Alex Casey watches UnREAL – a drama set behind-the-scenes of a Bachelor-esque reality show – with The Bachelor NZ runner-up Dani Robinson, who dishes the dirt on how real reality TV really is. Set behind-the-scenes of a Bachelor-style dating show, the fictional world of UnREAL hints at the dark methods used to construct reality TV. Co-created by Marti Noxon and … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including Jon Stewart’s final address, doubling the dogs on TV One and paradise lost in Bachelor in Paradise. Contributions by Alex Casey and Calum Henderson. 1) A Wedding and a Parakeet in Bachelor in Paradise Reality TV naysayers, prepare to be steamed by the news that the … Read more
Alex Casey introduces the strong line-up for TVNZ’s Bachelor in Paradise, and argues why you should watch this deplorable, fantastic experiment in trash television. With the latest rollercoaster season of The Bachelorette wrapping up, and the finale of the exquisite behind-the-reality-curtain drama UnREAL – there’s a void of jaw-dropping reality television that needs to urgently be … Read more
On the eve of his final night behind The Daily Show desk, Finlay Macdonald pays tribute to Jon Stewart. One of The Daily Show’s funniest lines is the one that kicks it off every night: “From Comedy Central’s World News Headquarters in New York …” Whatever Jon Stewart might do next, the deliberately portentous voiceover defines … Read more
Your daily rolling recap of Come Dine With Me NZ, serving up piping hot takes on New Zealand’s greatest social experiment. Welcome to Come Dine With Me Daily, The Spinoff’s hub for all things Come Dine With Me NZ.We’ll be updating this post throughout the week as the show plays out, providing you with a denser dining experience … Read more
Calum Henderson spends an evening with TV One’s Dog Squad and Purina Pound Pups, and explains why you should get amongst these primetime pooches. TV One’s doggone double-header begins in the familiar ‘authority figures vs lowlifes’ format of reality programming that New Zealanders love so dearly. Despite an admittedly very exciting point of difference (dogs), … 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
In our new feature A Week Of It, a Spinoff writer watches a show every day for a week and reports back with their findings. This week, Alex Casey watches a week of The 4.30 Show to find out what the cool teens of New Zealand are up to. Despite the amount of people telling … Read more
Aaron Yap finds an “imaginative supernatural delight” in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, the BBC One mini-series packed with magic, mystery and memorable characters. Finding the alt-history Gothic horrors of Penny Dreadful too relentlessly serious and slow-burning for your tastes? BBC One’s period magical fantasy Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell should make for ideal alternative viewing. … Read more
Three television tales: two are real, one is made up. Correctly guess which person is spinning a yarn and you could win free tickets to The Pantograph Punch event ‘Based on a True Story’. Our good mates over at The Pantograph Punch are hosting a storytelling event on Friday night in Auckland called ‘Based on … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Max and Vince on bFM BreakfastAlex Casey chats to Max and Vince on the bFM breakfast show about the upcoming TV highlights for the week, and her terrible Garfield-style Monday morning:
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. After complaining in my last recap about judge Al Brown’s wearing of a hat indoors, an incident compounded by the fact that the hat in question was bedazzled with a … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Harper wreaks havoc, Clementine vanishes and Curtis gets naked. There was drama and action aplenty at our favourite hospital last week. Relationships teetered on the brink, lives were at risk, and anarchy arose in the car park. Come, let us … Read more
Josie Campbell spent a day at an English castle, immersing herself in the full Antiques Roadshow experience, including taking some of New Zealand’s finest china to be assessed. This whole Antiques Roadshow experience is thanks to a momentary flash of brilliance out of nowhere, when I wondered if Antiques Roadshow would be recording while I was … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including several local shows peering into regional NZ, cat whisperers coming to town and the return of a beloved quiz show. 1) Bogans Do Television Burnouts TV2’s brand new docuseries Bogans premiered last night, promising boobs, beers and burnouts. Featuring Dr David Snell, who has a PhD … Read more
