If you’ve ever wondered what influencers have to offer to the world, look no further than Simone Anderson’s new recipe book So Delish!, which will revolutionise the way you put things on plates and in freezers. You know what I’m tired of? Professional cooks publishing cookbooks. Boring. If I ever fancy making coconut tamarind prawns, … Read more
Keagan Carr Fransch reviews I May Destroy You, the acclaimed new show from British writer-director-actress Michaela Coel. The following includes discussion of rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, drug-facilitated sexual assault, and PTSD. Since the release of her comedy Chewing Gum in 2015, Michaela Coel has been a recurrent name on the list of writers to … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Auckland writer Lil O’Brien’s memoir Not That I’d Kiss A Girl, and finds it a valuable yet unclear story of the author’s struggle with her own acceptance. As queer people, we can be unnecessarily harsh on media that is about us, and by us. I think of the response to Looking, the … Read more
Netflix’s adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club makes long-time fan Tara Ward fall in love with the series all over again. When I was 12 years old, my class had to write a letter to a famous person. Some of my classmates wrote to an All Black, Tom Cruise or Hulk Hogan. I wrote a four-page … Read more
Neatly sidestepping spoilers, Briar Lawry of Little Unity reviews Pip Adam’s new and widely lauded novel, Nothing to See. “How do you even review a Pip Adam book?” a colleague asked. “She’s too nice!” “She is,” I agreed, “but luckily her books are always brilliant.” In all honesty, I said this having barely started Nothing … Read more
If you’re looking for the politician of ‘crusher’ fame, you won’t find her here, writes Toby Manhire. In her new book Pull No Punches, Judith Collins pulls her punches. Just when you think she’s about to call out the politician who left secret documents on their desk for journalists, she stops short. She denounces two … Read more
The most famous solved cold case of the 21st century finds its way to the small screen in I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, but it’s as much an ode to the closer as it is a depiction of the criminal, writes Jean Sergent. In the fervour of the true-crime trend, people who don’t get … Read more
Three’s new rugby-themed drama is both original and feels like it could have come from nowhere else, writes Duncan Greive. Over the past decade, New Zealand’s prestige (read: most well-funded) drama has established a trend of revisiting some of the country’s most celebrated characters and notorious incidents. Dear Murderer, Runaway Millionaires, Resolve, Jonah, Jean – … Read more
In 2001, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s coughing scandal made villains out of British couple Charles and Diana Ingram. A new three part drama on SoHo (and Lightbox) suggest they may be innocent after all. There are few creative works that can be considered genuinely seminal; few that changed the game so entirely that … Read more
There’s no doubt the young women of High School Mums will leave you feeling inspired. But the show should also spur change, says Emily Writes. It’s unlikely anyone could watch High School Mums and be unmoved by the incredible young women and their children in it. The TVNZ show follows a year in the life … Read more
When Elizabeth Heritage forgot how to read, poetry brought her back. This is the story of my reading of Funkhaus, the new poetry collection by Hinemoana Baker (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, Te Āti Awa) writing from Berlin. I sing of fear and confusion: mine not Baker’s. Let me start with my favourite poem … Read more
When the iPhone owns less than half the market, what are the best Android alternatives at every budget? Getting a new phone can be one of life’s little pleasures. Many of us hang onto our handsets for two years or more, so when that magic upgrade day finally rolls around, no one should be begrudged … Read more
The Floor is Lava is a new Netflix series based on, you guessed it, the children’s game known as The Floor is Lava. Who better to review it than a seven-year-old home champion? The Floor is Lava is cool. But at first you don’t think it’s cool because they actually die in the real lava. … Read more
Jamie Wall reviews 2nd Chance Charlie, where lower grade rugby players compete to have another go at rugby stardom and success. Here’s a show for all the battlers: one of the oldest male traditions in New Zealand, the “had it not been for [insert reason here] I would’ve been an All Black” story, has been … Read more
Thank goodness for Wendyl Nissen and her chooks. After my second miscarriage, the counsellor at Fertility Associates told us to think about what our ideal lives would look like if we were unable to have a second child. The only thing I could think of was: chickens. I would like chickens, maybe five or six … Read more
