Get your crimpers, your fluffy skirts and your Shane Cameron-style halter tops – it’s ’80s week on the D-Floor. Duncan returns from Spain to teach Jane and Alex the ways of the Spanish pasadoble, and the latest Magic Mike XXL movie. There’s gossip aplenty from kiss scandals to chocolate sauce, and some very slick segues … Read more
Rawdon Christie had a bizarre response to a viral video on Breakfast last Friday. Luckily Duncan Greive was there to shoddily capture the whole thing on his cameraphone. A man stands alone on a crowded thoroughfare. Alone, as we all are in this world. Alone, but for the dozens of people passing every minute. And … Read more
Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? Kane gets an A+ in physical education, credit card debt hits Ferndale hard and James Mustapic reveals his sleazy namesake: Kane and his mysterious Swedish/American teacher had some private tutoring sessions this week. And by private tutoring … Read more
In April this year, we published a very public declaration of love by Paul Williams for Lilli Bayliss, the undeniable pop princess of X Factor NZ. “A girl with snow-white hair had done the impossible. Not only had she made me not hate the song ‘Rude’ by Canadian reggae band Magic!, she had made me love … Read more
Finlay Macdonald pays personal tribute to Val Doonican, the man who put the gentle rock into rocking chair. Lately I’ve taken to joking that I’m so old I came to New Zealand on a ship. It’s true, though. It was 1966 and we sailed via the Panama Canal all the way from England, a journey … Read more
Alex Casey runs through James Griffin’s extensive television biography with the man himself, gauging his first response on everything from The Strip to Bro Town. A few weeks ago I had a sit-down interview with James Griffin for our My Life in TV series. It’s a tall task to get through his entire biography in … Read more
A reissued post from July this year, days before the premiere of the much-anticipated Outrageous Fortune prequel Westside. Alex Casey talked to creator James Griffin about getting started in television, the perils of funding in New Zealand and the Van and Munter spin-off that time forgot. It’s a dizzying feeling to walk into the Grey Lynn villa where you … Read more
Bringing together the best television moments of the week, including Come Dine With Me‘s beautiful bromance, Campbell’s low-key cameo and Newsworthy‘s sauna dramas. 1. Campbell Goes Wild on The Crowd Goes Wild A marvellous event happened in a very low key way on Wednesday night – John Campbell returned to our screens at 7pm. Just on … Read more
Last night John Campbell got in front of a TV camera for the first time since his tearful farewell to ‘The Cup Song’ from Pitch Perfect. Once direct competition, he was billed as “Hurricanes expert”, taking to The Crowd Goes Wild desk to a cacophony of canned applause and cameraman cheers. “It’s John Bloody Campbell,” says Andrew Mulligan. … Read more
Stevie TV is a monthly column for the Spinoff by Steve Braunias. Here he looks back at David Farrier’s tremendous track record of clammy questioning throughout history. Pity poor Newsworthy anchorman David Farrier as his pores dry up because one politician after another refuses his plea to come inside his sauna. Conservative Party leader Colin Craig … Read more
Alex Casey watches TV2’s new show Take Me Out, a chaotic dating competition where one man catches an elevator and thirty women use lights and fire poi to communicate their feelings. What’s it about? Take Me Out is a fast-paced, lightbulb-based dating show, hosted by world’s most Irish person Paddy McGuinness. His wisecracks pour out crazy … Read more
Inside the Lightbox is a sponsored feature where we mine the extensive Lightbox catalogue for cool shows you might like to watch. This month, it’s out with the old and in with the new as the cool content gets a mid-year shake-up. Here are the new shows that have arrived just in time for July: The Good … Read more
I love the films, me. In fact, the only thing I love more than a lovely film is a lovely, lovely episode of Dancing With the Stars NZ. You should have seen my face when I found out my two favourite things were colliding! Oh the possibilities! Oh the opportunities for beautiful homages to the … Read more
With Duncan still luxuriating with our theme music USB on the sandy shores of Spain, Jane Yee and Alex Casey recruit Brendon Green to join them on D-floor. Being the official Dancing With the Stars NZ warm-up guy, Brendon brings with him some backstage scoops, diplomatic answers and very weird pronunciations of ‘muesli’ to the table. Recapping … Read more
Married at First Sight takes a bunch of single strangers looking for love, but eliminates all the hassle involved in getting to know someone. Or even choosing someone to get to know. A group of professional labcoat nerds run tests on the participants, crunch their stats, and match couples together using a sophisticated Minority Report-style … Read more
