Don’t let the shiny new desk distract you – there is something very bleak going on in the background of NewsHub Live at 6. Hayden Donnell investigates. As the Herald reported last month, 3News is dead. A completely new programme called NewsHub Live at 6 replaced it on air last night, shamelessly dancing on the … Read more
Tara Ward brings you her Shortland Street Power Rankings for last week, including Lucy’s evil twin, TK’s vile virility and Drew’s detective nose. 1) Wendy sails into the west Grab the tissues and the smelling salts, peeps, as we say a final farewell to Wendy and Len. A bumper crowd of approximately fifteen people gathered at … Read more
Played by Gabriel Macht, Harvey Specter of Suits once saved Tim Lambourne during a tenancy dispute. Years later, Tim rings Gabriel for a chat about the success of the show, and the mystery surrounding the returning season (arriving express to Lightbox weekly). Suits is a show about lawyers, fancy ass New York lawyers, lawyers that make … Read more
Tonight the X-Files returns to our screens with the first new episodes since the original series – now streaming in its entirety on Lightbox – bowed out in 2002. In celebration of this momentous occasion, Ellen Moorhead picks her most ridiculous ‘monster of the week’ episodes of all time. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully AKA … Read more
Nothing delivers authority or menace like a deep, rumbly voice. Join José Barbosa on a journey of discovery, from Black Sails to CSI: Miami, as he celebrates TV’s deepest, most sonorous voices. Click below to enjoy the brand new, extra gravelly season of Black Sails, coming express to Lightbox every Sunday This content, like all … Read more
From Beverly Hills 90210 and Sex and the City to American Horror Story and Glee, showrunners Darren Star and Ryan Murphy are behind some of the last quarter-century’s most fun television. As Murphy’s The People vs OJ Simpson hits screens and Star’s Younger returns for its second season, Laura Vincent looks back at two of … Read more
With MediaWorks continuing to spiral down a strange rabbit hole full of new shubs, Joanna McLeod calls upon a hero that could help CEO Mark Weldon rediscover his path to greatness: 30 Rock‘s fictional network boss Jack Donaghy. As Mark Weldon continues to make a series of more and more…interesting choices for MediaWorks, it’s become clear … Read more
Aaron Yap digs up gold in Detectorists, the award winning comedy written by The Office’s Mackenzie Crook that went straight-to-DVD in New Zealand. We have several copies to give away, see the end of the piece for more details. The fact that last year Detectorists completely slipped the radars of local TV (broadcast and otherwise) is prime … Read more
Nigella’s here in New Zealand promoting her latest book, simply titled Simply Nigella. She’s too busy to be interviewed by The Spinoff, sadly. Instead, Calum Henderson lined up in Newmarket and bought a $65 book – one our cheapskate organisation definitely could not afford – just to spend five seconds in the presence of the culinary legend. … Read more
Tara Ward brings you the first Shortland Street Power Rankings for the year, including Drew’s iron heart, TK’s confused return and Wendy’s tragic passing. 1. Wendy rages against the machine This week’s Shortland Street experience was like riding the Main Trunk Line down the Raurimu Spiral. It was a steep, twisting descent into a dark valley … Read more
TVNZ announced they will be launching an all-new “male-skewed” channel. Alex Casey asks CEO Kevin Kenrik why. Hey guys! Big news! Men got something else today! A nice big roomy TVNZ channel especially for them. A lad’s night channel. A Dad bod channel. A man cave channel. A “male skewed” channel that, if it had … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Quentin Tarantino about dipping his toes in television, and asks if will ever see him commit to the small screen. He’ll never watch it again, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to. Click below to watch Quentin Tarantino’s episode of CSI, available on Lightbox (S05E24) This content, like all our television … Read more
Thomas Benny, Joe Nunweek and Richard Bol recount their scurrilous memories of New Zealand live music in the late ’90s and early ’00s. If you’re in the same demographic as many of The Spinoff’s writers, you came of age during a golden era for festivals and touring acts in New Zealand. A flush Australian economy riding … Read more
This week a “technical glitch” affected the usual smooth running of TVNZ’s One News, delaying the broadcast by several minutes. It might be rare for TV news to go off the rails and head in unexpected directions, but it has happened before. José Barbosa unpacks some of New Zealand’s most notable TV disruptions with help … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Carly Chaikin, star of Golden Globe-winning cyber-drama Mr Robot, about fake hacking, Fight Club and predicting the grim future. Warning: contains spoilers. One of the most exciting new television shows of last year, Mr Robot introduced a world to us full of corporate greed, social media slaves and vigilante hacker groups. … Read more