The greatness of The Last of Us Part II lies not in the gameplay, but for the conversations it will start, writes Sam Brooks. Major spoilers for The Last of Us follow, but no spoilers for The Last of Us Part II. In the seven years since the release of The Last of Us, the … Read more
This powerful collection of photographs and essays catalogues three generations of Ngāti Torehina ki Matakā learning to pelt North Island kiwi. Nāu, nā te Pākehā te kurī me te ngeru nāna i huna ngā kai o te motu nei, te weka, te kiwi, te kākāpō, te piopio, me te tini o ngā manu o te … Read more
With the help of her faithful four-legged assistant, Jean Teng disregards commonsense and ‘only for pet consumption’ labelling to review dog food fit for a king (or at least a cavalier king charles spaniel). Three months ago, I was reviewing fine-dining restaurant The Grove. Today, I’m reviewing vacuum-sealed frozen dog pizza. Such is life. Dog … Read more
Amy McDaid works as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Starship. Her first novel is about loss that erodes and the kindness that – eventually – comes after. The accumulation of daily disappointments is a tragedy in itself; a series of pleasures consistently denied, joy deferred and kindness deflected. All the things we hoped for … Read more
Lady Gaga’s sixth album, Chromatica, sees the popstar stepping back into big pop after the experiment that was Joanne, but at what cost, asks Sam Brooks. Since Lady Gaga’s last album, 2016’s critically shrugged off Joanne, the star has stepped as far away from her meat-dress persona as possible, collecting a Golden Globe and an … Read more
A new first-person photography game set in a dystopian Tauranga under lockdown is the best work of Māori science-fiction this decade, writes Dan Taipua. Umurangi Generation is a first-person photography game set din the shitty future. Designed and developed by Naphtali Faulkner (aka Veselekov) the game has you move about a futuristic Tauranga and surrounding … Read more
Two years ago, her genre-busting show Nanette broke the internet. Now Hannah Gadsby has released a new stand-up special, and expectations are sky high. So how does Douglas hold up? “If you’re here because of Nanette, why?” The elephant in the room is quickly addressed in Hannah Gadsby’s new Netflix special named after her dog, … Read more
In her latest masterpiece, Hilary Mantel finds patterns and rational systems – the dynamic between history and literature, or politics and law, or propaganda and art – and places something malevolent, chaotic and non-rational at the heart of them, writes Danyl Mclachlan. It begins where the last book ended. Anne Boleyn is dead. Her attendants … Read more
Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is released internationally today. Books editor Catherine Woulfe is all in. The Hunger Games is 12 years old. Much of the hype and silliness that originally surrounded the series has faded, leaving a story that feels more grown-up, more permanent. It reads so much better now. … Read more
The Man Booker prize-winning novel makes its way to our screens courtesy of BBC and TVNZ, but does it make the transition unscathed? Linda Burgess reviews. Oh god, wild seas. A sailing ship – ah, so it’s the olden days – all creaking wood tossed on those heaving seas, the moon a ghostly galleon, with … Read more
Linda Burgess and Michael Hurst with quite different takes on a new book by New Zealand-born actress, playwright and writer Barbara Ewing. Michael Hurst This is a memoir very much written from the perspective of the present; evocative, authentic, humorous and poignant. Barbara Ewing approaches her subject via a series of diaries she kept all … Read more
Four seasons and… an interactive special? Sam Brooks reviews Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs The Reverend, an interactive special and epilogue to the one-time critical darling. If you talk about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt now, chances are that the response will be, “Oh I used to love that show!” What was once part of Netflix’s then-exclusive … Read more
Made by a single family sewing together bits of old shows, Leigh Hart’s Big Isolation Lockdown was the funniest and most oddly comforting television created in level four, writes Duncan Greive. It takes a special kind of ego to make what is functionally a career retrospective about yourself, with your family as extras and directors, … Read more
The new Netflix comedy features one of television’s most relatable depictions of teenage girlhood, writes Catherine McGregor. It sounds like the premise of a teen movie. A woman decades past her high school years is destined to revisit them, over and over again. Plot twist: The woman is me, and the high school experiences I … Read more