Calum Henderson watches the revamped My Kitchen Rules NZ, with shiny new judges and shady new contestants. By now we should all understand the basic rules of reality television, especially the one that dictates every series must portray at least one team or contestant as being the embodiment of pure evil. Deep in our heart … Read more
Madeleine Chapman becomes bewitched by a new television phenomenon: people reacting to Don Brash on current affairs panels. This morning Don Brash, former leader of the National Party and current bad person, was on The AM Show alongside writer Verity Johnson. The topic was the Māori Party and I guess every single other person in the country … Read more
Last summer, before the release of his amazing album Big Fish Theory, Henry Oliver tried to go deep with Los Angeles rapper Vince Staples and failed, so asked him about basketball and cartoons instead. Vince Staples is young, very skilled and very, very chill. He raps fast, but talks slow. His records are loud, but … Read more
Last week, the Otago Daily Times published a conspiratorial and objectively terrible opinion piece claiming APRA’s ‘gender-affirmative action regime’ is a mediocrity-encouraging membership drive. Dunedin musician, pop music scholar and APRA member Millie Lovelock responds. It’s a losing battle, arguing with idiots. Unfortunately, being an idiot is currently very much en vogue in Dunedin, especially … Read more
Have you ever prepared a meal so gluttonous, so shameful, so grotesque that you’ve had to take a cold hard look at yourself in the mirror and ask ‘what would Pete and Manu think?’ Alex Casey was able to ask them IRL. Just as you shouldn’t look at a solar eclipse without special glasses, I’d … Read more
Election Night 2017: Here are our first impressions from the major election results coverage, if you are still deciding which channel to turn to. 1 NEWS Vote 17 Election Night Special “I’m on time and a half tonight,” sighs Mike Hosking. He’s fed up, luckily Hilary appears to be fizzing in her seat. They are … Read more
Tomorrow from 7 pm, the election results will start seeping onto every transistor radio, television screen and phone tree in the country. It’ll be thirsty work, so we’ve put together a little something to keep spirits up. With apple juice, obviously. Take a sip when you hear/see: “Neck and neck” “Drag race” “Jacindamania” “Stardust” “Knife … Read more
The Spinoff presents the video premiere of SWIDT’s ‘Ric Flair (Wooo!)’, featuring “Dirty” Dave O’Connor, “Onehunga Dragon” Jordan Invincible, “Phat” Paul Stoodon, Reggie Handsome and Israel ‘The Stylebender’ Adesanya. With their new single, SWIDT join the long line of rappers to pay homage to Ric Flair, a legend of American wrestling with championships spanning the WWF, WWE, … Read more
Unless you have eight eyes like some kind of politically-engaged spider, your second most important decision tomorrow will be choosing which channel to watch the election results on. Luckily, we’re here to help For the Spinoff’s election night plans, scroll all the way to the foot of this page 1 NEWS Vote 17 Election Night … Read more
Every week Chartlander travels back through time, landing in a different year on the official New Zealand singles chart in the hopes of (re)discovering forgotten Top 40 gold. Today we continue our tour of classic general elections at the start of Winston Peters’ career in parliament. The date is May 24 1979, and today, six … Read more
What could a TV2 election special from 2002 teach modern news producers as they prepare for Saturday night’s big event? Calum Henderson investigates. Election night has historically been one of the biggest events in live television, second only to the telethon. This year, all the major newsy channels will be working hell for leather, designing … Read more
For about two months in 2014, Elle Hunt watched nothing but Gossip Girl. On the 10th anniversary of the show’s premiere, she reflects on the legacy of the Upper East Side snark-fest – and why sometimes it’s OK to give up on a mediocre TV show. Warning: contains a big spoiler – the biggest – directly … Read more
With the release of a new album and a NZ show coming up, Madeleine Chapman spoke to London Grammar’s Dot Major to find out just what’s been happening for the past four years. Scroll to the bottom if you’re just here for the free tickets. I never would have thought there was a place for … Read more
Calum Henderson watches Face the Classroom, TVNZ’s two-night special that forced our politicians to confront their harshest critics yet – the children of NZ. Move over Mike Hosking, Paddy Gower, Lisa Owen – it turns out the best political interviewers of this election campaign might just be a classroom of 8-12 year old kids from Ellerslie … Read more
