How on earth do you fill three days without work? Clearly, by bingeing content you don’t have time for on a normal weekend. The Spinoff is here to help, with 10 favourite marathon-length suggestions. Kath & Kim (Netflix) Does it make me a crim to be a Kim? We can’t all be Kaths. The foxy ladies … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. We’re back and we’re tired and we’re sorry. There’s too much real news to keep up with, what with all the big media announcements, MAFSNZ break-ups and the return of New Zealand’s greatest comedy show. Plus, Jane … Read more
The first half of the final season of depressed equine comedy BoJack Horseman drops today on Netflix, and it’s as bleakly hilarious as ever. Being a fan of BoJack Horseman the television show means having a complicated relationship with BoJack Horseman the character. On the surface, he’s not somebody you want to empathise with – an … Read more
It’s time we all accepted that James Blunt is good, argues Madeleine Chapman. “I woke up this morning and realised all I do is apologise for a song I wrote in 2005.” The song he wrote in 2005 was ‘You’re Beautiful’ and James Blunt is nothing if not self-aware. The above line is the opening … Read more
People are calling Watchmen the next Game of Thrones, but what is it? Here’s the essential background before you start streaming it on NEON. Okay, so tell me what Watchmen is. Watchmen is a new HBO show based on a comic book series (or graphic novel if you’re fancy). It takes place in an alternative, … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Leigh Hart about the return of Late Night Big Breakfast, the finest morning TV parody show New Zealand has ever made. Late Night Big Breakfast is set to return to TVNZ in 2020 after a five year hiatus, creator and comedian Leigh Hart has confirmed. Filmed in a fully-operational Target furniture … Read more
Informed via telegram that Netflix has released a full trailer for the new season of The Crown, Tara Ward puts on her best pillbox hat and white gloves to find out what round three will bring. The good Lorde told us we’ll never be royals, so the first full trailer for the new season of … Read more
The Movies, a documentary series that celebrates movies and their impact on culture, is available on TVNZ OnDemand today. Sam Brooks pulls some of the best quotes from its galaxy of stars. Ever wanted to get a snapshot of cinematic history without leaving the comfort of your couch, or even your bed if you want … Read more
Last night, the two titans of the cannabis referendum came together for their first televised debate on the issue – Paula Bennett and Chlöe Swarbrick. This was a matchup a long time coming. Paula Bennett and Chlöe Swarbrick have skirmished on the cannabis referendum for months, with heated exchanges on social media about the issue, … Read more
Hold on to your sponge nubbins, New Zealand’s loveliest reality show Great Kiwi Bake Off is back for a second serving. Before the show’s return on November 3, Tara Ward takes a sneak peek at 2019’s contestants. Lay me down on a soft bed of whipped cream and swab my forehead with a sausage roll, because Great … Read more
Madeleine Chapman took her piano-playing nephew Harper to see the orchestra for the first time. Madeleine: When I was very small, I used to sit in the hallway at home with my closest siblings and we would ask our brother Bernard, a teenager at the time, to play songs on the piano. We would name … Read more
With the future of Mediaworks’ TV business hanging in the balance, Al Jazeera news presenter Kamahl Santamaria reflects on what the imperilled channel meant, and continues to mean, to him. I always liked the logo. The fresh bright colours, the nod to a koru in its shape, and just the fact that it was something … Read more
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody. Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit techno godfather Omar-S, Siberian … Read more
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew. This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?! There is always a … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t believe in love, supposedly. … Read more
To celebrate 10 years since the start of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, our reality TV podcast The Real Pod is going to recap it week by week. Here are 10 of the most incredible revelations from the very first episode. 1) Colin Mathura-Jeffree was an emo kid This was the moment we met New … Read more
Something’s crowning this Christmas, and it isn’t King Richard of Aldovia in his favourite tiara. Tara Ward looks at what Netflix’s new movie A Christmas Prince: A Royal Baby could mean for us all. Yesterday Netflix announced they’re about to give birth to the third instalment in the legendary series A Christmas Prince, and I don’t know … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Henessey Griffiths, a 22 year-old Dunedin student who just finished her dissertation about one of Youtube’s most controversial stars. Content warning: this article contains mention of suicide, please take care Yesterday afternoon in Dunedin, honours student Henessey Griffiths sent a tweet that was a year (or rather, five days) in the … Read more
Alex Casey yarns to Karen O’Leary, early childhood teacher by day and star of Wellington Paranormal and What We Do in The Shadows by night. Two of the funniest moments in New Zealand television last year were entirely fence-based. First up there was Agni on The Block NZ, who packed a massive sad during an … Read more
Josie Adams is in tonight’s episode of Have You Been Paying Attention. Specifically, she is in the audience. When you watch Have You Been Paying Attention? tonight, please consider the bladders of audience members watching it live. They offer beverages, but my God it’s a dangerous offer. As I found out last night, bathroom breaks … Read more
It’s the end of an era at Three as MAFS NZ and Guy Williams’ new show cancelled and 7 Days cut to bone, writes Duncan Greive. A trio of shows which have been among Three’s most important local productions are either being cancelled or severely cut back, as the channel’s agonising winter extends to spring. … Read more
If you don’t like Shortland Street, or you’re unconvinced that Michael Galvin actually is a doctor, does that mean all New Zealand television is rubbish? One newspaper columnist argued as much on Sunday. Tara Ward says an emphatic no. The world is our TV oyster, but lately it seems not everyone in Godzone is feeling … Read more
Relationship expert Holly Dixon explains why the entire Married at First Sight franchise is based on bunk science. As the third MAFS NZ season has come to an end, I thought it relevant to answer the question upon which the entire MAFS enterprise is built: Is it possible to predict attraction and how successful a relationship … Read more
Prodigal Son is a new crime procedural coming hot and fresh to TVNZ 1 on Mondays at 8.30pm. Jean Sergent has a few reasons why you should be watching it. If you like serial killer shows, Michael Sheen, dark drama, Michael Sheen, twisted family dynamics, or Michael Sheen – strap yourself to your bed, have we … Read more
The final dinner party on Married at First Sight NZ brought an ugly misogyny to light. But it was far from the first time sexism reared its head this season, writes Alex Casey. It began with a man being edited out of the show after his domestic violence charges came to light, and it ended … Read more
Madeleine Chapman celebrates the girl truths of Netflix’s hit show about puberty, Big Mouth. Girls are horny too. Girls are angry too. How to have an orgasm. The episode titles of Big Mouth are literal and accurate. Girls are horny too! Girls are angry too! How to have an orgasm! Big Mouth follows a group of … Read more
Ahead of the release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Uther Dean writes on how there will never really be another phenomenon like the original Breaking Bad. Have you tried rewatching Breaking Bad recently? It’s not the same, is it? Something has changed. When it was wrapping its original run, half a dozen years ago, it … Read more
Sacha Judd was never into costume parties, but when Mythbusters‘ Adam Savage invited her to Comic-Con she gave it a shot. She writes about learning to build a costume from scratch. In March this year, the students at North Bergen High School in New Jersey staged a two-night production of Alien: The Play. With a … Read more
Another acting challenge bites the drag dust with this take on Downton Abbey. Sam Brooks recaps the second episode of Drag Race. There is one truth abut Drag Race that we’ve all decided to accept without question: There will be acting challenges on this show and they will be terrible. These will happen every season, and the quality will … Read more