I’m Thinking of Ending Things is another trip into the mind of the pathetic man, but Charlie Kaufman finally finds universality in one man’s fantasy. Mild spoilers for I’m Thinking of Ending Things below. You can mark the exact point at which one-time wunderkind Charlie Kaufman went from being a critic’s darling to a difficult … Read more
Filmmaker Gwen Isaac was meant to be in Japan filming a documentary about a New Zealand MMA fighter. But when Covid-19 hit, she found herself embedded in the household of Dr Siouxsie Wiles, documenting a different type of fight. I had never heard of Siouxsie Wiles before March this year. Then, suddenly, she seemed to … Read more
In season two of The Boys, Antony Starr’s Homelander gets even more twisted. He spoke to The Spinoff about the gratuitous violence and nationalism that runs through the show. Antony Starr is calling from LA, where he’s riding out Covid-19. He’d love to come home to New Zealand one day, but now’s not the time. … Read more
From the rights of migrant sex workers to the euthanasia debate, the eight new episodes of Alice Snedden’s Bad News have wrestled with some of the most confusing and contentious political and social issues confronting Aotearoa in 2020. Catch up on the full season here. Episode One – Migrant Sex Workers Sex work is decriminalised … Read more
Away tries to be a space drama and a family drama, but fails massively at both. There’s a good reason why outer space is such a popular setting for fiction: the stakes are so obvious. Just off camera, just off the page, is an endless void that can kill your protagonists if a single thing … Read more
Charting the British actor’s trajectory from teenage pop star to her brilliant turn in I Hate Suzie. For someone who has been in front of our eyes for 20 years, Billie Piper’s career has been more diverse than many appreciate. From teenage pop star to companion of Doctor Who, to critical acclaim on the screen … Read more
In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020. As Taika Waititi once said, New Zealand is racist as fuck. To find out what he meant, Alice and Kura (Ngāti Porou) … Read more
It’s one of the most remarkable political documentaries ever made, and it was produced with a single camera and next to no budget. More than two decades on, it was a key reference point for the Spinoff series Youth Wings. The Spinoff speaks to director Tony Sutorius about the legacy and message of Campaign, and … Read more
Aucklander and Triple J veteran Ollie Wards has landed a role as Tiktok’s first director of music for Australia and New Zealand. He talked to The Spinoff about what’s in store. TikTok is looking unstoppable. Trump wants to ban it, Microsoft wants to buy it, and the Chinese government is allegedly using it for propaganda. … Read more
Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue? The right to vote in Aotearoa is currently denied to anyone imprisoned for over three years. To figure out if this is fair or not, Alice meets with … 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, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ OnDemand. The biggies Shrill (on Neon now) It’s the superhero show we need right now: a woman who decides she’s had enough of everyone … Read more
The second instalment of Patrick Gower’s On… series is about the one issue that has touched all of us this year. But the documentary seems almost as fascinated by Gower himself, writes Sam Brooks It seems strange, on the day that Auckland comes out of a lockdown, its second, to be watching a documentary about … Read more
Love her or hate her, US musician Amanda Palmer has no plans to leave New Zealand anytime soon. She opens up to Stewart Sowman-Lund about her new life in Havelock North and the moment she was left alone in a foreign country during a pandemic. Amanda Palmer has been in the country since just before … Read more
In the latest episode of Final Mix, Yadana Saw and The Phoenix Foundation’s Samuel Flynn Scott road test new songs from the band’s forthcoming album Friend Ship. Samuel Flynn Scott originally wanted to call The Phoenix Foundation’s new album Anxiety. “Everything comes back to anxiety on this record,” the songwriter says in the latest episode … Read more
Because there’s no time like now to catch up on the best the small screen can offer. Picture this scenario: it’s the end of the workday, you’ve just got home (or if you’re working from home, transformed your work-couch into your rest-couch) and you hit up your streaming services. Instantly, you’re bombarded with choices across … Read more
