Alex Casey talks to Sarah Aldridge, costume designer on Westside, about dressing the early-80s West family. Look, I love a spot of opshopping as much as the next person. Give me a giant, musty Sallies out in the wops any day, just as long as it contains at least three dog-eared copies of The World … Read more
From House of Cards’ sinister trumpets to The Fresh Prince’s iconic rap, TV theme tunes are powerful signifiers and also, just occasionally, standalone hits superior even to the show they prelude. Elizabeth Beattie examines five of New Zealand’s television theme songs to sift the cultural gold from the mud. We can tell a lot about … Read more
She missed it the first time around, so Tara Ward decided to watch the first season of Filthy Rich in one marathon binge. Filthy Rich hits our screens again this week like a stripper with a heart of gold dropped from a great height by her evil business associate. New Zealand’s glitziest show is back … Read more
Duncan Greive and Toby Manhire rate the current crop of political shows on New Zealand television right now. Most New Zealanders, as John Key was fond of calling them, would very likely be shocked and appalled to discover that our politics shows run just about all year, every year. Irrespective of the election cycle, or … Read more
Our regular round-up of new songs and singles, this week featuring Kesha, SWIDT, The National, Shania, Niall Horan & more… SONG OF THE WEEK Kesha – ‘Praying’ Kesha’s returns with a single of goddamn saintly compassion for her (alleged) abuser. Kesha, who has dropped the $ thanks to a long and ugly legal battle with producer Dr Luke, … Read more
The Real Pod returns, late but not never, with a lot of bum talk and a similar amount of trash talk. This week arrived late on The Real Pod thanks to Jane’s colonoscopy, a frightening event she describes in great detail on this week’s pod. We also discuss the combination of vitriol and silence which … Read more
With their debut album just out, Kate Robertson caught up with LANY frontman Paul Klein to find out a little more about the band no one wants to be last to find out about. A band born out of the internet, LANY are a making hazy, R&B-influenced radio pop that, simply put, is just a … Read more
It’s the most important room in the house! Jane Yee checks in on bathroom week on The Block NZ. Click here for last week’s installment. “Is anyone getting that sinking feeling?” Mark ‘Rigor’ Richardson asked this week, smashing out another cracking pun in honour of bathroom week. Me. I am. I’m getting that sinking feeling, … Read more
Sherlock fan Jean Sergeant reflects on the place of Holmes and Watson in her own life, through grieving and pad thai nights. I remember when the Christmas special of Sherlock, ‘The Abominable Bride’, came out at the beginning of 2016. I nagged my best dead friend Michael to watch it. I’m not sure if he … Read more
Our regular Survivor columnist Joseph Harper wraps up the season that was and the emotional finale, and looks to the future with high hopes. Click here for yesterday’s special pre-finale power rankings. It’s all over. I’ve been crapping on the show’s editors all season long for being too obvious, but in the end they managed … Read more
Tara Ward watches the time travel literary hybrid Lost in Austen and drums up some more classic TV tales that could do with a bit of tinkering. It’s not every day one of the much-loved characters from English literature turns up in your bathroom. All I have in my bathroom are five scratchy towels and some dead … Read more
Miriama Aoake listens to Jay-Z’s new album 4:44 and finds the rapper full of introspection, self-criticism and, ultimately, black empowerment. A couple of weeks ago, Jay-Z was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame by Barack Obama, unanimously nominated by his industry peers. He was the first rapper to receive the honour. The following week, … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the last week of Survivor NZ, and makes his predictions for the big finale. Click here for last week. So we’ve got our final three. Three big episodes down and one massive (very long) finale to go. Tom, Barb, and Avi have squirmed, tricked, and made nice all the way to the … Read more
Last week, after seeing her first four singles rack up a combined 9 million plays on Spotify, Christchurch’s Theia released her first EP. She spoke to Henry Oliver on the eve of her first New Zealand tour. New Zealand pop acts just seem to appear out of nowhere these days. It’s not uncommon for someone … Read more
