Alex Casey delivers her eighth power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where a humble avocado changed everything forever. Click here for previous instalments. Glass me with the talking bottle, slice my hand off with a fax machine and send me straight to the Centre De Emergencies, because this was the most aggro week of The … Read more
After days of rumours, Mediaworks have removed Hannah Tamaki as a cast member for the 2020 season of Dancing with the Stars. Sam Brooks reflects on the controversy. On Sunday, the NZ Herald gossip column Spy broke the news that Hannah Tamaki – wife of Destiny Church founder Brian and head of newly-founded political party Vision … Read more
Jamie’s away with the lads, Claire’s elbow deep in a dead man’s abdomen, and Roger wants to go back to the future. Tara Ward recaps episode two of season five of Outlander. Well, my thirstly little Outlander cherubs, that was something else, wasn’t it? It’s been many a moon since I watched an episode of our … Read more
Marlin’s Dreaming have a new single out ahead of their next, ‘least accessible’ album. Frontman Semisi Maiai sat down to talk about how a bunch of jocks from Dunedin became indie darlings. Semisi Maiai embodies the duality of man. He’s a barista and a basketballer; he’s a jock and an indie musician; he’s from Dunedin … Read more
After 43 years on the telly, Fair Go knows exactly how to stick up for Kiwi consumers. Tara Ward talks to Sophie Baird, the woman changing New Zealand, one consumer complaint at a time. For over four decades, Fair Go has been our saviour. They’ve defended us when we’ve been ripped off, chewed up and … Read more
News broke today that Hannah Tamaki is rumoured to have been cast for the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars. Emily Writes explains why the religious leader and aspirant politician has no place on the show. Update, 25 February, 4.30pm: Mediaworks has announced that Hannah Tamaki has been dropped from the new season of … Read more
The Star Wars prequels are universally regarded as the nadir of the franchise, but at least they gave us spinoff series The Clone Wars, writes Sam Brooks Nobody likes the Star Wars prequels. Though that statement is slightly hyperbolic, it’s not far from the truth. Even if you can make a limp defence for certain … Read more
Dragon Quest: Your Story feels like an hour-and-a-half-long highlight reel of an adventure spanning dozens of hours, but it’s damn fun, writes Felix Walton. One of Netflix’s current hustles seems to be grabbing movies with little to no hope of a wide release and publishing them as “Netflix Originals.” The latest of these is Dragon … Read more
In Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, the titular Zoey starts to hear the thoughts of those around her – but expressed in song. Sam Brooks investigates what would happen if Zoey took a trip across the Pacific to sunny ol’ New Zealand. If you could pick any superpower, what would it be? Flight? Maybe, but all those … Read more
Netflix’s new release Horse Girl promised a quirky indie dramedy from its trailer. In reality, it’s a nightmarish time-warped look into the mind of a mental illness sufferer, writes Alice Webb-Liddall. There was a horse girl in every primary school classroom. The one with ballet flats and low ponytails and books covered in pony-themed duraseal. … Read more
Earmarked for big things since she left high school, the ‘Nothing to Regret’ singer has been dealing with the weight of expectations for a while now. With her debut EP just released, she’s OK with where she’s at. Given the circumstances, Robinson is surprisingly relaxed. It’s early afternoon on a swelteringly hot mid-February day in … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her seventh power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where a group of intruders have herniated the competition’s intestines forever. Click here for previous instalments. Welcome back to The Bachelorette NZ, where everything is made up and every man is suddenly named Mike. Intruders! Five of them! A whole boy-band’s worth! Mike! Micheal! … Read more
Our writers celebrate the best performances you can watch right now on NEON. Basically? They’re iconic. We all love a good story, and a great plot twist can turn a mediocre TV show into addictive weekly viewing. But what really keeps us coming back are the characters, and seeing actors at the height of their … Read more
Tame Impala’s new album The Slow Rush dropped over the weekend to universal acclaim. Jordan Hamel talked to the band’s frontman, Kevin Parker, about the five year gap between albums, and where the band fits into riock music in 2020. Kevin Parker’s musical baby Tame Impala steadily rose to indie prominence in the early 2010s, becoming a … Read more
Emily Writes reviews the now infamous orgasm episode of the even more infamous Netflix show The Goop Lab. It was four days after the fourth person asked me to review the orgasm episode of Netflix’s The Goop Lab that I finally sat down to watch it. I don’t like Gwyneth Paltrow but I also don’t … Read more
