‘Business is Boring’ is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. Making it in the modern economy is no easy thing. Traditional career … Read more
Our resident Blockaholic Jane Yee recaps the highs and lows from week seven of The Block NZ, including the return of everyone’s favourite council inspector Glyn, more tradie tantrums than you can shake a broken old bit of gib at, and a steamy bedroom tryst. It was pressure-cooker stuff on The Block NZ this week … Read more
Madeleine Chapman and her Aunty Henga assess the skills, builds, and tattoos in Game of Bros, Māori television’s reality quest for the ultimate Polynesian warrior. Aunty Henga arrived back home just in time to witness Game of Bros completely give up on trying to maintain the illusion of being on an island. After spotting a Mitre 10 in the background, … Read more
Madeleine Chapman, her Aunty Henga and her Mum Pani assess the skills, builds, and tattoos in Game of Bros, Māori television’s reality quest for the ultimate Polynesian warrior. Last week, Aunty Henga left Pani and Pani in Auckland and flew to Wellington to visit Pani, my mum. Which means you get not one, but two island experts weighing … Read more
Alex Casey recaps the second episode of Better Call Saul season two on Lightbox, featuring a piano, nacho cravings and an unspeakable act with an apple pie. We’re back for another week as Jimmy’s moral pendulum continues to swing frustratingly between Good Guy Greg and Scumbag Steve. Old mate Chuck is back too, playing his piano with … Read more
Locked in the media bunker (actually The Spinoff’s shed) José Barbosa watched days of tapes to bring you this examination of the way TV news covered the recent anti-TPP protests in Auckland.
Years before he became our Prime Minister, John Key was just another electorate MP, wading through his constituents’ sewage. We look back at his time on the magical New Zealand docu-drama Neighbours at War – and get his brief memories of the moment. “You’re a racist,” the man yells. “And so is he.” ‘The man’ is a … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Moody Michael has a sulk, Harry is robbed of his television and Drew bucks up his pun game. 1) Michael makes it hard to love him Oh, the pressures of being a tween in New Zealand. Someone call a … Read more
Alex Casey watches Ed Sheeran’s brief but powerful cameo on Home and Away. Home and Away’s Marilyn is fussing around, as always, trying to throw together a luxury dinner for her mystery muso guest. She’s got bruschetta, linguini and dessert. What rock star would would be gunning for this absolute beige rider, what kind of … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including Masterchef shockers, Sunday night monsters and Ed Sheeran at the beach. Contributions by Alex Casey and Calum Henderson. New Kids on The Block The Mad Max-inspired promotional material for The Block NZ: Villa Wars has been doing the rounds this week, introducing us to the teams … Read more
Calum Henderson spends the morning watching two strangers get married on The Edge TV’s thrillingly shambolic live stream. While other radio hosts have been running around binge drinking, getting divorced or floating across lakes on bouncy castles this survey period, The Edge’s finest purveyors of horseplay – Jay-Jay, Mike and Dom – have been suspiciously … Read more
Alex Casey recaps week three of Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty, where we travel to Greece and things get a little muddy. We are going to Greece this week for some much-needed chill out time. I’m tired, Rachel’s tired, so why not take a trip to the people live longer than anywhere else in the … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. Episode 11 Marco Pierre White is a complex and regrettable phenomenon produced entirely by food television. White has been crafting his telly persona for years, making cooks shake and cry … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Nicole and Vinnie tie the knot, Leanne seeks refuge in a toilet and TK’s thumb gives Daniel Day-Lewis a run for his money. 1) Vinnie and Nicole drop anchor in a surprise sea of love Big things were happening in Nicole … Read more
Alex Casey catches the Men’s Panel on Good Morning, where four men dish their tips on how to deal with grumpy women. “And coming up next on the Men’s Panel: taming the tetchy – our motley crew are going to share their advice for dealing with grumpy women” Jeanette Thomas says, as I sit bolt … Read more
From France we fly to South Korea on this jowl-hating journey to combat the global pandemic of ageing and ugliness. Rachel is in Seoul, a city with the highest plastic surgery rate in the world. “You probably think I’m in Los Angeles – where I live – but I’m not”. The big takeaway here is … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. Eating is a very sensual activity. At the best of times you’re putting something warm and moist into your mouth with a group of people you love, and collectively delighting … Read more
Alex Casey binge-watches The Ladies of NZ, the online webseries and offering to the radio survey gods by ZM. Sometimes I get really worried that, through some freak natural disaster, all of humanity is destroyed and all that remains of our existence are radio broadcasts from survey time, picked up by much more intelligent life … Read more
I need to know a lot of things in this life. What is for dinner? What is the deal with tides really? What is the point of anything? To complicate matters further, Rachel Hunter is here to pose another equally stress-inducing question – “how do we be healthy and stay looking young?” Ah shit, I … Read more
Days of Our Lives is one of the longest running soap operas in TV history, following love triangles, relentless pregnancies and the odd demon. Alex Casey watched it for a week and tried to make sense of the soft focus world. MONDAY As always, the week opens with an exhaustive supercut to get us nice an … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. Episode Seven Team challenges on Masterchef are often where things fall apart. Contestants who’ve been plating up lacy tuiles, singing arias to their soufflés, constructing elaborate shrines in front of … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments of the week, including a raging studio radio documentary, the return of Broad City, Hayley Holt tackling Back Benches and a farewell to Pixie. Rise of the Radio Punks Prime’s excellent series of local documentaries wrapped this week with a breezy, boozy stroll through forty odd years of student radio. … Read more
Alex Casey watches Eat, Drink, Love, a reality series following some of the feistiest women trying to climb to the top of the fickle LA food ladder. What’s it about? The reality series follows five kickass women working at the very top of the food industry in LA. From critics to home chefs, bakers to … Read more
Australian food television connoisseur and disappointment addict Eleanor Robertson journeys through cyber space and time to watch and recap TV3’s competitive cooking show, Masterchef New Zealand each week. Who’s got two thumbs and didn’t realise until too late that Masterchef NZ is now on two nights a week? Me. It’s me. Shoutout to episode four, in which the contestants … Read more
Story’s launch last week was the most important new show of the year for TV3. Duncan Greive watched every episode, and reports on how its first week fared. MONDAY The Story starts with some noodly post-rock guitar ambience, which is pretty cool and weird. Gives the whole show a welcome sense of impending doom. Who’s … Read more
Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Pania takes the crazy cake, Chris yells about butchery and TK mumbles his way through every conversation. 1) Pania takes it to the edge Pania’s mental state is unraveling faster than a pair of pants from the $2 Shop. She … Read more
Bringing together the TV moments on the week, including Story‘s meaty first week, Brown Eye‘s finale and the hors-d’oeuvres of Gloriavale. Story Starts Strong The real replacement for Campbell Live arrived this week, finally giving us a chance to see whether all the pre-maligning was justified. Story came out of the gate with a rare … Read more
Calum Henderson goes forking mad for the latest competitive sport to hit Maori TV: furious forklift driving in The World Forklift League. Proof that mad genius is alive and well in Aotearoa New Zealand: 1. Somebody came up with the idea of forklift driving as a competitive sport 2. They then packaged that idea as … Read more
Alex Casey hits the televisual beach with a week of Home and Away, and discovers an unsteady sandcastle of drama featuring drugs, bums and cake christenings. I haven’t watched Home and Away since my intermediate days, sitting cross legged in front of the television, filling the endless void between bell time and dinner time whilst eating … Read more