The 7 Days Twitter account posted a table ranking the most successful regular panellists yesterday. But they also revealed something else… Since its launch in 2009, there’s no denying that weekly panel show 7 Days is still by far New Zealand’s most successful comedy vehicle. Friday nights on Three has long seen a revolving rota of panellists including … Read more
To commemorate 20 years since Fugazi’s tour of New Zealand, Henry Oliver presents an excerpt from his 1997 interview with Ian MacKaye and some never before seen photos of the tour by Amber Easby. Twenty years ago today, Fugazi played the last show of what would be their final New Zealand tour at Caledonian Hall … Read more
Miriama Aoake reacts to the male-dominated lineup announcement for dance music festival Northern Bass. It’s hardly surprising that last week’s first lineup announcement for Northern Bass hardly set Aotearoa alight. The festival’s lineup has remained relatively unchanged for perhaps the past 10 to 15 years, with the exception of two or three international headliners. One … Read more
It’s been 10 years since Bret and Jemaine first appeared on the small screen in their HBO series Flight of the Conchords. By way of celebration, The Spinoff writers enter a fierce debate to complete one gargantuan task: ranking every song that featured on the show. 44) “Stay Cool” I mean, I went to the … 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 Alex Casey and Madeleine Chapman about the best FOTC songs, the worst FOTC songs, and every song in between. Spinoff Music editor Henry Oliver talks to fellow Spinoff writers Alex … Read more
With Harlots arriving exclusively to Lightbox today, Tara Ward delves into the teaser trailer for the women-led period drama. Harlots has me more excited about a television programme than the time I found out they were bringing back Anne of Green Gables. While my Anne anticipation ended badly with a red-haired orphan running across a WW1 … Read more
Jane Yee has committed to watching four-and-a-half hours of kiwi renos on TV every week for the foreseeable future. This week we meet the new batch of Block NZ contestants. “Okay, fine.” These two seemingly innocuous words have effed up my life for the next three months. They’re the words I reluctantly mumbled when asked … Read more
Montell2099, whose debut single ‘Hunnid on the Drop’ with Savage 21 is released today, reports from his trip to LA to perform at Red Bull Sound Select. Auckland-based, Katikati-raised producer Montell2099 is on a meteoric rise, from making beats in his grandparent’s rural home to collaborating with rapper 21 Savage (who has worked with Drake, Future among … Read more
Hussein Moses talks to Kane Strang, whose album Two Hearts and No Brain is out today. Kane Strang just got fired. Well, he thinks he might’ve. “I don’t even know if it was serious,” the Dunedin-based songwriter says. “But I work with my guitarist and he came home the other day and told me that … Read more
Felix Desmarais rewatches The L Word, one of the first mainstream TV shows to put queer voices on the small screen. The year is 2005. In the dark – past midnight – in the lounge, I am lit by the glow of The L Word on TV and I am feeling things. They are very teenage things. … Read more
To celebrate 25 years of making music together, former child band Hanson played a single concert at Auckland Town Hall. Madeleine Chapman went along with a stranger she met while eating dinner. Despite my outsized confidence in the reliability of my friends and family, on Tuesday night I found myself eating at Nando’s, about to … Read more
From Beavis and Butt-head to Drew and Shannon, TeleTrader to the Champagne Lady, Calum Henderson looks back on the first 20 years of New Zealand’s fourth TV channel. In 1997, I spent a week of intermediate school metalwork classes carefully etching the TV4 logo onto a sheet of copper. That is how excited I was … Read more
Pandora – not the charm bracelets – has officially announced it’s the end of the line for their service in Australia and New Zealand, reports Don Rowe. After five years hard graft in the Australia/New Zealand market, Pandora is calling it quits. “While our experience in these markets reinforces the broader global opportunity long-term, in … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around a pile of cheesy Lotatoes to talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. It’s a huge week on The Real Pod, with the New Zealand pop culture news about as piping hot as the cheesy low-carb Lotatoes that are … Read more
After noticing that something strange has happened to Lily from Big Save Furniture, Tara Ward delves into her rich, loud, bargain-filled history. Breaking news, New Zealand: something terrible has happened to Big Save Lily. You’ll need to sit down on your corner lounge suite for this one, because Lily’s legendary Big Save Furniture ads are … Read more