Friends, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and season five of our beloved Outlander is finally here. Droughtlander is done for another year, and while we might be shrivelled husks of our former selves, the first episode of our favourite time-travelling drama quenched our thirst with a ginger tsunami of feelings. We are restored. We … Read more
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was the Netflix hit of 2018, but the sequel feels designed to replicate the success of the original without half as much heart, writes Sam Brooks. Despite the bevy of Oscar nominations for Netflix at the recent Academy Awards, there’s still a stigma around a Netflix Original film. That … Read more
The Real Pod reassembles to dissect the nude and rude third week of The Bachelorette NZ with special thanks to Nando’s. Two wonderful women and a mixed bag of lads jetted off to Argentina this week, one which saw a serious culling of the meek set of the herd. Conor, Flynn and Mr Wedge all … Read more
Despite what some critics claim, there isn’t a ‘gig problem’ in Auckland, writes Josie Adams. You just need to look beyond indie rock. There are around 20 gig spaces in Auckland’s CBD. Over a three-day period last month, Whammy Bar alone hosted the Laneway afterparty, the bFM anniversary weekend party, and an Eartheater show. The … Read more
After 20 years on the telly, Jamie Oliver is back with a new show that celebrates the humble vegetable. Tara Ward looks back on the celebrity chef’s achievements. If anyone has the power to make us see carrots in a new light, it’s Jamie Oliver. Since he burst onto our screens over 20 years … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her sixth power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where the gloves – and all the other clothes – have truly come off. Click here for previous instalments. Three weeks in and the stark difference between Lesina and Lily has become clear: Speaking of stark, how much bloody nudity was there on the … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her fifth power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where the lads hit Argentina and things gets smoking hot. Click here for previous instalments. You can’t spell Argentina without “gent” – and boy did our gents tie?one?on? this week. Ar-gen-tina! Ar-gen-tina! Ar-gen-tina! Did I mention that the lads have gone to Argentina this … Read more
Tara Ward watches Netflix’s new reality shows The Circle and Next in Fashion, and discovers that gentle TV can still be gripping TV. Breaking news, friends: Netflix has the magic sauce on how to do reality right. Its latest reality shows The Circle and Next in Fashion are wildly different to each other – The Circle is a … Read more
Concert FM is to be stripped down in favour of a new station for youth, even as the government prepares bigger plans for restructure. Toby Manhire on the mood inside and outside the national broadcaster. No one seriously thought things could stay as they were. RNZ’s music outputs had been subject to reviews, personnel changes, … Read more
The Real Pod reassembles to dissect the second week of The Bachelorette NZ with special thanks to Nando’s. The dramatic second week began with Lily walking in to the mansion and ended with The Mole revealing his true moley self to the bewildered men. Will the twists ever stop? Maybe everyone is a mole! The … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her fourth power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where the red flags are raised and lads are crazed. Click here for previous instalments. In the words of Tavita, I simply did not expect everyone to open up so hectically this week. We had men weeping, we had twists and turns, we had … Read more
Why do they never swim? How much do they drink? And more of your burning questions about Love Island UK, answered at last by Tara Ward. According to Love Island UK, the journey to true love is paved with blue skies, beautiful people and a thousand pairs of budgie smugglers. Nothing makes sense about sending … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her third power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where it’s double trouble and Glenn turns to rubble. Click here for previous instalments. Even though I called it months ago, I still can’t breathe properly when I think about how good it is to have Lily McManus joining Doctor Lesina on this television … Read more
Sam Brooks watched today’s NFL Super Bowl and recaps the moments that mattered. 12:30 NZ Time: Demi Lovato sings ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, seemingly live! Did you know that a lot of people lip-sync this specific gig? Including Whitney Houston, singing objectively the most famous rendition of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’! Sorry to ruin your … Read more