we decided to publish them in a topic driven series. Click here for part one on The Bachelor, … Read more

Throwback Thursday: The New Zealand dating show that set Suzanne Paul on the path to TV stardom

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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

“I’m proud to be a pseudo-ginger” – Sam Heughan talks Outlander and Loch Ness Monster truths

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Sam Heughan is farmer, fugitive and all round Scottish spunkrat Jamie Fraser in fantasy-drama Outlander, the second season of which arrives exclusively to Lightbox on April 10. Longtime fan Tara Ward swallowed her nerves and spoke with Sam ahead of the premiere (please note, contains spoilers from season one). Last week my social media overflowed with the … Read more