Sick of dating shows? The Dog House is a matchmaking show with none of the drama and all of the feels. I like to schedule my crying jags for Tuesdays at 8.30pm. A bawl isn’t guaranteed: sometimes just a trickle of salty sadness runs down my cheek, other times happy tears flow. Either way, it’s … Read more
As she preps for season two of hit thriller One Lane Bridge, Pip Hall – TV and theatre writer, basketball player, aqua ballerina and Mariah Carey fan – tells Michelle Langstone why, aged 48, she feels like she’s only just hitting her creative stride. Portraits by Edith Amituanai. Spoiler alert: Contains plot points from season … Read more
The follow up to last year’s African Giant sees the breakout Afrobeats star attempt to surpass his own high bar. We run through a few of its highlights. After close to a decade of grinding to achieve a steadily bubbling success, Burna Boy entered the final year of the 2010s as an artist on the … Read more
In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate. In this year’s election, Aotearoa will vote on whether or not to legalise voluntary euthanasia for those with a terminal illness who have less than … Read more
Looking for a family friendly drama to enjoy this lockdown? TVNZ’s new teen series Mystic might be the perfect choice. Out in the television galaxy, somewhere between the giddy orbit of Paw Patrol and Riverdale, lies a dark void where young adults wait patiently for their next favourite series. While there are plenty of TV … Read more
This past weekend the five shortlisted songs for the 2020 Silver Scroll Award were announced. Here, exclusively for The Spinoff, the finalists discuss each other’s nominated songs. Benee on ‘Get the Devil Out’ by Nadia Reid This is a beautiful, poignant and moving song. I love its wistfulness and the depth of feeling her voice … Read more
The latest episode of Bad News follows Alice Snedden on a quest to expose the double standards around nudity, and break down the barriers by getting the first-ever topless scene on Shortland Street. Ever wondered why TK Samuels can’t stop taking his shirt off, but we’ve never seen a woman’s bare chest on Shortland Street? … Read more
In Jordan Peele’s new show, the acclaimed director of Us and Get Out once again uses horror as a vehicle to critique our broken society. If you’re watching the best, deepest and most thoughtful television today, chances are you’re watching a good piece of horror TV. The latest entrant into the recent boom is Lovecraft … Read more
It’s the television reunion you didn’t know you needed, and a reminder of one of the best New Zealand shows you might never have seen. Friday night’s episode of Shortland Street saw lovesick doctors Boyd and Zara celebrate their wedding, and it was a nice time. The bride and groom were thrilled and Chris Warner … Read more
Around a quarter of the country has been at home for just over a week. So what the hell are they watching? Here’s what New Zealanders have been streaming on Netflix, Neon, TVNZ on Demand and ThreeNow in the past week. YouTube is not included in these statistics. That’s between you, God and the algorithm. … Read more
The second season of the female-focused anthology series is as much a portrait of a disintegrating marriage as it is a crime story, writes Catherine McGregor. This review contains mild spoilers for episodes one and two. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, they say, but we all know it’s not actually true, not … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Three’s mainstay 7 Days, and finds a show that is still worth the watch, but needs to change. The first joke of 7 Days in 2020 is a mask joke, followed up by a ball gag joke. Dai Henwood then chides host Jeremy Corbett with this scorcher: “It’s always something sexual with … Read more
Glow Up NZ is the latest reality franchise to hit New Zealand screens, and Tara Ward discovers a show with plenty of heart. “An online makeup revolution is sweeping the world,” host Megan Papas tells us in the opening moments of Glow Up NZ, TVNZ On Demand’s new reality competition about the wonders of makeup artistry. … Read more
In the fourth episode of Alice Snedden’s Bad News, Alice makes some inquiries upstairs about the charitable status of churches after finding out the makers of Weet-Bix have an exemption from paying tax. New Zealand is a secular society, but “advancement of religion” is still one of the main things that define a charity. That … Read more