On the back of season 3 of Netflix’s hit teen drama 13 Reasons Why, Katie Meadows argues that the show’s unremitting darkness poses real risks to young viewers. Two years after it first aired, and a month before the release of season 3, Netflix announced it was at long last cutting the painfully graphic depiction … Read more
Rapper Tom Scott has dropped a brand new documentary about trying to make a living as an artist. So is it any good? Extremely unsuccessful former jazz musician Alex Braae had a watch. Tom Scott has always seemed to have an intimate understanding that he won’t get any rap game riches. At a time when … Read more
The K Road festival, which turned five on Friday, has reached mainstream-level popularity without compromising its local acts focus. While the old-timers encamped in The Studio to sing the Flying Nun classics, Josie Adams went exploring. Not even the most determined and fleet-footed fan could hope to make every one of the 46 acts across … Read more
Sunday Theatre’s new drama Runaway Millionaires tells the story of Kara Hurring, the Rotorua woman who in 2009 fled the country with $10 million which simply landed in her lap. Tara Ward reviews. What would you do if one day you discovered ten million bucks randomly sitting in your bank account? Would you come clean, or … Read more
What are you going to be watching in September? 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 August. The Biggies The Good Place (Netflix, Season 4 weekly, September 24) It’s weird that the smartest, … Read more
A shocking Herald story alleging serious violence by of one of its grooms has forced an unprecedented move from MediaWorks. After further details emerged around the alleged behaviour of Chris Mansfield, a groom on the upcoming third season of Married at First Sight NZ, Three has made the unprecedented decision to cut his storyline entirely. … Read more
The Real Pod team assemble to discuss the brilliant Celebrity Treasure Island, The Block’s descent and worrying signs for the upcoming season of Married at First Sight NZ. It’s the show we didn’t know we needed, good-natured family entertainment that doesn’t forget the absolute drama. Shane Cameron nearly tore Jodie Molloy apart just because she … Read more
The biggest popstar in the world, a trash country icon and a dancehall legend are what we’ve been listening to this month – it’s The Spinoff Music’s Songs of the Month for August. International Mess with My Head by Miranda Lambert I included Lambert last month, justifiably, because that song bangs. But I kind of … Read more
A shitload of acts, a shitload of stages, and the potential for a shitload of fun: how to attend The Others Way. Tonight, The Others Way festival makes its welcome return to basically everywhere on Auckland’s Karangahape Road. Part vaunted local music festival, part exercise in divining the exact organisational midpoint between chaos and transcendence, … Read more
Blam Blam Blam’s records stunned Grant McDougall’s adolescent mind. He reflects on their impact and what it was like to finally see them live on their reunion tour, which brings them to The Others Way tonight in Auckland. It is winter, 1981. I am 12 and in Form 2 at Gisborne Intermediate. The Springbok tour … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Carnival Row, an Amazon Original which can’t break free from its own shallow edginess. The fantasy ghetto is real, and it’s hard to get out of it. Game of Thrones managed to get out of it through the sheer quality of the first season, and also by keeping its more fantastical elements … Read more
No show has ever delivered more and better sex than True Blood. Emily Writes looks back on a trashy high-art masterpiece. This content is brought to you by NEON – where all seasons of True Blood are streaming now. It was the scene in the basement that did it for me. Sex swing? Check. Alexander … Read more
The ‘Ready or Not’ hitmakers talk ambition, competition, and how things change when you accidentally become the most buzzed-about young rap group in the country. Church & AP didn’t plan for this. The rappers born Elijah Manū and Albert Purcell were still attending high school in Auckland’s central suburbs when they started working together, more … Read more
With Falling Inn Love, New Zealand gets its very own Netflix romcom – so how accurate is its depiction of small town NZ? Sam Brooks investigates. When the trailer for Falling Inn Love dropped earlier this month, I had my knives out, and so did the rest of The Spinoff office. A Netflix romcom set … Read more
It is the second week of Celebrity Treasure Island and the gloves are officially off. Alex Casey power ranks the celebrity contestants vying for that sweet charity cash. Two weeks in and I am here to firmly agree with my Real Pod co-host in saying that Celebrity Treasure Island is bloody mindless brilliance. If you … Read more
The Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak has just been released in toy stores worldwide. Alice Webb-Liddall got the chance to try one out. It’s a Tuesday, and a snowy owl flies above my head on the way to work. It poops on me. That’s extra good luck, I think to myself. I get to work, make … Read more
If you’re a fan of thrilling skill-based reality contests, Blown Away is the show you’ve been waiting for. Tara Ward reveals why you’ll fall in love with Netflix’s latest sensation. If you think the Earth needs another reality TV show like it needs a glass light fitting that looks like a diver’s helmet, then think … Read more
Taylor Swift’s seventh album Lover dropped around the world over the weekend. The Spinoff reviews the entire 18-song album, track by track. 1. I Forgot That You Existed Pure alpha-cheerleader Taylor Swift, sounds like Avril Lavigne circa ‘Girlfriend’ or maybe Skye Sweetnam circa 2003. The distinctive bouncy riff that’s lifted from ‘Fancy’ totally works here, it feels … Read more
For years, New Zealand has bemoaned the gap between much of our television drama and the cutting edge out in the world. That gap might finally be closing, writes Duncan Greive. He’s just a minor character, eating an ice cream. It doesn’t seem all that revolutionary, but in the context of New Zealand drama, it … Read more
A War Story is one more attempt in a long line of art to make sense of 9/11 – this time from a uniquely Kiwi perspective. The coordinated terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 cut a razor-sharp divide between the relatively carefree time before and everything after, bleeding into the culture that stood on either … Read more
As a format it predates almost all reality TV, and that’s precisely why it works in 2019, writes Duncan Greive. There’s something deeply comforting about watching Celebrity Treasure Island. It is a very pure form of escapism, largely because it explicitly recalls a world without the internet, and before everything started going to hell. It … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. Sound the alarm, because it’s time for another absolute chaos pod. We’re talking haunted dolls in Waipu, we’re talking giant hands taking over Wellington, we’re talking soft serve cones dipped in powdered Milo. If you can keep … Read more
The lanky sidekick from Jono and Ben journeys around New Zealand trying to solve small town problems. Does he succeed? Guy Williams, hardly a shy, retiring type, has been screaming out for his own vehicle for years. A loud, lanky, fearless comic, he’s spent nearly a decade in MediaWorks purgatory, sat off to the side … Read more
One part telenovela, one part family drama, one part addictive love story. Sam Brooks reviews Jane the Virgin, the great show with an unfortunate name that should be your next Netflix binge. The following piece contains very mild spoilers for Jane the Virgin. While watching the last season of Jane the Virgin, one of my … Read more
Before Zumba, before Just Dance, before it was cool again to move in public group settings, there was Jump Jam. Madeleine Chapman reflects. Jump Jam entered the lives of New Zealand kids in 2001, a year filled with historic cultural movements. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001; Frodo and Sam introduced … Read more
This morning the five shortlisted songs for the 2019 Silver Scroll Award were announced. Here, exclusively for The Spinoff, the finalists discuss each other’s nominated songs. Tom Scott of Avantdale Bowling Club on ‘The Barrel’ by Aldous Harding it’s such a beautiful stunt to witness. breaking just before the cliff edge. the rush of a … Read more
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the karaoke game that introduced an entire generation to the horrors of ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark. Jordan Hamel ranks all 30 songs from SingStar v1, from worst to best. Before my generation was old enough to get smashed on reasonably priced Merlot and wander down to our local … Read more
After a decade of making music, Sons of Zion are still refusing to settle into a genre. They sit down to talk about the joys of pop music and te reo Māori, and why a “reggae” band can do both. In 2009 Sons of Zion released their debut album, a self-titled fusion of rock, R&B, … Read more
The first week of Celebrity Treasure Island had it all – mud, vomit and coconut brassieres. Alex Casey ranks the celebrity contestants vying to win $100,000 for their chosen charity. It’s 2019 and mostly everything is bad, so I am choosing to focus on the positives of Celebrity Treasure Island NZ. I love the opening … Read more