Hip hop has had a hard time on Dancing With the Stars NZ so far, with Teuila and Scott’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’-inspired rumba scoring dangerously low with the judges last week. But that’s all about to change. We’ve been granted exclusive access to a teaser clip from tonight’s elimination episode, featuring the powerful hip hop dance … Read more
After 20 years, Josh Drummond checks in to see how the legendary kid’s show What Now is doing with less Simon Barnett and more Mexican stereotypes. I do believe you think what now you speak, But what we do determine oft we break. – Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2 I’m not sure why I decided to watch What Now. In … Read more
Jono and Ben returns to TV3 tonight, and promises a jam-packed evening filled with hot dogs, dancing celebrities and Colin Craig’s exclusive return to the dangerous territory of TV3 talk shows. What else can you look forward to? Those of you mourning the loss of gone-too-soon Dancing With the Stars legend Pam Corkery can rejoice as she pops … Read more
A new season of Suits has arrived on Lightbox. Tim Lambourne explains how binge-watching the legal drama helped him win his underdog tenancy dispute. A few years ago I lived in a four bedroom flat on Summer Street in Ponsonby, Auckland. If you’re unfamiliar with the suburb, Summer Street is about three quarters of the way down Ponsonby … Read more
Alex Casey looks back across the week in television and picks her favourite moments, including The Bachelorette’s sex scandal and Hosking’s skinny jeans ratings smash. 1. True Detective’s Premiere Flat as a Circular Pancake Okay, I overstated that a bit – but it was definitely more pancake than three tier wedding cake, right? As I … Read more
This Throwback Thursday, Alex Casey watches a 1995 documentary that unearths 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 the map. Invariably, it seems, there is only one option … Read more
For Monitor this month, Aaron Yap argues why you should bravely enter the “alluringly sensual and generously gory universe” of Showtime’s Victorian horror Penny Dreadful. It’s a pretty good time for TV horror fans at the moment. If you have a favourite type of monster, it’s likely being catered to. The Walking Dead has zombies, The … Read more
José Barbosa goes to the future to visit the set of TV3’s current affairs show Story, and reports back on just how much fun is in store for Heather du Plessis-Allan and Duncan Garner. This week MediaWorks made public its plans for a new current affairs show in the 7pm slot recently vacated by Campbell Live. The new … Read more
The people in TV shows are all good and well, but won’t someone think of the animals? Alex Casey ranks her favourite pets scurrying around on Lightbox. It’s always the boring old humans that are remembered for their good work. Everyone’s clapping for Tony Soprano, nobody spares a thought for Adriana’s dog, violently killed onscreen … Read more
Laura Vincent runs a one-woman roundtable discussion, presenting evidence as to why her favourite show Pretty Little Liars deserves just as much attention as Game of Thrones or The Wire. It was sincerely and without hyperbole that I said, after watching the season six premiere of Pretty Little Liars, “that episode was literally better than any episode … Read more
Some great news came through yesterday: John Campbell is going to Samoa to play rugby. In anticipation of the big match The Spinoff’s leading rugby expert has picked John Campbell’s Rugby Team XV for their first ever test match against Samoa. 1 Duncan Garner Like his front row teammates, Garner has proven he can more … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her fourth power rankings for winter wonderland week of Dancing With the Stars, wherein hell freezes over, Pam gets eliminated and Teuila does the running man. The power rankings are a little late this week, as I have been very busy rocking gently in a corner, despairingly imagining the next few weeks … Read more
Elyse Robêrt brings us this week’s Shortland Street power rankings, covering the brownie-assisted highs and cancer-assisted lows of life in Ferndale. Tis the season – the winter season. And that means more Shorty, 30 minutes more to be precise. We’re missing the Warners who are still off on their fancy holiday; Kylie is inadequately jealous … Read more
With Duncan in Spain and Rikki struck by winter malaise, Jane Yee and Alex Casey venture onto D-floor alone, unequipped and a little frightened. Luckily, Siobhan’s magic powder blessed them with the ability to record a cohesive podcast, in which they recap week four on Dancing With the Stars New Zealand. For the winter wonderland … Read more