Alex Casey watches the return episode of Shortland Street for 2016, following the harrowing cliffhanger that left many Ferndale lives hanging in the balance. To ease myself into the return of Shortland Street, I rewatched the last jaw-dropping five minutes of the dramatic Christmas finale. It all came back. Hairs on end, eyes prickling with tears, SOL3 … Read more
With Shortland Street returning tonight to answer the questions of last year’s bloody cliffhanger, Tara Ward predicts ten potential plotlines. It’s been four long weeks since the Shortland Street Christmas cliffhanger. When the automatic doors of our favourite state-funded hospital closed last December, we witnessed scenes of great drama and terror. Drew lay dying on … Read more
Lotto presenter Sonia Gray first found fame as the conniving Aleesha Cook on Shortland Street. She reflects on life as a soap villain ahead of the iconic show’s return to our screens this week. As New Zealand prepares itself for the fallout from Ferndale’s first brush with homegrown terrorism, I find myself reflecting on the time it … Read more
Whether you’re trading in stocks or assault rifles, the stakes are high. But who are the real gangsters? Don Rowe talks with one guy who might know – Sons of Anarchy screenwriter Brady Dahl. Someone, it might have been Immortal Technique, once said that the real gangsters are the ones wearing suits. Anyone who’s seen … Read more
This week Ricky Gervais set lips flapping after he hosted the Golden Globe Awards. José Barbosa sat down and watched the whole bonkers thing to see if Gervais was as controversial as reported. Click below to watch Golden Globe winning show Mr Robot on Lightbox
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored post where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for shows you might like to watch. This week we line up some of the shining stars from the 73rd Golden Globe awards, including Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent and Mr Robot. THE WINNERS Mozart in the Jungle Mozart in the Jungle is … Read more
For James McOnie and his fellow boarders in ’80s Hamilton, David Bowie was a lifeline to a more thrilling and artistic world. He remembers the songs that kept the schoolboys sane. David Bowie was a surprising and ambiguous genius; his music gave common ground to people with polar opposite views and lifestyles. It also shocked … Read more
The history of New Zealand television features plenty of lowlights, but few as low as the drunken and chaotic 1987 Listener Gofta Awards. Comedian Michele A’Court was there. It is possible that I am one of the few people who has fond memories of the 1987 Gofta Awards. It’s also possible that I am one … Read more
To usher in a new look for 2016, female TVNZ presenters were told that they must keep their arms covered at all times. The Spinoff has censored their imagery accordingly and has filed all bare armskin away in this exclusive sealed section. If you missed the news, over the weekend a briefing document sent to TVNZ … Read more
Jemaine Clement on creating ‘Bowie’s in Space’, the Flight of the Conchords’ paean-parody to their musical hero. In 1999 Bret McKenzie and I were sitting with our guitars in our dingy flat in Wellington trying to learn David Bowie songs. They were catchy, which usually translates to being easy to play. Not David Bowie. He’d … Read more
Alex Casey watches the premiere of The Bachelor US, and notes down some powerful first impression techniques that could be used effectively in this year’s season of The Bachelor NZ. If there are two things that I like in this world, it’s The Bachelor franchise and delicious home-style cookies just like Grandma used to make. … Read more
At the start of this year we ran a series called ‘Bad Week‘, celebrating all things Breaking Bad. One of our favourite pieces during the week was this by Joe Nunweek, who found himself deeply embarrassed by Walter White fandom. Our hero is bald, save for a goatee that would seem ridiculous were the stakes … Read more
Josh Davis brought a bit of 2016 to 16th century England through creating a slew of hilarious memes from BBC drama Wolf Hall. Wolf Hall is a BBC drama documenting the power dynamics of the court of Henry VIII. Unfortunately, while the 16th century had many things – the Church, fancy clothes etc – memes … Read more
Earlier this year Alex Casey watched Putting Our Town on the Map, a 1995 documentary on NZ On Screen that unearthed the bizarre origins and rituals around Paeroa’s L&P bottle and Ohakune’s giant carrot. Our host Miranda Harcourt is taking us around New Zealand, looking at what different small towns have done to put themselves on … Read more