Seriously, if you haven’t seen The Mandalorian, look away now. This article also contains spoilers for Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Return of the Sith, and The Last Jedi. In case you didn’t read the standfirst: this article contains spoilers about The Mandalorian, and also all of Star Wars. The pictures are all … Read more
Sam Brooks gives you the lowdown on Disney+, the exhaustive streaming service launching today. What on this good green world is Disney+? Disney+ is a streaming service run by, as you might expect, Disney. If you need someone to explain what Disney is to you, then this service probably isn’t for you. Stick to whatever … Read more
Can the flagship Disney+ show The Mandalorian serve the Star Wars diehards at the same time as the casual viewer, asks Sam Brooks. A quick multiple-choice test to find out if The Mandalorian is for you or not. Q. Does the title The Mandalorian mean anything to you? A) No. B) Kind of? It’s definitely part of Star … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews the third season of The Crown, a show that can’t decide whether it wants to humanise the monarchy or tear it all down. This review contains very mild spoilers for world history, 1964-1977. Three seasons in, there’s no doubt that The Crown is the, well, crown jewel in Netflix’s royal streaming sceptre. … Read more
In this special episode of The Real Pod, brought to you by Nando’s, we chat to the champions of My Restaurant Rules NZ 2019. In the afterglow of Rustic Kitchen’s historic win on My Restaurant Rules NZ, Duncan and Alex got on the blower with Tyson and Denise. Then we forgot about the interview completely. … Read more
Tara Ward reviews Goodnight Kiwi, a new series that features well-known New Zealanders reading bedtime stories to kids. It’s strange to think that New Zealand television wasn’t always the 24-hour, infomercial-tastic extravangza that it is today. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, our televisions used to go dark every night at about eleven o’clock, a … Read more
13 moments that prove the music awards are so much > than all other award shows BENEE cleaned up, every performance was somewhere between an eight and a ten, there was an unfeasible quantity of award presenter awkwardness and many nights ended very late. The music awards are over 50 and still absolutely rule. Here’s … Read more
Yesterday, Stuff reported that the 2017 Chinese-made propaganda blockbuster Wolf Warrior 2 was partially made in New Zealand. Sam Brooks watched it and – spoiler alert – found it weird as hell. About halfway through Wolf Warrior 2 on Netflix, the unnamed leader of a revolution in an unnamed African country marches up to the American leader … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on the Great Kiwi Bake Off, it’s all about weird biscuits. Savoury biscuits. Mushroomy biscuits. Biscuits about cross fit. Who had the best biscuit art of them all? Why is Trev so good? And how … Read more
The 2019 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are just a few hours away and, believe it, we have reckons. Who will win? Who should win? Sam Brooks is ready for some prognosticating. It’s the biggest night in New Zealand music – the one that’s televised, the one that got (fake) Paula Bennett onstage with Jacinda … Read more
Premiering tonight on TVNZ DUKE, Tara Ward explores the salty depths of Spiky Gold Hunters. Spiky Gold Hunter is Country Calendar for hard arses. DUKE’s new documentary series follows six Kiwis as they search the Foveaux Strait for kina, a job with great financial reward but huge risk. These divers work in some of the … Read more
Fifteen years on, Sam Brooks looks at Gwen Stefani’s wet, weird, wild and wonderful debut album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. The first thing we hear on Love. Angel. Music. Baby. – No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani’s first album – is applause and cheering. Then a piano. Then Stefani warbling, sweetly, mournfully, almost like a torch … Read more
Ahead of TVNZ1’s new wildlife documentary Serengeti, Tara Ward presents the best animals that make up the juiciest drama on the plains. If you love nature docos filled with argy-bargy and love triangles, jealous siblings and power struggles, then TVNZ’s new wildlife documentary series Serengeti is a dream come true. The brainchild of ex-Spice Girls … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. Another week, another new reality show to pour into our gullets like a jug of mirror glaze over a too-warm cake. The Great Kiwi Bake Off is back for another season, returning to the original 90-minute format … Read more