Fragmentary Thoughts is a comic strip by José Barbosa, in which he explores a different television show or phenomenon each month. In this instalment, he tackles the perils of working in the television world. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you making television is pretty much insane. There’s rampant egos, nincompoops, psychopaths, managers acting seemingly at random, … Read more
Alex Casey sits down with cat behaviourist Jackson Galaxy, star of My Cat From Hell, to get all your important cat questions answered. Jackson Galaxy is the cat whisperer of modern times. Part Dr Doolittle, part Star Burns from Community, he graced our cat-laden shores this week despite Gareth Morgan’s plea to bar his entry. … Read more
Aaron Hawkins recalls his childhood love for quiz shows, and calls for the return of Dougal Stevenson’s Herculean all-rounder competition The Krypton Factor. “They’ve been very popular, in fact they’ve been a hit: Tubular Bells. But we don’t need our contestants to hit them tonight, merely to assemble them, in the proper order.” – Dougal … Read more
Voting in the Lightbox People’s Choice Awards has started this week. Alex Casey and Duncan Greive argue the case for their favourite TV villains, heroes, sex symbols and so much more. Lightbox have kicked off their first People’s Choice Awards this week, inviting you to vote for your favourite villains, heroes and sex symbols to … Read more
Your daily rolling recap of Come Dine With Me NZ, serving up piping hot takes on New Zealand’s greatest social experiment. Welcome to Come Dine With Me Daily, The Spinoff’s hub for all things Come Dine With Me NZ.We’ll be updating this post throughout the week as the show plays out, providing you with a denser dining experience … Read more
With the news that Mastermind will be getting a revival, Steve Braunias revisits the classic final of 1990, and remembers his old golden-mopped friend Peter Sinclair. Who will they get to host the new series of Mastermind? New Zealand On Air has committed $685,360 to reviving the show, which ended in 1991. You’d want someone smart. … Read more
In our new feature A Week Of It, a Spinoff writer watches a show every day for a week and reports back with their findings. This week, Alex Casey watches a week of Seven Sharp – and finds a meta twist at the end of the viral video tunnel. I normally like to spend 7pm … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. Ahh, Masterchef. Here we are again at the start of another season and I’m truly thrilled to waste precious hours of my life slumped on the couch like a depressed … Read more
Your daily rolling recap of Come Dine With Me NZ, serving up piping hot takes on New Zealand’s greatest social experiment. Welcome to Come Dine With Me Daily, The Spinoff’s hub for all things Come Dine With Me NZ.We’ll be updating this post throughout the week as the show plays out, providing you with a denser dining experience … Read more
Most people like to watch TV. I like to look at TVs. For the past five years I’ve been trawling through TradeMe and saving photos of televisions to my hard drive, with a collection that totals in the hundreds and is quickly approaching the thousands. It’s a bizarre obsession that started innocently enough. I needed … Read more
I don’t want to overstate anything here but, after watching the first episode, it feels like Caitlyn Jenner’s new docuseries I Am Cait could be the most resonant and groundbreaking piece of television to come around in a long time. It follows the journey of Caitlyn Jenner, formerly gold medal-winning decathlete Bruce Jenner, as she … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including peak Shortland Street crazy, dancing tractor routines and strong women making waves. 1) Peak Panic for Pania on Shortland Street The start of the week on Shortland Street had a heavy prescription of drama, and was hardly going to put anyone to sleep. Unless you’re Caleb, … Read more
It’s that time of year. Everyone within a two metre radius of your work desk is sniffling, blowing their nose subtly into their sleeve on the bus and coughing loudly through the film at the cinema. You are being faced with giant, human-sized germs at every turn. So it’s no wonder you have been, are … Read more
I have spent a very large chunk of 2015 floating on the choppy whitecaps of the MediaWorks reality TV sea. I’ve recapped and podcasted every week of The Bachelor NZ, Dancing With the Stars NZ and hesitantly lowered myself briefly into X Factor NZ waters. And for what? I’ve often wondered. It’s fun, it’s what … Read more