The Real Pod team assemble in the boardroom of dreams to talk reality TV and real life in New Zealand, including The Block disaster, Max Key’s new merch and the engagement of the King and Queen of New Zealand television. It’s been a tremendous week for The Real Pod team this week, with New Zealand TV … Read more
Last seen two weeks ago sipping on a pink panther at Toni Street’s birthday party, Mike Hosking made his return to terrestrial television last night. Tara Ward was watching, and found herself sucked right into his eye-rolling vortex. The planets aligned, the clouds cleared and rainbows filled the skies when Mike Hosking returned to Seven Sharp … Read more
The Spinoff and Spark proudly present Pod On The Couch, a weekly podcast exploring music and the people that make it. This episode: Henry Oliver talks to Kate Robertson and Matthew McAuley about some recent pop music highlights. Spinoff Music editor Henry Oliver talks to contributors Kate Robertson and Matthew McAuley about Taylor Swift’s return, Charli XCX’s triumph, … Read more
The cast of the first season of Married At First Sight NZ has left us with snow blindness, writes Leonie Hayden. Diversity in media is important. It’s so important. The Emmys gave out their first ever gongs for comedy writing and directing to black artists this year. A fair reflection of who we are as a … Read more
Superfan Tara Ward counts down the top ten moments from episode two of Outlander season three. Contains spoilers, obviously. If you thought last week’s episode of Outlander was heartbreaking, then you need to prepare yourselves. I have bad, bad news. Something terrible has happened to Jamie Fraser, and it looks like this: Jamie has 99 problems and … Read more
Duncan Greive reflects on the shambolic end to The Block 2017, and what the show has revealed to us about our housing market and crisis over that time. For the last six years – or two parliamentary terms, if you prefer to measure time in that unit – The Block NZ has been both New … Read more
Our friendly TV sponsors at Lightbox have a whole bunch of shows nominated for the Emmy Awards this year, so we got our resident award shows obsessive Sam Brooks to pick which ones might take home the gold. I love me an awards show. A bunch of people in pretty dresses saying long speeches and … Read more
The live auction final of The Block NZ tonight delivered more thrills and spills than Peter Wolfkamp on a motorised chilly bin. Devoted blockaholic Jane Yee was in the thick of it, and bring us this harrowing report. What a night to be at the Grand Millennium. I arrived expecting to be part of an … Read more
Before the winner is decided at the live auction tonight, Jane Yee looks back at the season that was The Block NZ for 2017. It may seem like an odd – perhaps even narcissistic – thing to do, but every now and then I wonder what might be said about me at my funeral. I’m sure mention … Read more
After dropping one of the most underrated releases in the country last year, PNC has stepped his game up once again with his new single ‘Iverson 01’. As Hussein Moses writes, not only is it one of the most exciting moments in New Zealand rap’s recent history, it’s also managed to spark the beginning of … Read more
The Spinoff presents the video premiere of Grayson Gilmour’s ‘Otherness’ in 360° spatial audio. Why are you doing all 360° spatial stuff? What’s wrong with tour footage taken on your phone? Curiosity. There’s nothing wrong with shooting something on your phone or making a traditional music video, I’m simply bored of that process and its outcomes; I try … Read more
Lucy Zee pours a cup of tea and delves into the creepy slow-burn that is the Chanui ad universe. Can we just all agree straight away: the Chanui ads are really fucking weird. Basically it’s just a guy telling us to buy his tea and about three people seemingly held at gunpoint telling the camera … Read more
Every week Chartlander travels back through time, landing in a different year on the official New Zealand singles chart in the hopes of (re)discovering forgotten Top 40 gold. Today we continue our tour of classic general elections in the mid-1970s. The date is November 29, 1975 – almost as far back as the official New … Read more
Tara Ward gazes back through time to remember TV One’s campaign dog Toby, the goodest boy to ever grace the small screen. Nothing says “watch this channel” more than a directionally-challenged dog trapped in a labyrinth of notable TV personalities. So it makes perfect sense that when 1991 TV One launched a promo campaign featuring … Read more
Possum Plows, singer of Auckland pop-punk band Openside, opens up about their journey to coming out as nonbinary and the impact it has had on their band and fans. Becoming more public about being nonbinary is something I’ve thought about a lot in terms of how it relates to my music career and whether or … Read more