Tonight, TVNZ announced their slate of 2020 content, and they’re absolutely slammed with it. This is what we’re excited to watch next year. NEW The Bachelorette NZ Call the police, call a priest, call your boss and tell them you need some time off because Art Green is returning to television as the host of … Read more
Emily Writes gushes about the show she never thought she’d enjoy so much: the endurance-testing, gravity-defying Australian Ninja Warrior. I never intended to watch Ninja Warrior. I had originally thought it was similar to that show where people get nailed on a course above water. I didn’t really see the appeal of people getting smacked … Read more
Tara Ward reviews one of AppleTV’s flagship shows, Dickinson, a dishy romp through the teenage years of Emily Dickinson. “This is such bullshit,” a young Emily Dickinson says in the opening scenes of Dickinson. It’s four in the morning sometime in the mid 1800s, and Emily’s precious writing time has been rudely interrupted by an order to … Read more
As TVNZ celebrate 50 years of network news this week, Alex Casey celebrates 50 of the most iconic looks that otherwise might be left forgotten. This week, as TVNZ celebrates 50 years of network news, there will be much time devoted to the stories that stopped the nation. Plumes of smoke billowing out of Mt … Read more
As the HBO TV adaptation arrives on NEON, Sam Brooks looks back on His Dark Materials, the only children’s book series he was allowed to read as a kid. A little girl and her shapeshifting daemon. A sweet-voiced, evil-faced woman with a glamourous monkey for a companion. A giant polar bear wearing armour. When I … Read more
Survivor Australia: Champions V Contenders is back and better than ever. We take a closer look at the famous and not-so-famous Aussies vying to become Sole Survivor. There’s nothing more heartwarming than watching a bunch of Australians sit around a campfire while they metaphorically stab each other in the back, so it’s happy news that Survivor … Read more
The Great Kiwi Bake Off is back for a second season, and all is right with the world again. Tara Ward serves up the power rankings for week one. Welcome back, my flaky pastry cherubs, to another glorious season of The Great Kiwi Bake Off. Please take my sweaty hand as we enter the moist marquee … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. It is the end of My Restaurant Rules NZ and gods everywhere are weeping. Tyson and Denise from Rustic Kitchen left tiny tractor tyre marks over their opponents at Moxie, Julia got a Bachelorette makeover and Raf … Read more
What are you going to be watching in November? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand. Click here to read our listings for October The Biggies His Dark Materials (NEON, Season 1 weekly from November 5) Feel like your life … Read more
The return of the original girl group babes, the twink Taylor Swift, and New Zealand’s most electrifying rap group are all part of our songs of the month. International ‘Flowers’ by DJ Spoony (feat. The Sugababes) An orchestral-ish cover of a early-00’s garage hit? Sure, whatever. But put the Sugababes, and I mean the original … Read more
With Apple TV and Disney+ launching in November, we have more viewing options than ever before. Tara Ward takes a closer look at the myriad of TV streaming services available. We’re spoiled for TV choice these days, and with Apple TV and Disney+ launching in New Zealand next month, our viewing horizons just got a … Read more
Could beloved reality star Lily McManus be joining The Bachelorette NZ? Alex Casey assesses the evidence. UPDATE 30/1/2020: After last night’s tease that a mysterious second woman will be joining The Bachelorette NZ, an eagle-eyed viewer sent in this compelling side-by-side knee tattoo comparison. It’s a hard time to be a lover of reality romance … Read more
Thirty years ago, a Lower Hutt intermediate school performed the full, unabridged, adult version of West Side Story. Jet gang member Morgan Davie looks back. September 24, 1987. My gang moves with purpose under the streetlights. In the middle of Lower Hutt, a rival gang is waiting. There’s gonna be a rumble. We walk tough, … Read more
Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Ken Loach all have one thing in common: they don’t like superhero movies. But are they right? Are they heck. Josie Adams defends the existence of the world’s most money-hungry film genre. There’s only one thing worse than a comic book nerd; a film nerd. Nerds of any kind … Read more
Onehunga-bred hip hop collective SWIDT have released what might be one of the most politicised music videos in New Zealand history. They talked to Josie Adams about why it felt like the right time. At just over two minutes long, ‘BUNGA’ is short, but it says more about the Pasifika community than most Palagi will … Read more